San Quentin News Contributer

As I grew up My life was rough In order to survive I had to get tough I tried to do the right thing Keep my life together But things just fell apart My life was shattered.. We all have our problems Blind leading the blind Never stopping to think Using the full potential of our mind. The path I took had a a lot of twist and turns I was unable  to slow down To practice and learn.. Now I sit here Paying the ultimate price Dear Son Don’t sacrifice your life! In a thousand and one ways I ask for your forgiveness This load I am … [Read more...] about Dear Son

Time in prison for transgender  women can be at times like being in a foreign county. Not knowing who to treat, and to have your life put in the hands of some men that don’t have their best interest is very scary. How to trust someone that may think that being a transgender women is put about sex. I am a person before anything else. If given the chance I am capable of doing the same things that a man can do. But in a man’s prison we are the forgotten prisoner. Not truly being accepted for who I say I am and constantly judged because of … [Read more...] about The Forgotten Women

My sins are numerous My lies piles high My skin is stained with blood Women scarred know of my bite A broken man I am Breaking where I see fit Rules, law love, trust I’ve been loyal to none of this Dream have never held my breath The future died every morn Gladly numb, regrettably stuck I’ve become worse than torn.  By Travis Sicklovan … [Read more...] about “TORN”

I’ve had dreams’ Now faded far from reach I’ve had dreams Of terrible truths hard to teach Of sunny days yet sullen skies Contrast of love erupting From my lovers eyes, Tearful smiles, Havens embrace in the arms Of a fearful child Thanks from’ A swore enemy From to my wars long past Relief beseeched And received beneath A tyrants un-severed Warm benevolent rains From wounded we all grow Into beautiful broken things. By Travis Sicklovan #34849086 Federal Detention Center … [Read more...] about “BEAUTIFULLY BROKEN”

How can I explain the joy that I set from reading? Words can’t explain it. Never the less here in my speech today I will express in human language what reading means to me and how it has made me free even while inside of prison. Locked in a cell twenty for hours a day when I was  16 years old I had no company except the books that I had in my cell.  When I picked up those books I discovered a much larger world than the one I had always limited myself  to on the streets in the city of St. Louis Missouri. Reading allows me to  … [Read more...] about Reading Can Make You Free

This life is about many things and this road we’ve chosen, this road in life is about acceptance. Accepting who you are, within the limitations of a hard old world. It is realizing that some times things in this heavy old world can squeeze you, and crush you, and drive you down into the dirt. But to survive, to keep going you have to lighten your load, you have to cast things aside that no longer matter, things that wear you down or weigh heavy on you. You need to find courage and embrace it, to keep going on. And sometimes you find it in … [Read more...] about There Is No Roadmap or Road Work

N.S.A. blames China while they steal your conversation Global Tel-Link servers reigning king of exploitation And, if you speak out on these things, there’s CALINCARCERATION It’s a nether world unique to western civilization While fingers point to the East we’re living’ in the lock-up nation The 1% keeps minimizing CALINCARCERATION C.C.P.O.A. perfecting no touch torture caging Security spin are drugs the sin what is the war they’re waging Last call SHU law Divided we fall This is CALINCARCERATION This is CALINCARCERATION Buried my … [Read more...] about “CALINCARCERATION”

So where have I been all of these years? In a desolate land population by men The older the younger and many my peers So many displaced faces, races, different types of cases How am I living out my life sentence Well it takes a whole lot of sanity and patience Judge my words and see if I’m making it. I’m sentences to life with the eligibility to find out who I am Patience and faith gave me the ability to forgive, know why and understand I overlook the lies, upset and chaos and negative plans Avoiding strife, trading hatred to offer helping … [Read more...] about “Right Here”

Here I am again, Trapped in time and space Writing these letters It’s like a race… I’m out in front Got a good start Running full speed Pumping my heart… The challenge is beautiful I feel the finish line I think about everything That’s already been done.. I keep running To reach the finish line And I keep thinking I am running out of time.. I got in this race To stretch my limbs Too also nurture All my whims,, To feel the fire A livid flame To hear my mind Repeat my name. I’m running out of fuel But refuse to quit I am a fighter I can lick … [Read more...] about The Race