I bring you the season of tulips
and lilacs from our spring season in Ontario
The smell of lilacs is fresh citrus
A reminder of how beautiful spring is
Outside of your prison bars
For more than 25 years
I come bearing the sounds of robins & bluejays
The sighs from the weeping willow trees
As I open the window
There's black raven flying above our maple trees
Its powerful wings reaching for the sky
I weep when I think about prison walls & cages
We are meant to fly, unchained
And walk, untied
Not of fear or rage or bitterness
But with gentle voice
I hear you
Above the rumbles of dust storm
The cry for justice
Between dusk and dawn
You will persevere with your will of steel
One day, you will be walking free
And writing back to me
How you got lost in the forest
smelling the wildflowers
with petals bluer than the sky
******
Note about the epistle poem:
You can read three poems for and poems by Ilhan Sami Comak who has been in a Turkish prison for 27 years. He was arrested as an activist and later became a poet in prison.
