What Holds Freedom? Two Poems from Different Places

 Caged Canary,

 

You are beautiful

Like the glimmer of starlight

Even in your loss

You search for prairie flowers

In the middle of the wild seas

Your hair a mess

Tangled in the rocky sands of misery

with blue eyes wandering beyond the horizon that we know

Making my heart ponder what is free and what is truly broken

Now you are anchored in a heartache

continents from where you were meant to be

unyielding to the sting

of every memory

you hold on tight

unable to let go

as caged as a canary

that knows all he can surely know.

**************************************************************

 What the Sky Holds,

I don’t want to be the boat

I long to be the sea

Touching land from end to end

A reach as vast as grains of sand

I don’t want to be the anchor

I long to be the sail

Riding winds like wings true journey

Above the dangers of dry land

I don’t want to be the bird

I long to be the sky

Touching the heavens and reaching stars

An endless bounty of openness

I don’t want to be the child

I long to be the mother

Witnessing future's gleaming smile

Holding eternity within my arms 

freedom's truest embrace.

Come join us over at the Sunday Muse for Muse #167.  We would love to see you there!

Dear Grandmother

 

"Natural Woman" Digital Collage Art "Covid Creations" by Susie Clevenger

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse #146

 

My debt to you, Belovèd,

Is one I cannot pay

In any coin of any realm

On any reckoning day...

~Jessie B. Rittenhouse

 

It was freedom to know you

like sky is to land

you were someone else’s garden

but still flowers within my hand

to hear your voice was bird’s song

 whispered among the trees

the echo of true moonlight

that lit the path before my feet

there is a might in yearning

that carries stars to distant lands

makes men sail across oceans

where a boy becomes a man

a woman can bear more things

 than children from within her hips

she carries and nests the home of generations

from callused knees and prayers on lips

It was freedom to know you

like open cages are to wings

you let me find my voice

and then taught me how to sing. 

Final Signiture

 

Image: Brooke Shaden

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 126 

Hosted this week by the legend in her own time talent Shay!

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“Even without wars, life is dangerous.”

  ~ Anne Sexton

 

My name no longer ends with yours

what was once whispered low

is now a bellow yet still a song

these words I give liberation

but for you they will echo

back and forth with a force that leaves a sting

I will no longer lay down in your dark pastures

hidden by your wheat and lost oaks

I shall rise like smoke

leaving a burn in your throat

you will never be able to swallow

like the hardest of pills

forgetting would be a luxury now

these aches are deeper than one sunburn out on the plow

the truest of regrets splinter in and root deep

the softness of my love

will settle into your heart that way

a piercing prick

pushing ever deeper

full with the ache you cannot forget

I gave you everything once

you stomped on it like a lit cigarette on the ground

I will take what light I still have with me

both heat and light rise and so shall I

my name no longer ends with yours

I suppose it never truly did.

Freedom Is as Soft as Feathers and Strong as Wings in Flight,

Artistic Photography Dreamlike Portrait Photography by Damien Casals


Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 119

I hold my freedom close like feathers to a bird

So as not to forget the way it feels upon my chest

For there are souls that never had the ease of those winds to cool their brow

for their days were stifled by the clamor of silent woes

A prison of unheard voices within their chest

I raise my eyes toward heaven holding flags in both hands

my throat full with song and a million different prayers

I am aware of the truth that defines the greatest lines of what could have been

As I sit in the shade of another’s planted tree

Knowing every inconvenience my days have ever held

would certainly be a true luxury to another life.

© Carrie Van Horn 2020

We Were Not Meant to Fly Alone

"Rocket" by Brad Phillips

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 110
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“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  ~ Mother Teresa

In my dreams I fly with sparrows

never looking down

I think my soul knows

something my mind forgot

we were not meant to fly alone

on this earth I have learned the fear of flying

always staying away from the edge

where is the courage

to explore the truth

and see what was meant to be seen?

when I am awake I walk alone

 into forests that no longer stand

feeling a loss I cannot name

I think my heart knows

something my mind forgot

we all need each other to stand up strong

on this earth I have learned to carry heavy things

and full hands have a hard time reaching out

where is the strength to do what is right

and passion to see it through?

 for in my poems I write of love and freedom

sitting behind a desk

where is the bravery to bear the journey

to venture out where there is a need?

