Prison Poetry - Softcover

Many people who have entered the prison system glorify life behind bars, and treat sentences of more than one hundred years as something worthy of boasting rights. However, while serving ten years, poet D. Jerone vowed that he would not get trapped in the revolving door of prison culture, to land back inside again and again.

Prison Poetry is the first in a planned series of five powerful poetry books by Jerone that chronicle real, unvarnished life in prison, revealing it for the chilling, maddening, and utterly unglamorous existence it truly is. Once Jerone resolved to walk out of prison a changed man, he found strength and sanity in pouring out his complex emotions through poetry. Soon, other inmates sought him out to help them express their own feelings, which are also represented in Jerone’s writings.

Anger, betrayal, fear, hope, and joy are but a few of the reactions that resonated with the poet, as he looked back at his life in the outside world and looked ahead to freedom as a different man. Prison Poetry shares his many impressions of life interrupted so that others will benefit from his journey.

D. Jerone is a former inmate who spent most of his decade-long prison sentence writing poetry to maintain his sanity. His poems cover every aspect of his experience while incarcerated, and also express the sentiments of other inmates who struggled to find fitting words to communicate to their loved ones. The pain, anger, loneliness, love, and ultimate appreciation for his release are reflected in each of the five books of poetry that he is planning to publish. Each sheds rare insight into life behind the prison wall.

The youngest of ten children, Jerone grew up in Buffalo, New York, until the age of fifteen. He is now the proud father of three daughters, two sons, and eight grandchildren, and currently lives in Utica, New York, where four of his five children also live.