“Writing is like breathing for me. It allows me to explore the inner region of my soul and discover new things about myself.  Writing, like reading, allows me to travel without moving.  Im able to escape the circumscribe mantle of my confinement and connect to the social world Ive been separated from.  Every day I wake up with a central purpose that motivates me to keep moving forward.”

Steve Champion (Adisa Kamara)

Poetry

A Bus Ride Moment

A Bus Ride Moment
 
The black and white Orange County Sheriff bus
transports men and women returning
from a tiresome day of courtroom drama.
 
They speak about being detained, being released;
about the tough prison sentence the judges imposed on them.
They are lonesome people,
separated by plexi glass, gates, mesh wire, fear and a thousand secrets,
bonding with each other, exchanging booking numbers,
smiles, stories ​and making connections as quick as speed dating.
 
The black paint shadows the outer bus windows... read more

Pain
 
It drives a wedge between my eyes like a double edged sword,
pulling me in motion like currents in the sea.
I cannot escape the pull of its gravity, no more than I can my shadow.
Im spinning
Im tumbling
Im orbiting into new dimensions.
Like an object lost in space.

I imagine what it is like to be free from the bondage of pain.
Like splinters being plucked from swollen hands
the pain becomes numb.
Im in pain, from being free from pain
Like Siamese twins separated by surgery
I miss it like missing limbs, but it’s always present.
 
Steve Champion, San Quentin death row

Beyond The Walls 

The dream hovers
Where even the senses can't touch it;
Separating itself from the mind,
It dances upon the moonlit surface,
Like art unfathomable in its reach.
Rising like the morning mist,
Free.
Only to disappear somewhere in the vastness.
Dancing to the mystic mind
Reaching beyond the walls.

A poem written whilst in Solitary Confinement, San Quentin Adjustment Centre
Steve Champion (Adisa Kamara)

“A Spirit Cannot Die” – by Steve Champion & Craig Ross
Dedicated to Stanley Tookie Williams 
on the 10th anniversary of his death
 
Ten years ago
the weight of shackles
pressed hard against his body
collapsing his lungs
squeezing his life
but not his spirit
determined to bury him
beneath the rubble of ashes
beneath time... read more

Transported to another time

I'm seated on the auction block of the courtroom.
Curious spectators wait to witness a legal lynching.
The court stenographer chronicles every spoken word,
History will not forget this day.
Waist chains gird my wrists and waists.
Lay shackles fastened to my ankles,
I’m transported to another time when men hunted men, cruelly enslaving .... read more 

Letter
 
When I finish writing my letter
I wedge it between a small
slit in my door so the guard
walking by can pick it up.
An electric feeling circulates
throughout my body
When the letter is taken.
I feel as though my heart
is air lifted like Angels
being pulled upward to heaven
Imagine
I’m one step closer
Swooping down
To scoop you up.
 
Steve Champion (Adisa Kamara)
​

For Them

For Them
For them, the ancestors who lay in unmarked graves.
Who are part of the oceans.
Who stayed the course.
Whose air we breathe.
Whose consciousness resides within us.
Who created cosmologies symbolizing life and light.
who shaped destiny so we can walk upright in spirit and soul.
Who were initiated by water and fire.
Who believed, one day that we would be free,
standing as living oracles.
Standing as living testaments of their struggles, transmitting their legacies, evoking their names. 
Because one day we will be ancestors,
a part of oceans yearning to be free.

​​

​In Communicado

We can no longer communicate.
Those who boast of being
more powerful than we
have removed the phone
so we can no longer speak.
They have banned mail
so we can no longer write.
They have cancelled visiting
so we can no longer see each other.
They have rendered us incommunicado.
But you and I create our own language,
our own timetable.
We travel without moving.
We bend time to our will
and conquer distance.
We have the gift of remembrance.
If I am held incommunicado,
You keep me alive
by remembering
When I say
"I love you!"

My Brother is Gone - by Steve Champion

I want the world to know
I walked, lived and blossomed
during the time of his presence.
My emotions are too raw,
my senses too frayed
to tell them,
tell anyone...
for 20 brass knuckled years
we struggled together,
forging a bond
cemented by our
faith, love, and brotherhood... read more

​I Sing
 
I sing not for praise or critique.
I sing to stay alive,
reminding myself singing connects me to God,
to a universe, to a spatial reality no confinement can touch,
no oppression can wipe out.
Singing heals my wounds, softens my heart.
Men sing in solitary confinement
to free themselves from boredom.
I sing to stay human
Because I don’t want to go insane
So I sing

Separation

What are mere months
Of separation between
You and I
Who defy the odds and dared to love
Through steel and concrete
Barbed wire and razor wire
Fences and walls
Gun towers and bullshit
Why should we lament
Over inconsequential things
When we shall have an eternity together.
 



​

Illusions of Control
 
We are in control,
or we delude ourselves
of  this daily.
 
We cannot control the rising
and setting of the sun nor
the tides of oceans or the
movements of stars.
 
We can’t control the weeping
of children yearning for their
Mother’s breast; so how can we
control the longing of the human
heart dying to be fulfilled?....read more

​One Last Time

Light a candle for me when the room darkens,
when the trumpets have blown for the last time.
Say a prayer before invoking my name,
to temper my spirit for the next journey.
Chant a healing mantra 
and burn frankincense
while pouring libations to bless my soul.
Bathe me in jasmine, sprinkle lavender on my feet 
and wrap me in silk while singing my favourite songs.
Spread fresh roses around me with the tips of your finger
and let the traces of your tears run down your cheeks.
When you think of me, think fondly, 
and if you must weep child, 
weep finally one last time.

Vulnerability

I'll safeguard your vulnerability
wrap it inside a napkin
neatly folded and tucked
in my left shirt pocket
where it shall remain
close to my heart

Coming

Interlock our hands
while the river flows
from our steeple.
A quiet storm
will not destroy our temple.
We'll fly together
open hearted
as heaven awaits us.
​

Revolution

Everything I love
   is dead or dying.
Everything I owned
   has been stolen or destroyed.
Everything I want
   I must fight and bleed for.
Everything I am
   I must struggle to be.
Everything I need
   I have earned and deserved.
Everything I trust
   has been challenged and tested.
Everything I believe
   is strong and firm.
And
Everything I seek
lies with Revolution!      
                    Revolution!
                       Revolution!
​

...Do You Believe

Do you believe
the revolutionary talk
the clenched fist
the right-on gestures
the power to the people campaign?

Do you believe
the camaraderie
the brotherhood/sisterhood
the kingdom/queendom
the rhetoric about unity?

Do you believe
prison walls are just walls
that can be torn down
and the mind is energy and matter
capable of moving mountains... read more