"Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou + commentary!



Now that blogger is co-operating (!!!) we will continue by following on from Oprah with  a little Maya Angelou and share her highly perceptive poem about the caged bird. Why does the caged bird sing? I think we have all spent time in cages of some sort or another  metaphorically speaking- domesticity placing major bars around us.

Maya is right, when there is nothing you can do to change something singing is a form of mental release making you feel better. I wrote a poem years ago about a prisoner I used to correspond with and was amazed that despite being behind bars he had mental freedom way surpassing the majority of us, his mind being free to pursue his ideas etc.

We do not live as nature intended, but then again nature has had to evolve and in the process we have managed to clip our own wings... can't go anywhere these days without your location being tracked online!! In a society of plenty, we have become caged birds and as the generations pass, today's children do not know of the freedom that existed a couple of generations ago... no playing in the streets- they are no longer safe... yet abductions have not actually increased. We are hemmed in by the press coverage on TV, our ever handy phone apps, the need to make money and even the freedom to bring up our own children which has been overtaken by the need to pay the mortgage, hence increased childcare provision.

The question becomes, what tune are we singing in free society? Do we only hear them on X-Factor? JOKE! Are we any more free than some of the African or Aboriginal tribes that have changed comparatively little over the years? What do we need to do to change our lives so that we sing for joy and not for freedom?  We have said before in our series 'Live Life~Love Life' that life is about choices. Making the right choices which suit your lifestyle is probably the closest you will ever come to finding true freedom & a song that comes from the soul!

Jaz McKenzie.

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