Puddy in your hands

The men in Mississippi asked us to write our own poems which after 8 years of dancing in prison - I had never offered to share my own poetry. Here’s to Mississippi!

Lucy’s Poem:

“I’m going to dance with men in prison Dad”

“What about the tornadoes?!”

I asked, “Are you worried about me dancing with men at all?”

He said “They’re gonna be puddy in your hands!”

Days before our workshop started while on a break from dancing with the women at Central, Mississippi correctional facility, Ms BR (our coordinator) said, “The men are going to be puddy in your hands!”

My father and Ms. BR knew like we all did that this was going to be a phenomenal experience.

Dancing with women in prison for the last eight years has been heartbreaking and heartwarming. Yet, to see men willing and eager to open up has been doubly heartwarming and heartbreaking!

The real and the raw we see on the inside keeps us going around the country. When people say I don’t know how you do this work, they don’t know what they’re actually missing out on. I wouldn’t do anything else with my life.

The Prison of the mind on the outside is real. Being with people who have lost everything and have faced the hardest of life’s struggles and challenges is humbling to say the least.

To dance with men that were robbed of a childhood and to see that innocence return is magic.

We thank you for showing us what freedom looks like!”

Marc Weaver’s Poem:

I am not in Prison.

But I have "bars" that stop me every day.

Pain, age, self-doubt, fear, obligations, eye-sight, beliefs, hearing, low self-esteem,

anger, inhibitions...

Yet twice a week I escape the confines of these "bars" by dancing to the

movements and music Lucy puts into her Dance To Be Free classes.

Music I would never have heard, movements I would never have experienced, and

joy I would never have had had I not joined Lucy's classes all those years ago.

I knew that dance was a natural way of expressing emotions, but I never imagined

it would be a way to express MY emotions.

Finding out that this form of "escape" was being taken into Women's prisons

turned me into a huge supporter of DTBF, at least as huge as my fixed income

would allow.

I would say- "DTBF should be a fixture in every Women's prison."

Have I been in Prison?

Yes, jail actually or 2 nights. Once for a DWAI and once when my wife invited the

police to our house when she was angry that I wanted a divorce and I was the one

who had been drinking.

And hundreds of times when I took an AA meeting in the Boulde County Jail.

Would DTBF work in a Men's prison?

Once again Lucy was asking me to go someplace I would not otherwise go- to a

Men's prison in MISSISSIPPI!

But, If men in the MS prison could get the joy from her movements and music that

I do- of course I'll go.

Seeing how easily you accepted expressing your feelings through movement and

the smile on your faces as you were skipping- I wouldn't have missed it for the

world.

When in an AA meeting , I would tell inmates- "If you find yourself in a hole, stop

digging."

Now I would add- "When you find yourself despondent, start dancing."

Lilly’s Poem:

In this room I imagine how he'd dance and smile

I can almost hear his laugh again

He was my baby brother

Childlike in spirit until the end

Your faces

Your leaps

Your voices

Your strength to show up to this class

To show up for your brothers

To show up for yourselves

This is why I am here

I find my healing in your fearlessness