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True Creativity
Invention.
Training in the apparatuses of creation
and a vision of the blueprints
is all one needs.
Yet our toolbox also creates limits.
Convenience and rigidity become synonymous
as the craftsman is forced to build using another's technique.
Poetry.
Language, cultivated in one's mind as part of a millenia long tradition,
a frame of reference for sharing imaginations flowing with ideas
is all one needs.
Each word a tool -
yet can a saw cut steel?
blueprints can build what tools can't make
Each word a tool -
versatile, expanding hand's dexterity,
but limiting what we build to what tools can imagine,
the soul’s true meaning lost in translation.
Every problem becomes a nail as apathy chooses ease over idea.
True creativity is raw.
Even so, the ultimate tragedy is this:
A missing tool halts invention entirely,
and factories can only reproduce the familiar
Many inventions never come to fruition as a consequence of a missing tool
and inventions must be shared,
keeping us trapped in this prison of language.
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Sometimes I have had trouble expressing thoughts I have to others, as I'm sure most people do. It got me thinking about how it is often hard to translate the raw thoughts and ideas of the mind into words that can be shared. When we go through this process, the ideas become more concrete and easier to share, yet we also lose something. Words are merely an approximation of the thoughts we have.
In addition, over the past years in school I have learned spanish as a second language and it has taught me a lot about how the words we use shapes what we value and how we percieve the world. For example, in the language of the Inuit I found out that there are over 200 words for different types of snow! This allows them to desribe nuances in snow that someone from a hot climate isn't able to distinguish or even possibly understand.
Those were the two main inspirations for this poem. I have never written a poem before, and was kinda forced to for my English class, but it was well worth it and through writing this it has helped me to understand the value of poetry.