Poem of the Week ~ If Even Wings Are Limiting.....?

Kids, I was surfing around the blogosphere trying to "catch up" on commenting, (does anyone ever??), when I stumbled upon a poem so good in its import and execution that I had to stop what I was doing and make it our Poem of the Week. 

Ruth at Turtle Memoirs, describes herself as  "a lover of words and of silences. I write with at least one foot in memoir, most of the time, and I seldom argue with what wants to be written."

I wouldn't argue, either, with a poem like this :

if even wings are limiting…? (taste-testing freedom)

even birds don’t fly
beyond the limits set by
wings
yet i
D R E A M
of sucking air enough to leave this
lumpish body on its lying bed, to taste (at last!)
the verity of tall-told tales that we are free to soar past pre-
determined bounds & definitions, to pierce↑ the sky
of anything that gods or words can say

and i who’ve always only flown with words for wings
float wordless through this heavy-sleeping world and waking, try
to translate what i hadn’t known i knew into a tongue that i’m no longer sure
of, for dreams insist that is
is isn’t; won’t,
necessity; while can’t WILL
dance with pure potential

what if, awake, we dropped all definition of what is or isn’t, who we are or what
life tastes like – as if defining renders real when we all know, words lie
as easily as speak the truth and every language, learns to clip
our wings…

must we resign ourselves to languages’
delimitations or
shall we leave this heaviness
of words behind
and soar?

if even wings are limiting let’s
shrug them off – let’s!
throw off mind that screams you can’t, LET’S!
taste the boundless skies of
YOU ARE FREE

__

Ruth's message of soaring and freedom is so uplifting, it made me raise my own droopy wings and point them at the ceiling. Thank you so much, Ruth, for your wonderful writing, and for your loyalty and long-time membership at Poets United.

Kids, be sure to come back next Monday, for an extensive interview with our very own shining star, Ninotaziz, who is blazing comet-like trails all across Malaysia, with her books based on Malay legends.