PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Sonically strong, good build into the second chorus: I will say that I worked in a Haitian community in Brooklyn many years ago. My students there were the most incredibly polite and well disciplined as a group of any I've ever had the pleasure to work in. Their parents had a "spank you later" culture. These were good kids. I think that it can be effective when it comes with proper communication for why it's necessary, as ironic as they may sound. I'm not saying it would be my method (at least generally - I would give a good slap on the hand or butt to my hypothetical child if they hit another child or were rough with them, so that they could understand being in the other child's shoes), but I can't deny that it worked on my siblings and I, growing up, and it definitely worked on these kids. The students who I had the most trouble getting to follow instruction or taking our time seriously were the ones who walked all over the parents, knowing the parents would not discipline them.   I think the problem with corporal punishment is that, sometimes, parents use it to replace the fact that they cannot properly communicate their disappointments with their children's behavior, or the lesson that needs to be learned, rather than using it in tandem with a proper explanation. The parents who spank and say that the kid needs to do the right thing just because "I said so" seem to be the ones whose kids don't learn the right lessons from corporal punishment, and become bullies or problem people.

19 year old George..: ..wrote a pretty killer stanza here, that brought this whole depressing, but clever and unveiling, piece together:   "I just smile faintly but contentedly               and feeling the need                      to tell them             something they probably                    wouldn’t believe "

Brilliant imagery in..: "God holds the master key of time, tightly gripped in his fingers"

Here's to you getting back to yourself: If I may offer an answer to your two questions posed in this poem: Yes, and Yes.   I see it in my students all the time. They cannot muster together well strung out thoughts, constantly trained in their life outside of school by "tweets" and "memes" and so on. I also see it in some of my family/friends, when ever they tell that a two paragraph email is a "bible" they "can't read".    This is a good poem, but most importantly, it's what it means to you and your days ahead that can make it a cherishable one when you look back at your life story. How did expressing yourself, being you, turn out? What was the moment it changed? Good luck, and hope to see you writing more here : )

As I found it: "Pain is the muse. Poetry is the lover." For me, it is more often so than not. I find it that, most times, for me it is a desire to release pain and shed the stresses of struggle that encourage writing, whereas with happiness I want to hold it close rather than release it (producing fewer words and writes).   I also find poetry and lyric writing great for trying to work things out that aren't clear, or make them clearer, but you hit something on the head for me, for sure.

"It wasn't a perfect death": Such a casual admittance following the vowing to secrecy on the "how" delivers with a shout 'acceptance' and - though it may seem ironic to some - 'calm'. A sense of immortality that has nothing to do with length of life, itself. It's wholly spiritual.

"I am free from society, but: "I am free from society, but I am not free from these chains."   I don't believe we can escape all of the chains, but I do believe we can break many - even most. Some are within ourselves, bound by our own minds. We must learn to be a Houdini towards our own insecurities and baggage.   This was a really strong piece of raw emotion and introspection. A cry outward and inward for help.