There's only so much you can think
inside the box.
Is it wooden? cardboard?
What's it
smell with, feel like, taste
of (if you're bored-to-brave)?
But that's it.
Listening outside the box, you get
ideas:
I'm an anarchist!
Buddhist!
Atheist!
I have no label!
But those words
are all colorless
until you throw them
through the light.
I think that's why I respect old
people:
they've had
time, to climb out.
Well, some just
find a good-sounding line
and say, “I'll repeat that from here;
that's safe to claim.”
But others go out and break windows,
steal cash, deface a
patient statue and realize,
Shit!
Maybe our group needs some rules.
We could put John in charge, to make
things
more dependable.
Others
sit long in a field
and recognize, I can't concentrate!
How am I supposed to unite
with Gaea when I get restless between
radio sounds?
I like to own things!
And to be right!!
I'm petty!!!
Others spend a
decade
wearing a pasta-strainer
in their ID pics
to make a
statement:
how silly is religion's hold on people?
And then
at
forty, think,
I'm halfway to dead;
I'm worried;
now I get
it.
Others find out
that electric organs make their skin tingle,
while pop is just
irritating, and big-label country is fake.
And they decide,
Sure, I like many sounds, but at
heart, I'm a Gospel girl.
It takes time to
figure out that you are the box. YOU, in your
body, with your
half-dreamed ideas
of truth and right;
that make you feel
like you're holed
up, alone
in daylight. It takes a while
to climb out of that.
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ReplyDeleteThe most interesting this about this poem is the ideas it presents on the concepts of original thought and behavior. Being put in a box is a common saying used to describe being trapped in a certain life or mindset. Initially, the speaker says that ideas such as, “I’m an anarchist!/Bhuddist!/Atheist!/I have no label!” (Lines 7-10). Ideas like these are often seen as deviations from a social norm. However, the speaker continues by changing the idea of being put into a box into saying that the box is not social norms, but a person’s own “Half-dreamed ideas/of truth and right” (Lines 48-49). The idea of mindlessly following the herd is commonly despised, but we solve nothing by deviating from the status quo and ascribing to yet another set of ideals. Instead, we must think freely and be open to new ideas. We must not box ourselves off to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteBuddhists are roughly 10% of the world's human population--I would really enjoy watching you call one of them a "deviation from a social norm" :) What box are YOU speaking from, Taylor?
ReplyDeleteI have felt that there is immense pressure to ascribe labels to oneself; whether this is to fit in with society at large, or solely to provide comfort and security in one’s own identity, I’m not sure. It may be a combination of factors. Everyone is quick to describe others by their religion, or their ethnic background, or their hometown; the list of descriptors goes on and on. However, this poem points out the implications of this: when you label yourself, you are putting yourself in a box. From that point forward, you can do one of two things: remain in the box, and refuse to change for anything, or leave the box and put the values you have adopted to the test.
ReplyDeleteThe accompanying collage provides a juxtaposition of apparently conformative men—dressed for business, dressed to be seen and respected—with naturalistic imagery and what may be a busy urban street scene I’m not entirely sure what to make of this; perhaps it could be trying to convey a dichotomy between being trapped within a label, and being free to explore the world around oneself without limitation? Maybe the cloud textures are meant to convey thought bubbles bursting in the man’s brain as he contemplates his true self whilst walking down the street to get to his office.
The poem emphasizes that it is necessary to recognize that the box originates from oneself; if the set of values one has chosen for themself is restrictive, they can simply throw them away and adopt new ones.