Asylum Comments

I loved this, I felt like I was in the room when I was reading it...I like the idea that it's literal but I can also see it as being trapped in your own mind. Beautiful

This is an entirely different poem than the ones I have already read. And you know what? IT WORKS! I read it either as a poem of a dystopian society that has cruelly imprisoned the undesirables or dissenters OR as a symbolic poem exploring the issue of isolation and loneliness through the metaphor of imprisonment. It works for me in both ways. This is an ambitious poem and it must 4 times longer than your vignettes, but I found the same vivid, precise language as in the shorter poems that made this prisoner's struggle to keep his sanity from collapsing both poignant and realistic. In this century of persecution of dissidents and imprisonment of innocents (think of Nelson Mandela's 25+ year sentence) your poem is an assertion of freedom and your speaker is a FREE MAN despite his incarceration. This poem should be published by Amnesty International!