DEATH FROM BELOW

PENS (THERE IS A REASON)

WRITERS HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES

Osip Mandelstam exiled
for writing “Stalin’s Epigram”
wife persecuted thoughts like his life
she preserved his work by reserving to memory

poems.

Boris Pasternak exiled “Doctor Zhivago”
forced by country to reject noble prize

Anna Akhmatova
expelled from writer’s union
poems banned 15 years
stripped of ration card - hungry for food she fed herself with pens
forced to rely on friends to live. remainder of days.

Dante Alighieri exiled
pen morphed Italy’s poetry with journey from satan’s fields
through purgatory to heaven’s haven;
riddled with epitaphs of his own banishment

Dennis Brutus jailed
enlightening change
imprisoned in South Africa
cracked stones with Mandela
now writes in US as political refugee

Federico García Lorca
lost feared loved compassionate,
penned to make art heard martyred, chastised because his ink
had men rethink themselves.
Died by the blade of his words.

So tell me Lorca,
what does it mean to control pens
at 5 in the afternoon

tattoo blood into the forearms of paper

be soothsayer salivating words
at 5 in the afternoon

what does it mean to gargle stanzas at the end of a sword
chew on line breaks when bullets are locomotives

spit verse to shadowbox perspective

what does it mean? there is a reason?

what does it mean? THERE IS A REASON

youth are pumping blood into microphone hearts
spitting ink through hungry teeth onto willing paper

there is a reason maturing spirits are vice gripping pens and pages
mics and stages
readied faces searching for placement
and individuality in a society that tells us
we are everyone else.

there is a reason
teething babies are biting the hand feeding carnage
to bulimic souls unable to keep down regurgitated stream of comatose.

men and women have died for their writing
made difference where there couldn’t be
change where once was enslaved hearts, panicked minds
men and women have died for their writing
lived for their writing              bled for their writing
loved for their writing             starved for their writing
left family for their writing      been exiled
sacrificed for a pen.

Now, we are soul prostitutes singing lipstick bladed songs
on the corner of ocean-smoke

soul prostitutes in this imploding supermarket of spirits
(don’t be pimped by society’s suppression)

wade in the waters of artistry—
join Mandelstam Pasternak
Akhmatova Dante Brutus Lorca

make change and difference with pens
live into word
weave culture within breath
reconstruct the fallen temples of art

have society help us join these epic banshees,
exile me, slice my wrist
and eat our heart so they can taste poetry

then ask writers what does a pen mean to you?

the poets: Death from Below

DEATH FROM BELOW reads "Pens"

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DEATH FROM BELOW is comprised of two seasoned slam veterans, Dan "Sully" Sullivan and Tim "The Brazen Caucasian" Stafford. Sully has held the title of Chicago Grand Slam Champion an unprecedented 3 years in a row from '03 to '05. He is the winner of the prestigious Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award. Sully is also the Co-founder and Co-leader of the Oak Park/River Forest High School Spoken Word Club & Slam Team which consistently ranks in the Top two at the Chicago City-Wide Youth Slam, "Louder Than a Bomb". The OPRFHS Spoken Word Club is the largest high school poetry program in the Midwest. Sully's work consistently appears in local zines, papers, and podcasts. He has been published in the 2004 National Poetry Slam Anthology and The Columbia Poetry Review. Sully launched and hosted the popular Urban Sandbox open mic night for almost a decade and revitalized the legendary Mental Graffiti Poetry Slam as host for over 4 years.

Tim Stafford is the most recent Chicago Grand Slam Champion taking the title back in May '07. He is an elementary teacher on the south side of Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. Tim was published in the 2005 National Poetry Slam Anthology and he is the Slam Master of the legendary Mental Graffiti Poetry Slam in Chicago. Tim's also an experienced jiu jitsu practitioner and is an Illinois State sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts referee so don't mess with him.

Together they have featured at slams, universities, high schools, and junior highs across the nation. They've appeared in Chicago's Millennium Park as part of the "Great Performers of Illinois" festival and at the inaugural "Looptopia" all-night arts festival in Chicago. They are both products of Columbia College's poetry program-the only poetry major for undergraduates in the country. Death From Below is also a unit of The Speak'Easy Ensemble directed by Poetry Slam Founder Marc Kelly Smith. They've shared stages with legendary performers such as Smokey Robinson, Rev. Run, Savion Glover, KRS-One, Kanye West, Mos Def, Ani Difranco, and slam luminaries Marc Smith, Patricia Smith, Saul Williams, Anis Mojgani, Sonya Renee, and Mighty Mike McGee.