Alvah's Books

April is National Poetry Month. Alas, I am no poet. And I’ll spare you any of the bawdy limericks that I used to recite in high school English just to annoy my teacher. 

In honor of poets past and present, I thought I would post a poem that my hero, novelist, screen writer, Spanish Civil War veteran, and Hollywood Ten member, Alvah Bessie, wrote when he was serving his 10 month sentence for Contempt of Congress at the Texarkana Federal Penitentiary: 

The highways that are open to my mind

are not confined to those on any chart;

they are not as various as any art

might compass, and the traveler will find

that some sun straight to where he wants to go, 

while others spiral, circle, wander wide; 

some imitate the motions of the tide

while others speed–or make the journey slow.

There is no road that I rather walk 

than that which leads from where I a confined

into those tilted uplands of the mind

that are not even known to those who talk

of freedom, and who always have been free.

Who knows not prison, knows not liberty.

–Alvah Bessie, Inquisition in Eden

Alvah’s son, Dan, and I are pen pals. I never asked him about this poem, but I like it. Feel free to leave your interpretations and comments