Life Lines

I could tackle the whole world like Atlas, with greasy lips and a full stomach.

Every picture has the touch of a dream

Almighty Creator, although I’m not worthy, grant me the peace of awakening within the warmth of all of your splendor.

So what we came to find out, basically, is that life is worth living.

I've watched the hole petrify pretense, making men fake forever

It's like having a pot dropped over your head and a wooden spoon is pounding the rhythm of the Star-Spangled Banner into your eardrums. You know the tune so well, but you just don't want to hear it.

So take a bow.

Love you.

The notice informed them it would be a temporary matter

It still hurts.

Even the best of us will not pass through it unscathed

It was a tear-stained revolution.

The light hurt to look upon. For the briefest moment, I remembered another life. Then it was gone.

"I haven't been outside those walls in 17 years," I told her

A thug, a savage, the truth doesn't live inside of me

If the forecast doesn’t improve, I will surely drown.

You helped me become a man, even without my dad

Overly relying on incarceration as a panacea to crime expresses every weakness of the criminal justice system.

Ergonomically designed to cradle inmate lives

Trouble is easy to get into and hard to get out of

It’s crazy—I’m in this sold out stadium with 55,000 fans who have no idea a 10 year-old child is trapped in a dark hole beneath them.

Then sings my soul

How sweet the sound

Good Lord, show me the way.

Our conflict is a continuing erosion of fundamental rights.

We gotta ride gotta ride, to the end of the line, for freedom

For a moment, Death Row faded into the background.

You want to be happy, because that seems like a normal thing to want to be

So many damn layers between us.

There is hope for us yet

My existence drips like molasses.

You'll see someone

Put yourself in my shoes, and you wouldn’t last a day or two.

What if the pain we feel seems endless?

The midnight hour approaches

Looking into the perpetual abyss of time, his laughter was revolutionary.

Although investing millions in staffing may increase prison security, it is a temporary fix that does not address the causes of violence in prisons.

Resisting their insisting curiosity and playfulness was impossible.

I snatched it out of my mouth, staring at it as if it had bitten me.

So that the people outside can see clearly.

Welcome to Unit 3.

How is it that when I look, she's always there?

What is a dream of someone who lives in a nightmare?

Maybe Silent Sam is employing his silence to prod protesters to be silent and think about this country's glorious history and revered personalities if they want to point the fingers of blame for slavery, racism, and white supremacy.

For to shine is to be seen, and to be seen is to live.

The staff meant to break your will. When that was done, the Plan was waiting.

Pondering astrology through pinholes

I guess I'm different than most.

I was four years old the last time I heard my dad's voice.

You've changed my life for the better

A graveyard is still a graveyard, I don't care how you try to pretty it up.