My first born
lovely lady
crazy baby
smiles and eyes
bright
and cries
which ties
my insides
in knots.

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I wrote a series of eight poems over a year and a half period when I worked with at-risk young fathers as a home visitation case manager and parent educator. The first (“Linea”) is published today, and others will follow.

Eight weeks prior to starting this job I become a young father myself, and I found what is referred to in clinical circles as “counter-transference” to be a powerful dynamic between my and my clients. In other words, the powerful personal connections between what the young men were struggling with and my own experiences as a father were constant themes needing exposition.

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For years I’ve visited men in prison seeking to bring Christ’s light, love, and forgiveness to them, and in the midst of this discipleship I have heard some hard things. One conversation haunts me.

Allan was, and remains, the “least” and most “lost” person I’ve met. Pale, unkempt, 115 pounds, obvious learning disability, no social skills, pronounced attention deficit disorder, loathed, oppressed, mocked, reduced, shamed, and forced to shave his legs to better suit the inmate who claimed him as ‘bitch.’ God chose him for me to share an Incarnational moment with.

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This video clip shows the disturbing conditions of children caught in the Philippine jail system. This is part of the reason that my family and I are moving to the Philippines this summer–to do restorative justice and health care work in some of the poorest communities there.

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