To Be Free. Poem by Leah Ayliffe

I've always found f-r-e-e-d-o-m to be your essential theme because everything is related to it. And at the end of this poem you have a striking image that shows this and brings this short poem to a satisfying closure: WHEN IN THE DARK/DO WE EMANATE OUR OWN LIGHT? This strikes me as a later stage of personal freedom because the light is clearly and securely within you and not borrowed from an outside factor (like various crutches people use) . There are three threatening situations in the previous stanzas - cage, chains, night -none of them really challenges you, but being parts of a world often hostile to freedom you acknowledge them and then move right over them. In fact, they become elements in your story not really antagonistic, for example, night is the backdrop for your creativity: YOU CARVE YOUR SOUL IN THE NIGHT SKY. You have turned night into a tool rather than a thrreat, you've colonized the night so it doesn't threaten you. And then you transform it with the light emanating from within you. And now it is another landscape your freedom can explore and exploit.

This poem is so very true, only you can change things in your life, make a decision to break free. Tango.