Life Lines is an audio journal of poetry, spoken word, and other creative writing by men on Death Row, USA. Contributors live on Death Rows in North Carolina and Tennessee. Life Lines is about connection. It’s about finding surprising spaces to share endangered, beautiful life. It’s about recogniz…
I could tackle the whole world like Atlas, with greasy lips and a full stomach.
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.
The notice informed them it would be a temporary matter
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
Overly relying on incarceration as a panacea to crime expresses every weakness of the criminal justice system.
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.
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
Put yourself in my shoes, and you wouldn’t last a day or two.
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.
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.
A graveyard is still a graveyard, I don't care how you try to pretty it up.