To answer the question on how I came to write this book, the truth is, had I known it would be a book, I might not have ever written it. But as it turned out, I came to a point in my life where I thought I could secretly yet honestly look at myself, and all the past writing I had done about my life and hear my own voice. I just wanted to feel what the earliest memories of my life had felt like all over again, for example, the hurting, the isolation, my siblings and I being taken away from our parents and placed into foster care. It was these kinds of scattered memoires that I sat with, unfolding, many times painfully, that eventually evolved into this book.
In a strange way though, the deeper I delved into unearthing these memoires that poured out of the thin insert of my ball point pen filler, the fear I felt was not so much of what I might have to confront in these memories. The fear was more and more, and more of prison authorities coming into my cell and confiscating all of my writing which increasingly had become no less than the unfolding story of my whole life's journey.
The title of the book, That Bird Has My Wings, actually comes from a true story. One day in the prison exercise yard I found myself saving a seagull's life from the senseless violence of a fellow prisoner. The bird symbolized my deeply held desire to be free. But it also symbolized how far I've come to reclaiming that sense of belonging, and to realizing I have wings and a fate, and neither belongs to San Quentin! Whenever I see a bird flying over the prison, I just feel closer to what it really took for me to write this memoir. The act of writing helps me find no less a freedom than that which we all desire. Even for just a little while, it's a freedom I dream about and one day hope to have. That bird remains my inspiration.
I have been so blessed to have this book published by HarperOne and I am grateful to the many wonderful and caring people that helped to make it happen. It continues to be a very humbling experience to see this memoir become a real book. In a very personal way, I feel a great sense of accomplishment that I have achieved something more than I ever thought possible. It is humbling and yet, it is an honor beyond imagination. More than anything though, it affirms for me that my life and the lives of so many all throughout this book do matter! That's what comes up for me the most, this fact that everyone of us matter.
Editor's Note: An inmate at San Quentin since he was 19, JARVIS JAY MASTERS was moved to death row in 1990 (for alleged participation in the killing of a prison guard). Masters was converted to Buddhism several years later and has inspired the interest of leaders in the American Buddhist community. While in prison he wrote and published one book, Finding Freedom, as well as many articles which have appeared mostly in newspapers and Buddhist magazines. In 1992, Masters won a PEN Award for his poem, "Recipe for Prison Pruno." Based on the lack of substantial evidence for Masters participation in the murder, in April 2008 the California Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing, and Masters' attorneys believe his conviction will be overturned within the year.
