Two Poems
by Phillip Jablonski

Friendship

You give your friendship through the letters you write
Each one like a beacon on a dark stormy night
Reaching out in the darkness with a bright shinning flare
Resurrecting my spirit from hope and despair.

Your kindness is touching, always helping me to cope
Letting me know I should never lose hope.
Yearning once more, I cling dearly to life
Never conceding to sorrow or strife.

Dear friend there is one thing I want you to know:
Our friendship I'll cherish as onward I go
Never feeling defeat here on Death Row...

Looking Out



Like a ghost of a lost field in winter,
I can move toward the center of that place-
drift, till the winds carry me her face,
and wait by the window, where time escapes us.

Softly, I call out to the childish figure
whose shadow moves upon my wall,
creating the circles I walk inside of-
steps into her life, I thought deprived of,
in my heart again, is lived all.

On the light given off by another's grave,
I mark my place to God.
And wherever upon that ladder saves
some memory of love, or blood I gave,
somehow, he shows us where we are.

That doors slam only, inside of us
and nights, the window will stare back alone.
But in my distant thoughts afar,
no matter where we see we are,
there's something, that gives my heart a home.
Something, that moves the circles free...
inside of you, inside of me...
I'm looking out again.

Phillip Jablonski
C-02477, 5-E-95
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974