by Chasing, Miles City, Montana I’m chasing my dreamsI’m chasing my goalsI’m chasing my heartI’m chasing my soulI walk beside youAnd ponder my fearsThis life isn’t overBut the end is still nearI’m in the darknessBut I see the lightMy soul is fragileBut it’s shining brightAnd when it’s morningI think it’s nightThis is the systemThe way of life.
Continue ReadingThe American Dream and Success
by Curry, San Francisco For me, the American dream is being from another country or having roots from a different country and being in America and becoming successful. Success can have plenty of different definitions for different people. In my eyes, the success is coming here for a new start and prospering in life by obtaining a good job that you are content with that gives you the opportunity to take care of yourself and your family, and give you the freedom to do what you want in life. For my family, fortunately they were able to experience that “American
Continue ReadingHow I Need To Prepare
by JS, Sacramento For me personally, it’s challenging for me to prepare for something because I don’t really prepare. I just do whatever it is when the time comes for me to do that thing. Something that I am preparing for is me to do a little bit of time and really focus on what I got planned for when I get home, and how I will turn my life around. The steps I will need to take to be a very successful person after my incarceration is first – I want to finish college and get my degree in
Continue ReadingTo Wish For Freedom
by Osbun Walton, San Quentin State Prison, CA In truth, from the time of my arrest, when I was handcuffed, it was in that moment I wished for freedom. And in my conviction, my sentencing, was not a hope nor prayer for me to wish for freedom but I did. Physically, for 28 years I am enslaved behind prison concrete high walls, with gun towers, to secure my physical body within the bounds of incarceration for a time more than my life could endure. Small cages, I and other prisoners are assigned to our unit for an animal captured or
Continue ReadingNah, I Don’t Bang
by TruthNPoetry, San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, CA It’s the craziest thingOr should I say, “thang,”Peer pressure, to love myself lesserBy joining a gang,I object on conscious groundsSo I continue to abstain,It bothers me deeplySo many children are slain,So I ain’t down to rideI don’t want to hangI’m only 12 and continuouslyHave to explain, “nah, I don’t bang,”I reject the appealOf living in fearLike TupacI shed so many tearsIntellectually I fail to graspThis fatal seduction,Of willful participationIn self-destruction,Blindly pledging allegianceTo tribal violence andGlamorizing the use of drugs,Abandon my moral compassAdopt the values of a thug,Use gang signs to
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Volume 27.33/34
Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingEd Note 27.33/34
It’s our anniversary month! Later this month we will embrace our 26th year of service and counting! Hard to believe we launched The Beat Within so long ago… What a beautiful journey, full of incredible friends, colleagues, partners and allies that have embraced The Beat yesterday, today and we are sure more so moving forward! We welcome you loyal readers back to another double issue, 27.35/36, of the one and only The Beat Within. And as our friend OT says, “the only magazine keeping it one thousand with you readers and writers and is the only publication putting out a
Continue ReadingTough Loss
by Dre, San Francisco I’ve been tripping out lately since my people passed on. That’s my mom, my auntie, my granny. I’ve been yelling and getting easily irritated and shhh. I’d be on my bed and shhh. I’m releasing my grief through my anger. I’ll be working out and shooting hoops. That makes me feel better. I get the anger off my mind. Talking on the phone to friends and it gets the pain off my mind. This anger might always be with me, but I’m going to keep it under control. I’m going to keep it under control with
Continue ReadingFive Years Ago
by Kugen, San Mateo Five years ago I did not think I would be writing something about five years ago in jail. I wasn’t exactly a good kid in school but I didn’t ever imagine myself in jail wanting to go home. Looking back, going home was a very normal thing, but right now I don’t even have a choice to. I will at some point but today I will be sleeping here at jail, not at home in my bed. I am used to it already but exactly five years ago I probably would be watching TV or something
Continue ReadingWe Are a Community Right?
by Mr. Francisco “Frank” Gonzalez, RJ Donovan State Prison in San Diego, CA It has been quite a while since I’ve written to the great pages of The Beat Within with a powerful positive message that wow’s you every time. It’s 2022, and the unprecedented pandemic is hard to ignore these days. I’ve traveled this great state from within its prisons from Pelican Bay to the sunny side of RJ Donovan where I now find myself on a level 3 for the first time in my life (incarcerated life of 30 years). To begin with, I do not and did
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