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January 11, 2025<\/p>\n
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Poetry is freedom.\u00a0 Poetry is our freedom. : On Poetry, from Death Row<\/p>\n
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*Steven Nelson is a prisoner on death row in Texas.\u00a0 The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood serves as his spiritual advisor.\u00a0 This piece flows out of a conversation that Dr. Hood had with Nelson on poetry<\/p>\n
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The description of thoughts set free are the undergirding of poetry.\u00a0 If we restrain the mind, we cannot describe the beauty of what we find.\u00a0 Beauty by its\u2019 very nature is defined by freedom.\u00a0 If one cannot be free physically, then they must discover ways to be free in the constitution of their soul.\u00a0 Words provide description of the fullness of somewhere else.\u00a0 Then again, describing the fullness of one\u2019s circumstance is the first step in the transcendent journey to somewhere else.\u00a0 Maybe the best way to say it is that poetry is an unstoppable force that busts through the walls of all perceived or real impediment that might hold us back.<\/p>\n
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What is there beyond what is?\u00a0 Everything.\u00a0 We stay grounded because we choose to believe that the poetic has no power.\u00a0 The only way to claim our freedom is to choose to believe that our thoughts can never be imprisoned.\u00a0 Poetry is the force of freedom.\u00a0 We all have freedom within us.\u00a0 We all can be free.<\/p>\n
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Why do we think that only the gifted can be free?\u00a0 Creativity is not a scarce entity.\u00a0 The will to utilize it is.\u00a0 Indeed, we are all poets.\u00a0 We all have the ability.\u00a0 Why do we hold back?\u00a0 It seems that prison has a way of stripping everything from you until all you have is your fundamental being.\u00a0 Then, you realize that your being is all that you need.\u00a0 Poetry flows from being.\u00a0 When we describe reality, we are revealing essence.\u00a0 The construction of poetry is nothing more than the stripping of the false self.\u00a0 The trading of the mirage of our perceptions for the reality that is the beauty of truth and essence.<\/p>\n
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Poetry is so much more than words.\u00a0 Poetry is freedom.\u00a0 Poetry is our freedom.\u00a0 Are we courageous enough to be free?<\/p>\n
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There are many poets behind bars.\u00a0 There seem to be a great deal fewer in the free world.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 January 11, 2025 \u00a0 Poetry is freedom.\u00a0 Poetry is our freedom. : On Poetry, from Death Row \u00a0 *Steven Nelson is a prisoner on death row in Texas.\u00a0 The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood serves as his spiritual advisor.\u00a0 This piece flows out of a conversation that Dr. Hood had with Nelson on poetry \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2509,"featured_media":13001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[829,1799,7134,3455],"class_list":["post-12992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freshwritings","category-thoughts","tag-death-penalty","tag-jeff-hood","tag-steven-nelson","tag-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n