Being incarcerated since eighteen years old I have often gone for years without hearing from anyone or having any contact with the outside world. I learned to find the love I needed there in the place that I was. Among my brothers and in the church. For over thirty years I have lived without knowing the true magnitude of the love that was waiting for me out here, and it wasn’t until I arrived that I realized it. Everyone gathered around me and greeted me, hugs covered me, I found kisses on my cheeks and in my heart. It was then that I realized how loved I was. I was overwhelmed by it. It filled me up in places I had no idea were empty. Pressures that I had been living under my whole life were given release and I was consumed utterly. For being there for me and carrying me through so much, my friends, my family and loved ones, for the ministers and teachers, volunteers and even many of the staff I left behind in prison, I do what I do now... "For Love" My soul expands and diminishes As a breath held deeply under Once dead to dreams desires or wishes Drowning from the pain of my own hunger Until what is — enters My neatly arranged and ordered days The cocoon of my routine bursts in splinters A disaster of me - love made What wondrous feelings engulf me This confirmation of Love To often I’ve forgotten or failed to see How truly loved I was Until now... How big an expression will allow me to effectively express how blessed and moved by your love I am knowing that you love me…. I’m deflated and full to capacity By my family, my friends and by you... Peace © Carl E. Shuck
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January 2017
CategoriesAuthorCarl E. Shuck was sentenced to prison when he was in his teens. He served almost 32 years and was released in July of 2016. He writes from his perspective of being a former inmate, a Christian and learning a whole new world that has changed while he was behind bars. |