Birds and Cages and Fire | Teen Ink

Birds and Cages and Fire MAG

September 29, 2011
By Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran


A master asked his songbird if it dreamt
of open sky
It said “Lord, it created me, so I pray you
let me fly”
So, he opened the nearest window
And took hold of the feathery thing
And flung into the air a bird
With a pair of branded wings

The angels are fainting and they're falling from above
The lovers are frowning, 'cause they're
running out of love
Though Autumn's leaves are colored
They're beginning to die
And the poems are still breathing
But they're beginning to die

So our bird flew past falling angels, flew past rising men
Flew past crows who laughed and said that gladness is a sin
It dropped feathers into canyons
Dropped tears into the sea
Pondering liberation
And immortality

The thinkers think in circles, and they're rolling down the hills
The writers stab their parchment with the points of sharpened quills
Our dreams are never distant
Till they reach the world's end
And we have to hitch a ride to meet them
On the sunbeams or the wind

Blessings will blossom and curses will adapt
So our feathered hero flew, and then
was trapped
Its master, sipping centuries
Watched the little body age
Saying “you foolish creature,
Was it really I who wrought your cage?”

But we never could surrender
So let's defend the helpless bird!
On our lips, may there be a confession
In our hearts, the sacred Word
May we breathe the air which bore us
And wear our only Name
And though the odds are against it,
Fight for the flame!


The author's comments:
Your Raven seems to be fascinated with freedom lately, but he doesn't know why.

Perhaps you will offer me your hearts.

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This article has 36 comments.


on Oct. 18 2011 at 4:46 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Oh yeah, that's really too bad. Thank goodness, though, that your family let you read them.

I bet, hearing all these stories about schools who censor books they consider blasphemous, God wishes they might lighten up a bit.


Aderes47 GOLD said...
on Oct. 15 2011 at 8:45 pm
Aderes47 GOLD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 897 comments

Favorite Quote:
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Henry Drummond

Did you know that Bran means raven?

Aderes47 GOLD said...
on Oct. 15 2011 at 7:35 pm
Aderes47 GOLD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 897 comments

Favorite Quote:
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Henry Drummond

Remember what I said about Harry Potter at Islamic school? kinda the same thing. You know those stories about how the sun came to be and how bird was created. These stories were considered blasphemous because it went against God, they said. I still read them and loved them. My parents didn't care, my grandma gave me books of them.

on Oct. 15 2011 at 6:06 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

That's one of the kindest compliments you could ever have given me, it really is. Folktales are beautiful, because of the way they travel through time from heart to heart. They had a large role in my early childhood. Why were they considered blasphemy in your case?

on Oct. 15 2011 at 6:04 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Quite!

But living in the moment is living dangerously, the most dangerous way to live! Well, here I am talking about the danger in life, but there really is none, except in our fear and insecurity. So it's freedom from those that we need.


Aderes47 GOLD said...
on Oct. 13 2011 at 9:48 pm
Aderes47 GOLD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 897 comments

Favorite Quote:
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Henry Drummond

This is like one of those beautiful folktales that we were read when you were little, except in my case they were blasphemy against God. 

I love this story, it gives so much hope and song! :) 


on Oct. 5 2011 at 9:22 pm
IamtheshyStargirl PLATINUM, Lothlorien, Utah
44 articles 16 photos 2206 comments

Favorite Quote:
Boredom instigates extreme creativity.
~Amoniel

"Bowing gratefully to all of my subjects, 'thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is mine." Nah, I'm just kidding. We're all kings together.'"
~Thesilentraven

I think I am :) 

on Oct. 4 2011 at 7:40 pm
savetheplanet PLATINUM, Anaheim, California
45 articles 9 photos 564 comments

Favorite Quote:
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Present, past, and future come together to make you free.   Refuse to repeat history, live for the moment, and carve your own future.  At least, that's something to strive for.  But there's always something to living dangerously.  I don't know...  I'm just thinking out loud to myself.

on Oct. 4 2011 at 6:52 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Wonderful, wonderful. I feel free about every other day, which I'm actually quite thankful for.

Fold your fingers into a fist and hold them like that as you feel the rose continue to blossom, then it is all the more wonderful when you open your palm (and your mind) and behold a mature flower.


on Oct. 4 2011 at 4:12 pm
IamtheshyStargirl PLATINUM, Lothlorien, Utah
44 articles 16 photos 2206 comments

Favorite Quote:
Boredom instigates extreme creativity.
~Amoniel

"Bowing gratefully to all of my subjects, 'thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is mine." Nah, I'm just kidding. We're all kings together.'"
~Thesilentraven

I wonder if I could...

Already I feel the poems rosebuds of birth on my fingertips and at the edge of my mind. 


on Oct. 4 2011 at 4:11 pm
IamtheshyStargirl PLATINUM, Lothlorien, Utah
44 articles 16 photos 2206 comments

Favorite Quote:
Boredom instigates extreme creativity.
~Amoniel

"Bowing gratefully to all of my subjects, 'thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is mine." Nah, I'm just kidding. We're all kings together.'"
~Thesilentraven

Most of the time, yes. 

on Oct. 4 2011 at 8:46 am
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Do you feel free?

You should write a poem with compliments to our dearest friend the Editor; no one could accomplish the task better than you, Stargirl.


on Oct. 4 2011 at 8:44 am
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Perhaps so.

But I've learned since the creation of this poem that the fight for more freedom is a prison in and of itself. One becomes truly free when he becomes a part of the present moment.

Of course, however, there's always a benefit for fighting for the flame as well.


on Oct. 3 2011 at 7:33 pm
savetheplanet PLATINUM, Anaheim, California
45 articles 9 photos 564 comments

Favorite Quote:
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

We should keep track of all the checkmarks you get :).  Hmm you do have a theme of freedom in all of your latest poems, perhaps you yourself are trying to break free?

on Oct. 3 2011 at 5:02 pm
IamtheshyStargirl PLATINUM, Lothlorien, Utah
44 articles 16 photos 2206 comments

Favorite Quote:
Boredom instigates extreme creativity.
~Amoniel

"Bowing gratefully to all of my subjects, 'thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is mine." Nah, I'm just kidding. We're all kings together.'"
~Thesilentraven

You must make a necklace of your editors' choice check marks, darling raven. 

I like to think that means you have touched the heart of a single person sitting at a computer, clicking through millions of whispers of the heart and mind. 


on Oct. 3 2011 at 5:00 pm
IamtheshyStargirl PLATINUM, Lothlorien, Utah
44 articles 16 photos 2206 comments

Favorite Quote:
Boredom instigates extreme creativity.
~Amoniel

"Bowing gratefully to all of my subjects, 'thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is mine." Nah, I'm just kidding. We're all kings together.'"
~Thesilentraven

Because there is so little of it in this world. 

Beaurocracy, that is the question (the problem).