If you were free to fly, would you?
Soar high among cotton ball clouds.
If free your heart was to wander,
would you love what is not allowed?
If you could escape from your everyday life,
and set out for the great beyond,
would you feel free, or lonely,
when you’re released from your bond?
If freedom of speech was a concept
so foreign to you and your kind,
would you be happy to wander,
free in body, but not in mind?
Invisible chains and constructs,
beliefs in what’s right and wrong,
powerful weapons that keep us
locked up, where we don’t belong.
But what is the ultimate freedom, I ask?
What is it we seek, what should be?
A freedom to live like we want to;
to love, to think and be free!
The Midweek Motif at Poets United this week is Captivity. As I started to turn the concept of captivity over in my mind I couldn’t decide which kind of captivity I wanted to write about. Who would be happy with the freedom to speak their mind if they weren’t free to love as they pleased? Who would be happy to walk the streets freely without the right to speak their mind? To love if shackled in body? And it all became interconnected (as I suppose it should have been from the beginning)… So I’m not writing about captivity per se, but about what being free should be. And while I understand fully that it is a simplistic way of looking at this topic, this is just poetry…
Love the mixture of captivity and freedom going sideways along one another beautifully syncing throughout the poem 🙂
xoxo
Thank you, Sanaa. This subject really had me wondering about the important of various kinds of freedom that many of us take for granted.
An excellent approach to the prompt, and I feel that you are speaking directly to me with the questions you raise. Do people want to be free? Some want very much to be free, at least–as you say–free to make their own choices. Fine poem!
I think everyone wants to be free, but that not everyone has the same idea about what that freedom is, or which type of freedom is the most important one – if there is such a distinction in freedom.
This is a thought-provoking poem of questions to turn over in my mind………such varying degrees of “freedom” exist, and some of it very conditional……….Nice to see you, C.C.!
Thank you, Sherry! Great to see you again too!
Powerful questions CC. I’m not sure this is a simplistic view of captivity as you pose questions designed to make us respond and that in itself is an example of your writing reaching to an audience…..the whole notion of freedom is a complex issue I think as we can feel free in some ways and be confined in others. See you have me thinking….
Well… I’m sure if you are chained and physically confined getting out of those chains would beat having the liberty to love what or whoever you want, so that’s where my thoughts are simplistic. There’s also the whole idea that if you don’t know a different concept of freedom exists (as could be the case for people living in places where democracy doesn’t exist, or have been indoctrinated their whole life that their particular idea of freedom is the only, and right, way to see it as could be said for some religions – or branches of some religions) you wouldn’t particularly see that you’re actually not free… But this is such a huge philosophical discussion… Very interesting though (I think). As always, Michael, thank you for reading and commenting! *hugs*
I take your point and understand where you are coming from. Yes it is a huge philosophical discussion the concept of freedom for we could apply it nearly all walks of life.
A thoughtful and well executed proposal. If only…
I know, right? *smile* Thank you very much!
C.C. Thank you for your wonderful comment on my blog…….I dont seem to have an email address for you to respond privately……….but I feel exactly the same way. Inhumane treatment of animals is the one thing I find hard to bear, since they have no voice and cant flee their oppressors…….yesterday I read a HAPPY story about a couple whose five fenced acres are a sanctuary for dogs rescued from kill shelters…..the dog in the wheelbarrow is one of them, if you click that link, it will take you to their haven….God bless them. Thankfully there are those who care and who try to rescue these animals – but you are right – the situation of factory farmed animals is horrendous. I simply dont understand how human beings can think such treatment is acceptable – of thinking, feeling animals who feel all the same emotions we do. Sigh. Drives me bonkers. Was so lovely to see you stopping by……….
Again, I’m sorry for going on so on your blog, but after all this time of not dealing with poetry or blogs, your poem (along with the story I read on FB) just set me off! *smile* I follow many US rescue organisations on FB, but as I said, we have a different view of the whole breeding situation over here (though I’m sure there are exceptions, unfortunately). I’ve always admired that in your poetry, your unwavering support of freedom for animals and how you describe them and nature – as well as the way you put your words, of course. In any case, I will go look at the link you mentioned (need a feel-good story after all the sadness), and if you want I can be reached at bubbly.cc.champagne @ gmail.com (note that the spaces in the address shouldn’t be there). I hope to stop by more often! *hugs*
to be free in a creative way is one of our wishes. these questions you raised made me stop for a while to reflect.
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for reading and commenting!
freeedom is indeed relative and i think you are right given infinite choices and freedom would be to much in itself!
nice thought provoking questions here CC…freedom definitely gives a person power with responsibility…
One person’s definition of freedom might not be another person’s definition… *smile* Thank you!
What a thought provoking questions you ask! I think the freedom we define not for the whole life…the meaning of it changes while we approach different moral and personal issues, learning what makes our heart tickle… and to have boundaries we need at least for keeping ourselves sane….Great questions!
Thank you so much! *smile*
Your poem really has me contemplating the many facets of freedom. I wonder if we are the ones who keep the ‘invisible chains’ in place. What would life be like if we would let them go?
I think a lot of those chains are, indeed, constructs of the society we live in, and society varies from place to place and faith to faith (among other things). And I love that my scribble got you thinking. *smile* Thank you for the comment.
This is very, very great writing, C.C. So thought provoking. All of those questions deserve an answer. I enjoyed this poem of yours 🙂
Those chains on our thinking are hard to remove, especially when we know nothing else.
Sometimes those invisible chains and constructs hold us captive in ways that even we are not aware of until we begin to try to start breaking free and only then we begin to realize the extent of our own captivity. Great post.