BS: Touch

Subject: BS: Touch
From: freda underhill
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 11:35 AM

Touch
by Hugh Lewin

When I get out
I'm going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.

I've not been touched for seven years
for seven years
I've been untouched
out of touch
and I've learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.

Untouched -- not quite
I can count the things
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating, beating
till I remember
screaming
Don't touch me
please don't touch me.

Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
-- arms up, shoes off
legs apart --
prodding paws, systematic
heavy, indifferent
probing away
all privacy.

I don't want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.

Hugh Lewin was imprisoned for seven years in Pretoria Central Jail in The 1970s. He said of his prison experiences: "It was only as a prisoner – as a bandit in a South African jail -- that I could begin to realise what life is like for most South Africans. I am white. I had to go inside to know what it's like to be black." In the 1990s he was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: Gern
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 11:58 AM

Priceless. How he could retain such gentle feelings within the pit of such repression is amazing and inspiring. What do we create when we leave such persons "untouched"?

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 12:20 PM

Bless you, freda.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: akenaton
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 03:11 PM

Aye Freda ,you must be quite a lady.That was fine...Ake

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 04:42 PM

What an incredible poem! Thank you, Freda.

It hasn't been 7 years, and I've never been imprisoned, but I do know just a little about touch deprivation.

Allison

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 05:34 PM

Funny how a poem can use few words to capture the essense of a reality. Beautiful.

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: freda underhill
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 08:09 PM

This poem was sent to me a couple of days ago by a man I used to work for, an ex prisoner who was jailed for over a decade for armed robbery, studied law in jail, and created havoc within the prison system in NSW (Australia)by "unionising" the prisoners and lobbying and demanding better rights. His name is Brett Collins and he started a group called the Prisoners Action Group, and on release networked with academics and activists from different backgrounds against police "verbals" in the Anti-Police Verbal Campaign. He also started a printing business, Breakout Press, where he employs ex prisoners, and it is just about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. A campaign called Justice Action now runs from there, it is a lobby organisation specifically addressing issues of justice and policing. Brett has achieved a lot police "verballing" is now illegal, and the organisation has achived the release of several people who were wrongly jailed on false charges. I worked there when the press was first set up as an illustrator and cartoonist for their customers (no, I'm not an ex crim!). I met some "colourful" characters when i worked there and have a few funny (and scary) stories up my sleeve from those times.

Like you I found this poem incredibly moving when Brett sent it to me. Everyone needs to be touched, and many people go for years without this fundamental need being fulfilled. And nowadays, many people live without physical closeness - people in prisons, in immigration detention centres, people in refugee camps, people in old people's homes and institutions of various sorts - and then the rest of us who may just live alone.

www.breakout.net.au

www.justiceaction.org.au

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: mack/misophist
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 11:50 PM

I'm a cynic. There's a strong suspicion in my mind that he sensed the prevailing attitudes and grabbed himself a niche/job. He could be genuine. The odds are against it.

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: GUEST,freda
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 12:26 AM

mack

I don't think Brett pretends to be anything other than he is. he has been a conduit for change in a very corrupt policing environment.
best wishes

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 03:45 AM

I believe this man's sentiments to be real and I greatly empathize with what he wrote.

Thank you freda.

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Touch
From: Partridge
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 03:53 AM

Thanks Freda,

Pat xx