Prison Terms

In Ohio, we say Lie-ma, like the bean: Lima Correctional, where Diane taught inmates for decades, where she worried about looting their stories. Relax, Diane, you didn’t steal, you gave: the “fabric of your words . . . redeems.” Innocent until, living until, each of us--inmate, guard, reader--awaits a locked box. It’s not the guard, but the “hospice worker / who remains.” Clear eyed, Diane gives us this truth and so many more. --Jim Gorman, author of Will Work for Food

Going into a prison is never easy. Over the years, going into prisons to fellowship with inmates has taught me the real prison exists in our minds. Diane Kendig lays bare the conflicting mix of emotions in, Prison Terms. I’d almost forgotten our experience entering the old Lima Correctional Institution, but she brought it all back in, “TEACHING IN PRISON.” The vibration was antiseptic and punishing to the spirit. The facility, dungeon-like. Entering was the real challenge. Finding the life-force of poetry in the inmates the reward.   This work is a must read. --Mwatabu Okantah, Director of the Center of Pan-African Culture at Kent State

Ohio is proud to claim Diane Kendig as a poet and activist. Prison Terms reflects her work in the classroom with inmates and her knowledge of history, from Lorca and Mandela, to Ricky Martin and Sandra Bland.  She describes herself as a "looter" of literary themes, but in truth, she simply defines the words, the prison terms, to help us understand hard times vs. flat time, mushfake, and the true meaning of the word parole. --Cathryn Essinger, author of What I Know about Innocence.