Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
Richard Lovelace

To Althea, From Prison

It’s an unfortunate but true statement that we all have people in our lives we’ve given up on.

People we once cared for deeply, people who once brought value to our lives, people who have wronged us or someone else… in our eyes.

Wronged someone so badly that we do not even try to reconcile, it is just easier to disassociate, abandon ship and move on.

Lovers, friends, kids, family members – people we know to be good people, but who have done something we just can’t reconcile with… in our mind.

So instead, we decide to put these people in our own little prison.

A prison that does not take away their freedom, but one which cuts off our love to them.

This is the worst prison of all.

The ‘loveless prison’.

There are 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States.

There are exponentially more in ‘loveless prisons’ nationwide.

These ‘loveless prisons’, the ones in which we are the sole person on the parole board, do not rehabilitate a man.

It hardens them.

I don’t see how withholding love will ever make any situation better.

The answer is always more love.

Not less.

The Loveless Prison is from

In the Eye of the Storm – Inspirational poems and stories on overcoming tragedy and adversity.