Best Alcatraz Poems

Alcatraz Penitentiary is located in California in San Francisco.
It became a Federal Penitentiary about eighty years ago.
Alcatraz was the prison where Al Capone was sent.
He wasn't happy about the place where he went.
Alcatraz had four wardens, they were James Johnston, Edwin Swope, Paul Madigan and...

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*Image of Alcatraz San Francisco by Pixabay.

The Island of Alcatraz

Startled clouds lurk midst a gate
beams stretch crossed a bay
pylons yon the sneaky fog
dreams fetch castaway.
Deserted prison
vagary hopes long entombed
averted risen.

2021 June 14...

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From sea to shining sea,
‘Merica ain’t never been nothin’ but
a prison for
angry black boys like me

Childish rage moved my hands,
hateful oppression reaction expression
made me feel iron containment

Understanding finally came,
when I began to reason as a man,
not a beast ... a blank history page 
lashing out...

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Alcatraz 
By Kevin Robey
August 26, 2013

The ultimate joke, I realized today
We’re all prisoners of our own minds
No matter what we do or what we say
We can’t face the answers that we find

We buy, we steal, flashy rims and wheels
To cover our debts, ironic but true
Maybe...

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Behind a fence no public view
First built in eighteen-fifty-two
Destroyed by quake, rebuilt anew
Keeps ship from crashing on it’s rocks
Named for island’s bird, not a few
Spanish word, Pelican, of flocks...

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Visiting a prison
Gives a tiny little taste
Of how a convict takes his life
And has it all erased.

From walking in the open air
To confines of a cell
Must feel like stepping off a cliff
Into a living hell.

No privacy or room to move,
No access to the sky;
Each prisoner...

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I don't think that he really did come home 
He spent too much time there all alone 
Some memories is all he has 
Living thirty years in Alcatraz

Convicted for something he didn't do
All those years who ever knew 
The jury's guilt gave him time 
They...

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it wasn't
a prison
or even
a cage

she was
the bird
woman
that

flew
away
in so
many

ways
as a
crow
so

a chess
piece be
came one
and the

leaves of
branches
of a tree
bearing

nothing but
a nudity of
leaves be
came a

murder
perhaps
that's why
she's doing

time...

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I am in the Alcatraz of my room,
where loneliness is endless
and dreams bounce off all the walls and back.
Never passing through the window into
the streets of letdown dreams.
I would come out to meet you,
but there are too many intersections
and I always cross against the light.
Please...

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