I think my love knows something my mind forgot

we all need each other

and we were not meant to fly alone.

  

  When birds fly in flocks, they many times arrange in specific formations.  When they do this, they work together and take advantage of shifting winds.  This also helps them increase the distance they cover without needing rest.  It seems to me that birds are a lot wiser than us humans.  They see the value in each other and work together to gain a better flight in their journey.  I think we could learn something from them.

I dedicate this to George Floyd, and his grieving family.  As many others in this world, my heart grieves with them.

The Freedom of Poetry

"Take Me Up"  by Lauren Withrow

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 89

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“I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.”  ~ Pablo Neruda

You are the true poetry that my heart harbors yet shall also set free

All the love you did not give

Is every seed that planted my lovely garden

Every sad word that slipped through your lips

Like a long kiss goodbye

Became the song I did not sing

Instead I learned to listen

Not to the melancholy of wind instruments

Nor to promises that die where they lay

But to the sound of wings in flight

the uplifting sound of freedom

was the voice of reason that carried me forward

where there was loss and flowers never planted

I carried something more

A hope that can see the horizon’s true beauty

To raise my voice high

Like a flying flag

The freedom of poetry

For you

For me

For everyone.

Sometimes Longing Clings Too Tightly

Fledgling American Crow on Hand  

photo by Robert Langham


Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 54
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God loved the birds and invented trees.  Man loved the birds and invented cages.
  ~Jacques Deval

Love’s comfort cannot be hunted down nor caged

It flies like freedom and loose feathers

I held it once

Close but not tightly

Not wanting to lose it too soon

I called it by its true name

Gentle and low

And it rested softly upon me

But sometimes longing clings too tightly

And with time my yearning to hold on

tightened

Hurting us both when you flew away

Now empty handed

I reach upward

And cry out

Perch upon me once more my dear one

Stay for as long as you like

Let my strength be your weakness

And I will use all the power I have

To not cage you in

But my words are lost on open skies

 and near or far your wings are never lost.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

Wings of Love

"Be Free" by Magic Love Crow

Image Source

Linking with The Sunday Muse for the Muse # 45

Only in love are unity and duality not in conflict. ~Rabindranath Tagore

Freedom has wings that are feathered in hope

They open wide and embrace all that could and will be

Courage has wings that are feathered in strength

They soar straight into the flames no matter the cost

Love has wings that are feathered in grace

They softly caress all they hold dear

But will gladly let go for another's true freedom.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

All Rise and Sing

Photo Credit

Linking with Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Rising Above

Brought to us by Sumana

You can cage the singer but not the song.  ~Harry Belafonte

We build ships to put in cases on display

and assemble model cars to place upon a shelf,

 but a good song or rhyme cannot be kept down.

  Its voice carries beyond the pages that hands once held.

and the melody rises with the singers that stand to their feet

hailing to all souls to both listen and to truly speak

Each song has a message that will echo and project to far lands

for the first solo "a cappella" never forgets the lyrical refrain

as soon there is a choir each holding a songbook in hand

and the melody rises with the singers that stand to their feet

hailing to all souls to both listen and to truly speak.

The Stars and Their Stripes

The Mag #245

Also linking with Imaginary Gardens for Kerry's prompt "Iconic people society"

From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
~Samuel F. Smith, "America"

She waved her flag for freedom amidst a higher wind

hoping for contentment or just one truer friend

in a world that knows it's legends only by the stars

and the stripes that wave higher seem to have more scars

so hold your banner gently and keep it close in love with pride

for fulfillment cannot be reached for it is a flag that waves inside.

 

 





Photo Credit

 

My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.

~William Shakespeare