POET, EDUCATOR, AUTHOR, ENGINEER
I am innocent and seeking friends as I litigate for freedom. You'll discover I'm friendly, intelligent, empathetic and caring, yet strong and virile, and someone you will never regret knowing.
I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and worked for US Steel in Construction Engineering. Early in 26 years at Western Penitentiary, I performed clinical duties in the hospital and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in English and Psychology.
With help from Fred "Mister" Rogers, I started the first play area for children in a prison visiting room. I taught college courses for 20 years to fellow prisoners, while winning awards for my writings. I was a Poet-In-The-Schools for PCA and co-founded the Academy of Prison Arts, the only prisoner-created writing program funded by the NEA for a decade.
As the first man ever board-certified as an Engineer-In-Training while in prison, I reinforced the laundry floor at Western, designed a new makeup tank for boilers, and redesigned the coal-handling system. For CI, four rollover simulators were designed to demonstrate seat-belt safety at State Fairs. Fifty bear traps were designed for the Game Commission, trailer-mounted to harmlessly catch and relocate bears who strayed too close to people.
Once, the Warden stopped me: "Minarik, those bear traps of yours do not work!" They were using donuts as bait - unsuccessfully trying to catch the bear. I said, "Warden, everyone knows that the only thing you can catch with a donut is a cop!"
["THE GOLDEN MARRIAGE" won the First Poetry and Prose Writing Contest of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections 1986, and first appeared in The Anthology of Thought from Within, (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Corrections, 1986).]
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THE GOLDEN MARRIAGE
for Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen
Once there was a bright-yellow couple
malleable enough and excellent enough
to be family to each another
well into the lustrous years.
And their love for each other
was heavy and bright, and the glow
of this richness brightened
many other families.
Then God took away sounds
and some of the light from the wife,
and others asked why.
But the wife flourished,
and the husband loved her more.
Love binds him to her, her to him.
He kissed a sleeping head
even as a dark star
spreads to the crown of her head.
He harvests the dark vegetable
of her body. In the morning
her hair thickens his heart;
the hair is autumn hair.
Yet he remembers spring glory
and the summers sleeping
beside her waking with her hair.
They have loved each other,
forgiven and loved others around them.
There is no wealth more valuable.
What a lovely way to spend two lives.
They know what tenderness can mean.
John Paul Minarik |
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