Incarcerated Scholars Conference Art Gallery 2025

My Soul

Michael Orrell

Mississippi Delta Community College

Mississippi

time walks past the “liberated”
as he stands still for the incarcerated;
unseen shackles hold the captured
who await zealously to be raptured,

god, free my soul!

chances given were plentiful
as sentences spoken seem too bountiful;
lawlessness now births wisdom
as sickness locked the portal to “freedom.”

god, free my soul!

pay to the world their penalty
as day-to-night is this reality;
creator, the cost is being paid
and so, pardon your child who has betrayed;

god, free my soul!

flesh is constantly motionless
as a soul is sustaining without hopelessness;
clouded years with a struggling haze,
but in new pastures this soul may graze.

god, free my soul!

transforming by the sun of day
and reforming are the potter’s hands with clay
once stained and drained by the winter,
but renewed and rescued by the summer.

god, free my soul!

Artist Statement

The poem, ”My Soul”, speaks about being incarcerated, but having a yearning for inner freedom and not necessarily physical freedom. In the poem, I find that freedom through my faith in god. Inner freedom is significant in that it will cease the vicious cycles as in the past.

If you are the artist of an artwork featured in this gallery and want it removed, please reach out to alliance@higheredinprison.org