# Captives



## JustRob (Mar 8, 2015)

Short words,
Caught birds,
Wrapped in rhyme,
Trapped in time,
Please recite,
Let them take flight.​


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## Firemajic (Mar 8, 2015)

Very nice word play... poetic.. I love the metaphor of words as birds, caught, later set free... nice work ! Thank you for sharing this intriguing little gem...  Peace always...  Jul


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## escorial (Mar 8, 2015)

so liked the shortness and everything really


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## JustRob (Mar 8, 2015)

I turned the computer off and walked away and immediately there it was in my mind, so I had to come back and turn the computer on again to type it in. Who then are the captives, the words or us? Thanks for the comments.


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## Blade (Mar 8, 2015)

Nice. The last line could 'let them fight' as well.

I think we are the captives of the words rather than visa versa, they have lived before and will live after us.:shock: On the other hand they also pay our way.:eagerness:


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## rcallaci (Mar 9, 2015)

An excellent piece of short poetry. good word placement...


my warmest
bob


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## inkwellness (Mar 10, 2015)

This poem introduces the concepts of words as trapped things that wait to be set free. I really like this idea and enjoyed your writing scheme.


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## aj47 (Mar 10, 2015)

I like the idea of recitation as freeing  Words _are_ trapped on the page until read.  Think of the average library with zillions of books with their potential waiting to be released.  Love this.


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## Nellie (Mar 10, 2015)

Nice. I love short poems, quick and to the point.


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## JustRob (Mar 10, 2015)

inkwellness said:


> This poem introduces the concepts of words as trapped things that wait to be set free. I really like this idea and enjoyed your writing scheme.





astroannie said:


> I like the idea of recitation as freeing  Words _are_ trapped on the page until read.  Think of the average library with zillions of books with their potential waiting to be released.  Love this.



Thanks to both Your Wellness and Stellar Highness. The same thought is expressed in the first chapter of my novel _Never Upon A Time _which I posted here.
In that chapter I mentioned the idea that the characters couldn't live their lives without having a reader's mind within which to do so, that otherwise they were like dessicated flowers pressed between the unread pages. Some unread books get used for only that, to press flowers. Any desperate ploy to get the reader to keep reading the thing really.


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## JustRob (Mar 10, 2015)

Nellie said:


> Nice. I love short poems, quick and to the point.



Thanks Nellie. I'm not sure that I can get much below sixteen words though. Regarding brevity, on the prose side I've just tackled the fifty word story challenge with an epic saga filled with humour and philosophical significance (it says here). It might be worth a quick look as that's all it takes. It's here. Into The Chaos


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## Carousel (Mar 11, 2015)

I liked the concept of words trapped in a closed book waiting to be set free as in the caged birds in your poem both convey a similar truth.

Regards Cari.


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## JustRob (Jul 11, 2017)

I have no qualms about bumping this now ancient piece of mine for two reasons. The first is that the question of writing poems to be read on the page rather than recited just came up in Poetry Discussion and the second is that I recited this piece, which I can not surprisingly do from memory, to our Spanish cruise manager during our recent holiday as he said that he liked English poetry. On that occasion I gave the full performance with gestures, so thought it might be worth adding my stage directions here. Poetry recited by the originating poet is the only complete form, as poetry is as much a performance art as anything, at least to my mind.

(The words are intended to be spoken slowly and clearly to emphasise their separation.)

"Short words,"
(As uttered the words are caught in cupped hands in front of one's face.)

"Caught birds,"
(Holding the cupped hands up to demonstrate this.)

"Wrapped in rhyme,"
(Looking at the hands thoughtfully.)

"Trapped in time,"
(Shaking the hands as though rattling the words inside while looking at the audience.)

"Please recite,"
(Still looking at the audience and holding the cupped hands out to them.)

"Let them" (A slight pause)
 "take flight."
(Opening the hands wide and throwing the words into the air.)

​I think this emphasises how the words alone can be regarded as the entire poem and the rest left to the reader's imagination or the whole can be regarded as a performance of which the words form only a part. To my mind some poetry is intended to draw the reader in in an intimate manner while in other cases it is meant to reach out to them. I leave it to the dedicated poets here to decide the true essence of poetry though.


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