Audiobook1 hour
Felon: Poems
Written by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Narrated by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).
Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems― canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace― and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person’s life. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a “felon.”
From “Night”
What she tells me: prison killed you
my love, killed you so dead that you’re not
here now, you’re never here, you’re always.
Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems― canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace― and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person’s life. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a “felon.”
From “Night”
What she tells me: prison killed you
my love, killed you so dead that you’re not
here now, you’re never here, you’re always.
Author
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, legal scholar, educator and prison reform advocate. At age 16 he committed an armed carjacking, was prosecuted as an adult, and sentenced to nine years in prison. He started reading and writing poetry during his incarceration.
Related to Felon
Related audiobooks
Homie: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tradition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5dayliGht: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The New Testament Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Inherit What the Fires Left: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51919 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fortune For Your Disaster: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Collection Plate: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wade in the Water: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5IRL Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Necessary Rebirths: A Collection of Poems and Prose for Awakening Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting Descent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crossfire: A Litany for Survival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Call Us Dead: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body's Question: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Want Our Bodies Back: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nature Poem Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vulnerable AF Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life on Mars: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Field Music: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5tenderhead. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chrome Valley: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Birth of All Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5soft magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evolution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Goldenrod: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sisters' Entrance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
Good Poems: Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Inferno of Dante Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strength In Our Scars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf: Translated by Seamus Heaney Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Raven and Other Poems: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Milk and Honey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun and Her Flowers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poems of T.S. Eliot Read by Jeremy Irons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry of Walt Whitman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metamorphoses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5W. B. Yeats: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift of Rumi: Experiencing the Wisdom of the Sufi Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Felon
Rating: 4.420289855072464 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
69 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reginald's work is gritty, honest and poignant. This sample made me want to read some of the work.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great poems that make you think. Lots of pain and hurt, but also joy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These poems are so raw. Sometimes difficult to listen to but always a true joy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing narration, amazing poems! I must read the actual text in the future so as to further appreciate each line!