Unless you see your chains you're not free
Unless you see your flesh you're not spirit
And unless spirit and soul mutually see
You cannot know there's Another in your midst

Unless you are silent and still
You cannot feel the gentle wind
Nor hear its whispering song
Nor discern it's voice in the harmony, or dissonance

That knowing freedom is beyond the door
Suffices not that you get up and walk
For there must be light and you've eyes to see
And you're not chained nor door's a devious trap
To tempt an escape to increase the sin
And fear whispering of uncertainties
Of vast unknowns and stranger unseen yet
And perhaps the door leads to just more doors
Better well-fed and cared-for but a slave
Then free, hungry and lost, and soon all dead
For freedom is for the living and free

Bound
by Michael R. Burch, circa age 14-15

Now it is winter—the coldest night.
And as the light of the streetlamp casts strange shadows to the ground,
I have lost what I once found
in your arms.

Now it is winter—the coldest night.
And as the light of distant Venus fails to penetrate dark panes,
I have remade all my chains
and am bound.

Published as “Why Did I Go?” in my high school journal the Lantern in 1976. I have made slight changes here and there, but the poem is essentially the same as what I wrote in my early teens.

in the end, I am declared
guilty

to be free from the chains of contrivance
to finally rely on noble companions
from facade to its truths
born flowers will bore fruit

to be requested release
and to forever deny its reprise

to be loved, and finally to love
and matters not that never mattered
past chains perish, and the future followed
as warm as the sun
forever cursed to bear the fervor

to be chained,

to be denied and drought
as I have done to he
as the moon without its sun

at the start, the only crime committed
was being me

I see
the roses
in you, the
delicate
petals of
of being
human,
the thorns
of us have
broken
the chains,
our feathers
glide when
darkness
once
wished
to down
the soar
of our
wings,
feathers
glide from
loud howls,
floating
up to the
place we
call truth.

To fly above the white clouds,
Walk on the moon.
Dance with the stars,
Step out of your comfort zone.

To astonish the world with your creativity,
Fulfil your dreams with great accomplishments,
Stay productive, stand out among the crowds,
Break through the chains of your comfort zone.

Your pains, sorrows, and wounds my friend are
Your bridge to a breathtaking life, 
Full of hope, adventures, and excitement,
With a new dawn, and a new day!

Hussein Dekmak

biled catacomb of
thoughts grip my soul in darkest
chains which can be loosed

"In a time where the only time
someone gives an honest blessing
Is after you sneeze

But even then,

They're only doing it
out of a heightened instinct
Rather than actual genuineness."

"Maybe if we were keenly
focused on self change
Adopting change;
letting go of your chains

But many;

Want to pray for change
but never spare a cent towards it."

"And a blind fool
works himself till they bleed

But;

Only takes it as sweat;
never seeing all they've spent
On all they've lost;
trying to build a better tomorrow
With the problematic chains of yesterday."

              So is it Change or Chains?