What's something you believe everyone should know. That your life has meaning. That it's NOT some insignificant little nothing within the vastness of an unfathomable cosmos. Value isn't assigned to things that are common. Deep and unconditional love isn't valued because it happens every day to everyone all of the time. I saw a hummingbird in the garden the other day.

faith to believethere is goodnessis enoughfor tonight.

The sun has set.Behind mountains green and black slopes crisped with silver snow.Once mighty now the blue bows down,dies,decays.From its bones the gloaming glows bruised and bloody hued. It's a miracle, but they don't notice. Wrapped 'round a fire built high for warmth.Smokey musk stings eyes alight with flames whilelaughter rides the wind and winds through pines the…

This piece of writing placed second in the 2024 PEN America Prison Writing Awards. Courage I don't remember the Mexican kid's name anymore but I do remember his age which was 18. He looked young, younger than 18 although he carried himself like a man much older. Let me clarify, he was young and stupid and full of bad decisions but his stupidity was that of the young and his bad decisions were of that as well.

When the gulfs between you and everything else become absolute and the terrors of the inconsequential are unsheathed, silly little things. here is how it should be. how it once was. perhaps how it could be, could have been. When it ends will it be enough to have known what was possible? It will have to be It will have to be. silly little things This poem was published in the PEN America Zine - Verse Among Us

How do you celebrate holidays? I don't. Not anymore. When you are incarcerated, holidays aren't provided by a calendar. They are wrenched out of the jaws of a numbing monotony heavy with the potential for violence. Some people celebrate holidays when they happen. Many do not. Did Sisyphus get a birthday when he got to the top of his hill? Laughing, middle finger extended towards the unfeeling infinite, he just marched back on down that mountain.

"We're all born naked." This is a common phrase uttered by people of all stripes for a variety of reasons. It is certainly a common mantra for all nudists, some hippies, and all nude hippies. I understand the argument being made: that we come wide-eyed and naked into the world, and society clothes us in shame and skinny jeans (although not enough shame in the case of skinny jeans).

What book could you read over and over again? A book I could read again and again..? Ursula K Le Guin's "The Dispossessed". My favorite writer at the height of her powers. This book not only helped me better understand the flaws within my own anarchist philosophy (and therefore strengthening it) but is so beautifully written. Not just a book about an anarchist society, but a tale about love, alienation, friendship, duty, freedom, suffering, revolution, and the journeys that bring us far afield but bend, inexorably, towards home.

Daily writing prompt What's a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had? View all responses There's the obvious, supernatural abilities and the like, but to keep it grounded somewhat, I think the ability I want the most is the ability to feel safe. There were only the briefest moments in my life that I lived free from fear, and because of that, I've made one bad decision after another.

Who is the most confident person you know? I spent some time thinking about who the most confident person I know might be, then I spent some time wondering why I spent any time on it at all. I know a lot of people, almost all of them quite villainous, and although they are fascinating in their own right after so many years that archetype has become stale.

Are you superstitious? Am I superstitious? Sometimes. It's nice to believe that I have control over the events in my life I have no control over. It's probably not true, but when I watch Dr. Who I don't spend the whole time thinking about how everything in it that purports to be alien or future tech is just set pieces made of Styrofoam and spray painted different colors.

Where would you go on a shopping spree? I have no idea how to answer this. I mean, I know HOW to answer it, but I don't know where to start. The addict in me wants to say a pharmacy. 😛 I will resist this and choose instead to decline. Give me a hill inside the Kanza prairie in Kansas during an electrical storm.

What is the last thing you learned? What was the last thing you learned? I don't know about the last thing I learned…I mean it isn't interesting or important, at least in light of the last big piece of news I had. My friend Jasmine took her life. It's only one of eight we've lost this way in the last couple of years, but she was the one that really hurt.

What experiences in life helped you grow the most? What experiences helped me to grow the most? This is a really hard question. I mean, I've spent half my life in one institution or another and 7 years total in isolation. There comes a point when you've lost everything, and I mean you could be sitting in a house somewhere on a quiet street or an alley in the Tenderloin.

Do you believe in fate/destiny? Maybe. I am a determinist, which is to say I don't believe in free will, but I am also not crazy enough to think too much about it. It's fun to explore this concept outside the context of a life that requires action. But you have to leave it there. There's a reason we had to evolve a sense of free will.

Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to. I think the phase of my life that was the most difficult to let go of was the one where I thought of myself as a good human being. It's impressive the amount of harm you can cause others when you convince yourself that you are only a good person making mistakes that are anathema to your nature.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why? If I could be a person for a day, I would be Elon Musk. I would choose a weekday so financial institutions would be open. I would give every cent I owned to every progressive resistance movement in America, if possible. Then I would get on one of my (admittedly awesome) rockets and, at the last minute before I returned to the body of the person I am now, announce to the world via every social media platform active today, the following:

What is your favorite drink? my favorite drink...clean cold water on a hot day after working outside in the sun. It is more delicious than anything else....second place goes to anything caffeine in the morning. Third...wine in the company of friends...

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you? Patriotism's only purpose seems to be offsetting the crimes committed in its own name. As an American, I have witnessed how this so-called love of country has been wielded to silence and oppress people. At its heart, patriotism is like many vestigial evolutionary mechanisms that persist in modern times. It has metastasized into something ugly and self-defeating.