The Songs On Death Row

The Songs On Death Row

By Paul McCann

On the ground floor of Casterton Prison was a cell on death row and in that cell was a man they called Madman Adamson who was waiting the day when they would take him away to a place where he would be hung by a rope until he was dead . Maybe who knows there may have been others before him , in that same cell who had sat there alone thinking of that day and hoping for a  reprieve because he was innocent of the crime that they said he was guilty of committing .

On the walls of that cell , poetry scribbles and inspirational quotes had been left for someone else if they chose to read them .Mr Adamson also had left his own thoughts on the wall along with all the others he had read ,

Some were chilling that spoke of a killing, others were an overspilling of grief from some poor soul who was unwilling to meet his maker on the last day .

Then there were the few love poems and spiritual poems that seemed so out of place and yet for the grace of God  they had been written by someone with a conscience that considered the possibly of finding hope and peace with the inevitable fate that awaited them in the days that were to come .

There were also funny comments written there , among some rude remarks n on the walls of the cell on death row .

It was almost a living journal of all who had come into that cell and found heaven or hell at the end of the day when their time had come .

Madman Adamson never feared that day , in fact he now welcomed it .

His family and friends never believed he was innocent and so every day he sat and sang quietly those songs from his heart .

The melodies came to hm from another place and the words were from the writings on the wall inside his prison cell .

Madman Adamson made up the songs and he sang them every day .

Now and then the guard and other prisoners would hear some of the songs that he sang and it brought tears to their eyes .

Madman Adamson had no guilt , he had no anger , he had no remorse and he had found this acceptance of everything that had happened that brought a  feeling that lifted him beyond the place he was in , to an open space where he felt no shame for who he was.

He had this talent that was something powerful and others could hear it when he sang . His voice rang out all around the cells in death row . It eased the fear of many and inspired others who could hear the words that spoke a language they could understand .

There on death row at times prisoners were able to see a theatre or dreams and a gallery of thoughts and pictures in the songs being sung by Madman Adamson who rocked the foundations of that prison .