There is great power
In the act of limiting
The ingredients
Of our creativity.
Bounds amplify art.
The great shapers knew:
Harmony comes from balance,
Relating fixed forms
In patterns through time and space.
Melodies from scales,
Awakenings on canvas
Born from fixed palettes.
Our minds are the bounds
Limiting each new frontier…
But art shines within.
Reflecting the eternal
Creative power.
~r
There is so much about this piece that I enjoy. For starters, the overall theme of how structure and confinement can create a space where art and creativity can flourish, is one that greatly speaks to me. I often retreat back to the safety-net and creative-springboard that is the haiku. Especially in times when I am feeling the most frozen with writer’s block, I find that organizing my thoughts into a 5-7-5 stanza does a lot to force me back into the world of wordplay. It is both comforting and challenging to work within that degree of limitation, and I like that your entire poem here plays off that duality. I love your imagery of the canvas, or of scales, and how all art is about taking a vast experience or emotion and trying to capture within a structure that is known and condensed. But then you use this concept, and use your structure play off the familiar to create something new! With 5-7-5 as your muse, I love how you organize alternating 5-7-5 syllable lines into 3 stanzas, made up of 5-7-5 lines per stanza respectively. It is a fantastic example of using structure to highlight your theme, and theme to justify your structure. Well done! This is one of my favs!