Where I Stand: An Interview with Sylvester “Sonny” Jackson

This week, we published three poems by Sylvester “Sonny” Jackson in The Work on our website. You can read the poems and listen to Sonny reading them here.

Below is an interview our collective conducted with Sonny during our weekly Tuesday workshop.

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Re/Creation Collective: Can you tell us how these poems came about? Where did the inspiration come from, and what was your process of writing these? Did they all arise together, from a particular moment or reflection in your life?

Sylvester “Sonny” Jackson: My poems just come into my mind, they came one by one, only “Where do I stand” came from something that happened in my life.

R/C: Can you talk about the relationship between writing and healing in your life?

SJ: My writing is my healing, it's my unspoken language.

R/C: How has your concept of time changed over the different periods of your life?

SJ: Having cancer and knowing your time is short of course changes your concept of time, you want to do as much as you can before you run out, writing is my way of leaving something behind.

R/C: In “Where Do I Stand” you talk about standing alone in the prison yard. Yet we know you did make friends in prison. Did you find this comradery only when you were ready to go home?

SJ: At some point in every place I went I found other people like me I didn't wait long, maybe a couple of weeks at most.

R/C: Who is the “you” in “Sunrise and Light”? Did you have a particular person in mind, and did that expand or change as you worked on the poem?

SJ:I don't know who "you" is, that poem just came to me out of the blue.

R/C: Is there anything else you want to tell us about your process or experiences, any parting words of wisdom?

SJ: Nothing really more to tell, I think I've said it all.

Sylvester “Sonny” Jackson is a writer and retired Marine. As many of you know, Sonny is one of the most important members of our writing workshop for people returning from incarceration.