Freedom Song (Excerpt)

I

Freedom’s truest, most poignant utterance,
The death scene of William Wallace portrayed
By Mel Gibson, in nineteen ninety five,
In a film called, “Braveheart. Viewers entranced,
Watched the guts torn from a man, so betrayed,
Who gave his life that his dream should not die.
Valiant stalwarts step forward to declare
A devotion to life and liberty,
Freedom held to by such as make us sigh,
As William Wallace, revolutionaire,
“FREEDOM!” cried.


IV

“Madam Chairperson, if I may speak first.
Colleagues and distinguished guests of honor
Give me a moment to say I favor
Freedom. It keeps us from hunger and thirst.
And as freedom rings clearly, though bombs burst
All about us, we may stand strong on our
Pledge and fight on to the final hour,
And ferret out the enemy we cursed.

Dear colleagues, my friends and adversaries ,
May we all keep the tenets of Freedom
And may each of us remember our charge.

Let us not leave them counting rosaries,
As beads pass between their fingers and thumb
So go the options for them living large.”


IX

“They’re on a lunch break. It’s been a morning
Of eloquent speech-making, but who cares?
With some it’s more than midnight oil burning.

When the talks end, we make a choice that dares
Anyone to find fault or make complaints
For we hosted a debate that compares

How each of the separate freedoms paints
The scenes that dominate the Freedom Song,
Free, without limitations or constraints.

But we must this day decide which freedom
Ranks higher than the others in order
And determine which gets less attention

As we go to our talks please keep in mind
When you leave don’t leave anything behind.”


XI

With conversations and much hand shaking
The speakers went all around the table.
The great room is empty, no one making
Small talk, talking politics, unable

to recall a single word, the silence
Plucked the day. They’ve crossed the old field and fence
Days have passed. Now it’s done, their task revealed
That Freedom alone stood higher, undefiled

By all attempts to divide and conquer
Universal Freedom, the Right to live
Without fear, and all the others, we have
Decided that all of the freedoms are

Equal, as with the votes of suffrage.
And folks raised a statue in their image.


Michael Schultz © December 29, 2011


The full version of this sonnet sequence poem is comprised of

4,942 words
658 lines
47 Sonnets
12 Sonnet Styles