frdb post; freedom; poetry

Any and all freedom comes within certain boundaries and with certain restraints. Absolute freedom is impossible, and is not something one should wish for even if it were possible. Our well-being and happiness is the result of being aware of, and constantly identifying and defining, certain boundaries: our universe, our world, our country, our state or province, our county, city or town, our neighborhood, our street, our house or apartment building, our apartment, our bedroom.

 

Who could be happy without boundaries, without borders, without roofs and walls? It would be chaos. Absolute freedom equals chaos. We live within a highly complex, determined system, and we're tiny within it. We're at the mercy of the engines of the universe. We can either obey, and live with nature, or be destroyed by it. As reasoning beings, we can understand nature, at least to a certain extent, and cause her to work to our advantage, as in irrigation and agriculture, medicine, electricity, the building of dams, etc. We can't change the laws of nature, but we can certainly make them expedient for us. And that's exactly what we've done.

 

To use as an analogy something I know a little about, you hear it said by some people who write poetry that rhyme and meter hamper their force of expression, that rules about accent and stress, the technicalities of scansion, rhyme schemes, etc, are stifling to their creativity. The truth of the matter is that once a person learns about rhyme and meter, and becomes comfortable using those tools, she will find herself in a sweet-spot of sorts: a place where she is aware of and alert to the constraints (willfully put on) of rhyme and meter, of formal verse structures, and yet with a virtually infinite magnitude of words and concepts at her disposal. That's where the best freedom lies, in my opinion, when I give myself a challenge and work towards meeting that challenge. No one is forcing me to write a poem. I could just as easily loll about in bed or watch a movie. I put the yoke on myself and go at it. Not to make money, not even to get a publication credit. Just to do it. That's the best freedom the world has to offer, at least for me.

 

Bear in mind: it's pefectly fine to write in free verse, and many great poets do; but there is still the challenge, and one must still use language to compose something that wasn't there before. Anyone who simply wants to spray words out on paper at random, without any thought to craft: well, that's their business.