Elegy as a Writing Instructor in State Prison
Johnny Kovatch
I want to know the god these men know,
pounded to life on the chapel piano.
I want to disguise myself in desert air
and follow the hymn between each keyhole.
There’s a rebirth I’m missing as I exit
the guard kiosk & accelerate. I want to know
yearnings on the yards too violent to walk,
the single ember in a cell of one
who still believes in the god I want to know.
Johnny Kovach (He/Him) is the founder of Unlock the Arts, a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, that specializes in creative expression as a catalyst for personal transformation. He is a recipient of an Established Artist Fellowship in poetry awarded by the California Arts Council. He previously taught expressive writing within six California state prisons.
His poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, Sou’wester, SOLO, The Los Angeles Review, Cholla Needles, Oakland Renaissance, and Why to These Rocks, an anthology celebrating fifty years of the Community of Writers. A commissioned writing lesson appears in PEN America’s: The Sentences That Create Us. Work is forthcoming in The Atticus Review. His novel, 59 Hours, was published by Simon & Schuster.