Poetry Comes Naturally To Young Street Survivor

San Jose Mercury News
Thursday, January 11, 2001

By L.A. Chung

John Sweeney isn’t exactly the typical kid you think might win a poetry contest in honor of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

For one thing, he’s doing time at the Log Cabin Ranch, San Francisco’s youth detention center nestled in the woodsy reaches of La Honda. For another thing, he’s white.

But in many ways, he’s indeed typical of San Francisco, the city of second chances and new beginnings.

On Monday, John, a 17-year-old street kid and school dropout, will get up in front of thousands at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and recite his poem “Disturbing the Peace,” a criticism of society and a prayer of hope.

“He was a brilliant guy,” John said of King. “He was a civil rights leader and had a much more broad of a horizon than for just one group.”

King’s universal messages of freedom and overcoming prejudice have provided the inspiration. The King Day poetry contest has provided the vehicle. The Martin Luther King FreeWrite Contest, in which youths in the Writers Corps program throughout San Francisco submit poems in support of or in response to King, has actually become a powerful vehicle for self-expression for youth of all colors at the annual celebration. Last year, new immigrant Penelope Zheng won with her poem, “Work For Change.”

For John, winning the contest has provided validation for the path on which he set himself after landing in Log Cabin Ranch last year.

Since he was 11, he’s largely been on his own, disappearing with his older brother for days or weeks at a time. His brother wound up in prison. At age 13, John left his home in Spokane, Wash., altogether and, with a one-way ticket given by a fellow traveler in Seattle, woke up one night to the bus driver’s call, “Last stop: San Francisco!”

He squatted in doorways. Met others in the Haight. “San Francisco is a very cool city for street kids,” he said. Three years went by.

Then came the Log Cabin Ranch, which is the justice system’s first step at incarceration before judges get really serious and send you to the California Youth Authority.

Confidentiality involving youthful offenders doesn’t permit me to tell you what John did that got him into the ranch, but trust me, on a spectrum going from illegal to horrifying, it’s illegal.

John’s been in juvenile detention before. He thinks his current sentence, which has lasted more than a year with extensions for “stupid” bad behavior, was too much.

But there are blessings in disguise.

The ranch, operated by the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department, gave him a chance to reflect. “I see people come in and get out and re-offend, then they’re going to CYA for seven years or something, getting raped and beat by guards,” he said, referring to the tough California Youth Authority detention centers. “They’re in, they’re out. It makes you think.”

What oppresses me
oppresses you.
We are torn apart by society
and lashed at with fists,
words and weapons.
This is a world subject to ruin.

And it gave him a chance to discover books, thanks to the Book Spot, a small library there that was set up by a Writers Corps initiative with Small Press Distribution, a non-profit group based in Berkeley that carries titles from 500 independent publishers.

Poetry and reading opened a door to a fresh world of possibilities.

“I always liked to write, but I was kind of intimidated by books,” John said. Friends would recommend books but he’d never check them out because when he opened to the first page of a 300- or 400-page book, it overwhelmed him. How could he read all that? He stopped going to school in the sixth grade, after all.

The ranch had a Writers Corps program that attracted him. The Writers Corps is a program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, and there are 10 sites around the city, ranging from middle schools to alternative schools to community centers. The ranch, which is in San Mateo County, makes it 11 sites.

With the guidance of Poet-in-Residence Kim Nelson, who is the writing instructor, and Karen Garman, who coordinates the Book Spot, he began to write. And read. A lot.

The names of authors like Jack Kerouac, Hermann Hesse, Piri Thomas roll off his tongue now. He’s working on an autobiography (”Hey, I’ve been around.”) and a book of short stories based on his life. He’s dreaming about being a novelist.

“Before that, it didn’t seem possible,” he said. He got to understanding that writers “sit and write for eight hours like a job.”

We all want peace
we want what our hearts seek.
To do this we must make
frayed minds in society yearn

for peace.
Reach for the mountain top.
It does not matter
what others think.
Through love we just may
one day attain some peace.

John’s poems can start with just one word that attracts him.

“Sometimes I’ll see a word that sounds cool,” he said. “Then a whole sentence pops into my head. And then I’ve written a whole page.”

Sounds like a writer to me.

John’s poem will be printed on a postcard and distributed at the Martin Luther King Day rally at the Civic Auditorium. He’s pretty happy about it.

“It’s changed the way he sees himself,” said Johnny Miller, the director of Log Cabin Ranch. It’s something Miller wishes for all the boys at the ranch — the ability to see themselves differently.

“All the people who said I was nothing, who said that I was a failure, that I was never going to be more than a drug addicted kid — this is a way to slap ‘em back in the face,” John said. “Look at me. Look at what I’ve become.”