Free

Free

Born free
to be caught
and fashioned
and shaped
and freed to wander
within
a caged dream
of tears

From  New Poems on the Underground

Edited by Gerard Benson, Judith  Chernaik, Cicely Herbert.

Merle Collins
(born 1950 in Aruba) is a Grenadian poet and short story writer.
Her first collection of poetry, Because the Dawn Breaks, was published in 1985, at which time she was a member of African Dawn, a performance group combining poetry, mime and African music and a second collection of poetry, Rotten Pomerack, in 1992. A review of her 2003 poetry collection, Lady in a Boat, states: “Ranging from poems reveling in the nation language of her island to poems that capture the beauty of its flora, Collins presents her island and people going about the business of living. They attempt to come to terms with the past and construct a future emerging out of the crucible of violence.