Here’s a poem by my friend Caroline Donnola:

I don’t want to live a tamped down life

Suffocating inside the lines

Breathing only from time to time

A coming together of must and should.

 

A formal, deadly,

Tightly-designed

Mixture of numbness

And reserve

Where emotions are pre-ordained

In priestly strands

That sit upright, and sometimes walk

But cannot stand.

 

How to break free

I do not know

But we can still mark time

If we improvise the notes

If we jam, not knowing the score.

There is jazz to be gained

There is painting to be waged

There is color

Glorious color

To be drunk

And new kinds of feelings to be played.