Prison Stories

The Buddha in the Big Yard

On losing a place of worship and losing a friend in prison

Arthur Longworth
GEN
Published in
5 min readJan 16, 2019

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Photo: Denice Tyler/EyeEm/Getty

Renzi and I used to take care of the Buddha. He sits outside the prison chapel on a small patch of earth that was allotted to Buddhist prisoners by a warden, long since retired.

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Arthur Longworth
GEN
Writer for

Author of two books and recipient of six National PEN Awards. Inmate at Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, Wash.