I understand.

    It's human nature.

I understand.

    It's not what you planned.

It isn't okay. It isn't accepted.

You aren't at all 

    what they expected.

You're fierce and foreign

    Not at all boring.

But are you safe?

They don't have the faith.

You're a passionate thinker

    A dream cloud drinker.

The feeble will scare.

The brave hearted dare

To take a step forward

    Without stepping back.

They won't automatically 

    think that you lack.

You'll never fit in 

    and you'll never follow.

Sometimes your life 

    will feel kinda hollow.

Let the sheep move along

    while you sing your own song.

I promise it won't be long

'for you prove you were worth

    every moment of birth.

i crave moments

between the spaces

of boy meets girl,

the possibility that boy

makes a better door

than window

standing between girl

and her high-heeled

true love

i crave moments

between the spaces

of girl meets boy,

the possibility that girl

makes a better friend

than lover

routing for boy

and his modern-day

valiant prince

i crave moments

between the spaces

of boy meets girl,

the possibility that love

is love, and more

than just a punchline.

It’s the influential period

Where everything matters

But nothing will stay with us

Except for everything that hurts.

And you sit us down with shackles

And with condemning rules

You tear ’til we unravel

And leave us without a clue.

So it’s no wonder that

We’re lost among the twilight,

As we’re sailing through the sea

We’re stumbling ’round our lives

We’re just trying to be free.

You think we’re one and the same

You make us all dull and gray

Each of us can fight for ourselves

We don’t all procrastinate.

You separate us into groups

Not giving people what they need

You take away our choices

You trample on our voices.

So it’s crystal clear why

We’re lost among the twilight,

As we’re sailing through the sea

We’re stumbling ’round our lives

We’re just trying to be free.

But the weird thing is

You’re just looking out for us

It’s this damn twisted system

That really hates our guts.

It’s not on your head that

We’re lost among the twilight,

As we’re sailing through the sea

We’re stumbling ’round our lives

We’re just trying to be free.

It’s a burden we have to bear

But not for long

We’ll change things,

I swear.

Black is still black

when the lights are out

space is still empty

when it takes your shouts

tears are still tears

when you wipe them up

and

Fears are still fears

when you hide them up

Insecurities are fears

that you never face

so you hide them deep

in a secret place

and

They grew behind you

When you think you've won

only to turn around and see

That they're never gone

The truth is that

the wind will carry them all away

and bring them all back when the seasons change

the winds of time will chase all the fears away

only to bring them all back when the seasons change

Insecurities come out when you think you've won

silly boy, you know that they're never gone. 

The winds of change make them fade away

only to bring them back when the seasons change. 

Morning, Prosers, 

Before we continue with our Two for Tuesday spot, we'd like to update you on some behind the screens bits and bobs. 

We have been working hard to bring you a complete overhaul of the social media posts you will find on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, (and all the rest). This will include cool features like a Proser Spotlight every day, where we choose one of your accounts to share on Twitter, sharing your words across the spectrum of social media, and lots, lots more Prose related shenanigans. 

Not only that, but we will be bringing you more content here. More interesting blog pieces to read, along with more words from our Letters from Prison page. If you aren't already following Prose, you're going to want to. If you know someone that isn't, please tell them to!

We are on all platforms as @theproseapp and if we share your words and know your handle, we'll be tagging you too! Don't forget also, our Twitter and Instagram @poetsinprison accounts.  We hope that you'll enjoy our revitalised streams, and continue to support us by retweeting, sharing, and liking our content. 

Now, enough with the interruptions, here's this week's Two for Tuesday. 

This week's Two for Tuesday is centred around a regular feature we showcase on the Blog (blog.theprose.com). 

Books Before You Die, or BBYD for short, explores and reviews classic and not-so-classic books that writers and readers alike have recommended we read before we die. A book bucket-list if you will. 

Here we share two of those, with the links to the full articles for you decide whether you should add these to your TBR list. 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. 

By Mark Haddon

The Plot:

The novel is narrated from a 15 year olds perspective who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

After discovering a murdered dog, Christopher sets off to discover the mystery but finds his world ruled by math and not a good socialiser, turned on its head. His detective work takes him on an adventure even a truly brave person could not begin to understand; let alone Christopher.

Christopher John Francis Boone describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties” living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher’s condition is not stated, the book’s blurb refers to Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome.

Haddon wrote on his blog that “Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s….if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder,” and that he, Haddon, is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome.

Find out our thoughts on whether this is BBYD worthy by following the link below. 

http://blog.theprose.com/2016/11/bbyd-curious-incident-dog-night-time/

Hunger 

By: Knut Hamsun

The Plot

The book’s first-person protagonist is an unnamed vagrant with intellectual leanings who is probably in his late twenties and wanders the streets of Norway’s capital in pursuit of nourishment. Over several episodes he meets a number of more or less mysterious persons, the most notable being a young woman with whom he engages in a mild degree of physical intimacy, he decides to call her Ylajali.

He exhibits a baffling self-created code of chivalry, giving money and clothes to needy children and vagrants, not eating food given to him, and turning himself in for stealing. Essentially self-destructive, he thus falls into traps of his own making, and with a lack of food, warmth and basic comfort, his body turns slowly to ruin. Overwhelmed by hunger, he scrounges meals, almost eating his own (rather precious) pencil and even resorting to chewing on wood shavings.

His social, physical and mental states are in constant decline. However, he has no antagonistic feelings towards ‘society’ as such, rather he blames his fate on ‘God’ or a divine world order. He vows not to succumb to this order and remains ‘a foreigner in life’, haunted by ‘nervousness, by irrational details’.

He experiences a major artistic and financial triumph when he sells a text to a newspaper, but despite this he finds writing increasingly difficult. At one point in the story, he asks to spend a night in a prison cell, posing as a well-to-do journalist who has lost the keys to his apartment. In the morning he cannot bring himself to reveal his poverty or even partake in the free breakfast provided to the homeless.

Find out our thoughts on whether this is BBYD worthy by following the link below.

http://blog.theprose.com/2016/04/bbyd-hunger-by-knut-hamsun-robert-bly-translation/ 

What are you thoughts on the two we have picked? Will you add them to your list? Have you already read them? What books do you recommend we read before we die? Comment below and join in the discussion. 

Until next time, Prosers, 

Prose.