60 Comments
User's avatar
Ethereal Twilight Poetry's avatar

Free will, such a questionable subject, right friend? Love this!

The Stranger's avatar

Very! Very! Thank you my dearest ✨🫶🏾

Jennifer Smith's avatar

I love how you did this one! I have this weird idea now… I know the prison doesn’t exist. You know it doesn’t exist. But the SYSTEM thinks it exists. I leave a body double in the system’s cell while my real self goes about its unreal life, just to keep the SYSTEM busy, looking the other way. Have I imprisoned the system?

The Stranger's avatar

Jennifer, I always super love your way of thinking! Yes this is a good strategy lol. You are the best <3

Aaliya's avatar

More power to you

Jennifer Smith's avatar

The poem “My Spiral Staircase” hit me so hard I dissociated.

The Stranger's avatar

Are you back in your body, or not yet lol

Jennifer Smith's avatar

My body was outside, digging out the irrigation ditch. Now, my ditch runneth over -YIKES! 🙏🩷🙏

Andrea (Andy) Curran 🌄's avatar

The prisons of our own makings ⛓️‍💥

The Stranger's avatar

Exactly! Thank you!

We build the cage and step into it.

Andrea (Andy) Curran 🌄's avatar

100% but out own cages can be the hardest to escape

The Stranger's avatar

Yeah

Most of the time we don't realize we are caged

Honey 🍯 & Shadows 🌑's avatar

So first and foremost I love how you added other pieces to the end did you that by making a custom link?

Now for the poem. Idk if you’re familiar with tarot but this reminded me of a card call the 8 of swords. It represent imprisonment the swords in tarot represent the element air which in turn represents the mind and thought. So basically being imprisoned by your thoughts, mindsets etc. reading this reminded me as a chronic over thinker. I’m only imprisoned if I allow it. Very powerful piece ty for sharing !

The Stranger's avatar

Oh honey, thank you so much for this beautiful reflection. I am familiar with them vaguely, but i am super glad it reminded you of them. Exactly we are imprisoned only if we allow it!

In regards to the links, yes basically you copy them and paste them in the post while editing :)

again thank you so much <3

Ashu's avatar

This is intense!! This feels like a battle between perception and control like the mind building and breaking its own walls at the same time. Powerful writing.✨

The Stranger's avatar

Thank you so much, Ashu ✨

You absolutely captured the underlying themes and messages .

The illusion of one's control of their life.

You're awesome 🖤

Ashu's avatar

Appreciate that!!!It’s a powerful way of framing something very human.

likewise ✨💛

The Stranger's avatar

I really love your choice of words and articulation

I'm glad I found you here 🖤

Ashu's avatar

💓💓

Libra's avatar

Someone’s nanipulatiin labyrinth.

The Stranger's avatar

Absolutely 💯

The someone gotta do what they gotta do to survive 🔥

Thank you for reading 🖤

Eleora McConnell's avatar

Just perfect 🤩 I absolutely love this!! Wow 😲 It is a very strong piece. Thank you so very much!

The Stranger's avatar

Oh Eleora 🖤

Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm really glad this piece sat with you ✨🖤

Eleora McConnell's avatar

It really did! The emotion, tension and lyrical clarity was superb. Bravo 🙌🏻✨

The Stranger's avatar

I'm really glad it did 🖤

You're really kind ✨

Sehar Insights's avatar

impressive article

The Stranger's avatar

Thank you so much, Sehar 🖤

Elijah Westin's avatar

I am my own prisoner of my own mind. My own worst enemy. But if I could get out of this prison I would. 🤷‍♂️

Loved this poem

The Stranger's avatar

Well my friend we all want to get out. Even me the one who's preaching this, is the biggest prisoner lol. Thank you so much, Elijah <3

Ink and Light by Nat Hale's avatar

This poem works a tight rope so carefully. It explores the tension between personal responsibility, systems, and asks whether free will truly exists at all.

The poem does not let the self off the hook, but neither does it pretend people create themselves in isolation. “The system drafted the blueprints” sits alongside “you CHOSE,” and that friction gives the piece its energy. It keeps pulling between conditioning and agency, imprisonment and liberation.

I also liked the imagery of the prison being built slowly, thought by thought, until the person can no longer remember there was ever another way to live. I recognise that.

And the ending changes the whole poem. “This prison never existed” lands less as denial and more as a challenge to perception itself, the possibility that the mind can mistake conditioning, fear, shame, and inherited systems for reality.

The Stranger's avatar

The way you described the delicate balance I've been trying to maintain is brilliant. You are always choosing your fate, but your choice is rigged by the system.

I am really glad you enjoyed the imagery of this poem. I was in a sort of prison when i wrote this one, thats why the imagination flew smoothly.

What truly fascinated me was the describtion of the ending, "challenge to the perception itself" this hits hard!

Thank you so much for your deep reflection and analysis <3

Ink and Light by Nat Hale's avatar

It was my pleasure, it got me thinking and that is what I liked about your poem. We are made to think we are free but are we?

The Stranger's avatar

These kind of complements truly warm my heart 💜

Absolutely that's the real question!

Daniela Grothe's avatar

This prison never existed.

If you ask 10 people you might get 11 meanings about yourself. So why not detach yourself a bit from others opinions and be more mindful of what feels true and who is honest or just too opinionated or selfish.

The Stranger's avatar

Thank you for reading this poem, Daniela. Can you elaborate more on your comment? I am sorry I didnt get it.

Daniela Grothe's avatar

That was a quick comment of mine. It made me jump-think of sticking to old patterns we learned about long ago, considering other people's criticism to be true, convinced that we'll never make it.

I was with a group who'd tell me how to improve my job perspective (long search in hard market) so you get advice from people in very different fields who simply cannot know your point of view; but I said to myself (and I see people with similar brains here...) you always had it in you, you can step out of the cave and make it, find your way.

Odel Asseille's avatar

Great work The Lunatic.

That made me think that we are life’s prisoners and it is better to be a willing one than a forced one.

Don’t you think so ?

The Stranger's avatar

Thank you, Madman.

Well it depends. from one side being a willing one gives a sense of peace. while being a forced one shows that you at least fought. What do you think?

Odel Asseille's avatar

It's true that willing one got some peace of mine. The forced one fought or still fighting. The question is: can we win that fight ?

Some fights can be, others can't. How can we know when to fight or just let it be willingly ?

Krissy's avatar

I love when a poem almost feels familiar, likes it conjured from a shared truth that is deeper than even the words written. Well done.

The Stranger's avatar

That's the beauty of collective subconscious. We all draw from a common fountain, especially when it comes to art. We speak the common truth through our pens. Thank you so much, Krissy <3

Sunshine's avatar

This poem digs deep into the mind’s shadows and reminds us that freedom begins with the courage to unearth our own truths. A raw and beautiful call to choose liberation.

The Stranger's avatar

You grasbing these meanings shows your profound ability to see through written texts. True, the poem tries to dig deep into the mind to allow us to rediscover our truth. That liberation needs us to admit that we are imprisoned.

Thank you for your reflection, Christine <3

Christine's avatar

So much TRUTH IN PLAIN SIGHT

The Stranger's avatar

Yaaay! I am glad it conveyed the truth. Thank you so much :)

The In Between's avatar

This a powerful one.

The Stranger's avatar

Thank you so much!!

I'm really glad you felt it ❤️‍🔥🫶🏾