ISOLATION
"For the next few weeks, I was completely and utterly isolated. I did not see the face or hear the voice of another prisoner. Every hour seemed like a year. There was no natural light in the cell. I had nothing to read, nothing to write on or with.
The mind begins to turn on itself. One desperately wants something outside of oneself to fix one's attention.
After the time in solitary, I relished the company of even the insects in my cell, and found myself on the verge of initiating conversations with a cockroach."
Nelson Mandela/ A long walk to freedom
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I have more questions than answers
I am just the story teller
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The United Nation's rules dictate that isolation for more than 15 days is torture
At Galt Training School there were isolation cells
Some of the young girls at the Galt Training School for girls
Were held in cells
Cells of torture
Isolation cells
used against young girls
12 to 14 years of age.
In Canada
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"The Mandela Rules" on Solitary Confinement have been adopted by the UN
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THE CELL
It was 1957 and I was 14 years old
"Loneliness deep and fathomless
Coming at me in waves
Isolation
Unrelenting darkness
That could bring humanity
Into the pit of insanity
I was drowning in those waves
My mind needed an anchor
To help me stand
To keep my soul alive"
Outside the Gate
/j.smith
"I looked at the sky on the walk back from the cell
Snow was falling softly and there was a full moon
There was a power greater than those people
I knew that power would have the final say
The beauty of the sky
Had the final say
I had won the battle of my mind
A poem formed in my soul"
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THE ANCHOR
On that starry night
When the moon was still
No darkness of mankind
Could that beauty steal
That night sky
Was a common grace
Nothing done to me
Could ever replace
The moon was full
It lit the sky
The angels were singing
They were the stars
I had won the battle
Of my mind
On that starry night
Peace was mine
My spirit was unbroken
My mind was clear
No darkness could
That beauty steal
On that starry night
When the world was still
I had won the battle
Of my mind
On that starry night
Peace was mine
j.smith/Outside the Gate