Felon, Reginald Dwayne Betts
Felon, Reginald Dwayne Betts
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Felon
Poems

Author: Reginald Dwayne Betts

Narrator: Reginald Dwayne Betts

Unabridged: 1 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2019


Synopsis

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.

About 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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Roxane

Outstanding poems about incarceration and how a man can still feel like he is in a cage as he walks free. The range here is impressive. There is a real honesty here of a man who is looking into himself without blinking. At times, it is uncomfortable, but in a good way. The redacted poems about bail......more

Goodreads review by Cindy

I usually don't pick up poetry books, but the cover for this caught my eye as well as the unique format of the poems as I flipped through the pages. My favorite were the redacted poems, which I originally thought referenced the censorship of prison letters, but found out they were taken from actual......more

Goodreads review by Joshua

4 stars for creativity and for showing me something new. My curiosity to discover new and different ways of expression and storytelling is what gets me to take a moment and read poetry, but only on those rare occasions when it appears underneath my nose. The more an author strays from conventional wr......more