{"id":31338,"date":"2013-07-25T16:37:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=31338"},"modified":"2026-03-17T15:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:50:05","slug":"bebelaar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=31338","title":{"rendered":"Poems of Willie Ater Thomas and Amondo Griffith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judy Bebelaar was a creative writing teacher at Opportunity High in San Francisco, which a number of young people from Peoples Temple attended. She and Ron Cabral are writing a book<\/a><\/span> which about the children of Peoples Temple whom they knew. <\/span><\/i>Along with the newspaper lists of those who died,<\/span><\/i> s<\/span><\/i>he had saved<\/span><\/i><\/i>school anthologies which contain several poems written by her former students from the church<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The first poem is by Willie Ater Thomas, a young woman who worked in Jonestown\u2019s bakery and gardens during her 15 months in Guyana. Ms. Bebelaar describes <\/span><\/i>Willie \u201cas a good student, a good writer. She was quiet and serious and full of compassion. Her poems are evidence of that.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The last two poems are by Amondo Griffith, who worked on construction projects in Jonestown. Mondo, as he was nicknamed, played on Opportunity High\u2019s baseball team and is profiled here<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Two poems by Joyce Polk Brown appeared here<\/a><\/span> in last year\u2019s jonestown report.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Judy Bebelaar can be reached at judy@judybebelaar.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
THOMAS, Willie Ater
Photos Courtesy of California
Historical Society, MSP 3800<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Somebody Tell Me<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Young, old, poor and black
\nShot, burned, killed, beaten,
\nFor what reason?
\nOur dark skin?
\nPrejudice
\nPlease help
\nThey\u2019re laying down a little black child\u2026
\nWho killed that little boy?
\nSomebody tell me
\nWho killed him?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Willie Ater Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dark<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

I was sitting in the dark
\nnot waiting for dark
\nthe dark is like no sound around
\nit\u2019s quiet
\nvery quiet
\nonce in a while
\nI look up and down and all around
\nto make sure I am by myself
\nI do not like anybody to see
\nme talk to myself
\nbecause I might say
\nthe wrong thing.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amondo Griffith<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
GRIFFITH, Amondo
Photos Courtesy of California Historical Society, MSP 3800<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFeeling \u2013 can you feel?
\nCan I feel?
\nYes I can feel.
\nI can feel the tree right beside me.
\nI can feel my hand on my face.
\nIs this the feeling you are talking about?
\nOr is it the feeling that we have within?
\nIs that the feeling you are talking about \u2013
\nFeeling for people like my mom or dad or sister?
\nDo you mean feeling for all people?
\nI get the point \u2013 starving people.
\nNot just one race, but all of them.
\nNow I got the feeling.
\nThe feeling is love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amondo Griffith<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judy Bebelaar was a creative writing teacher at Opportunity High in San Francisco, which a number of young people from Peoples Temple attended. She and Ron Cabral are writing a book which about the children of Peoples Temple whom they knew. Along with the newspaper lists of those who died, she had savedschool anthologies which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":31477,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31338","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31338"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135554,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31338\/revisions\/135554"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}