The Cages We Built

The Cages We Built talks about the freedom of love and the cage of mental struggles The Cages We Built is a book that openly talks about one's emotional vulnerability and the freedom and right we all have to give and receive love, to be love. But, since this book is written from my personal experiences, it also talks about the things that get us to that point of love. Those ugly scars that make us and the journey of a depressed mind that still leads one to the light. These are the mental cages of life, specifically depression. Not only is its rate increasing but people are bottling up their emotions with drugs and social media more and more and people need to see that it's okay to openly talk about those 'ugly parts' of us. They still make us the beautiful people we are now who deserve love and whose legacy, at least in part, should be about the freedom brought about from the cages of the mind broken free that once suffocated our human experience. It's divided into three chapters; freedom, rebellion and the war. Freedom is a section of poems that joyfully celebrate love and intimacy and highlight the madness drunk in the cup of love. In rebellion, the poems rebel against mistreatment in love and appreciation of oneself as enough as a source of love rebelling against the societal idea of love. Lastly, the war is composed of difficult poems written during the height of the said depression. They show the clear different mental states of a depressed person when in love and, of a self-loving person when in love. They give more life to the right to experience love in all its flames by showing a contrast of the life lived before and telling the story of that life in rhyme. That is why, to summarize, the book talks about passion and depression as written on the cover.***Ain't what's bad supposed to eventually leave you alone? All along I've had me Happy me and sad me Ain't what's good supposed to eventually find in you a home?Don't fall for the pretending of things When they go wrong, it's not what it seems Don't shrivel your throat with silent screamsSilence is enlightening but sometimes it dims I am learning to fall And what it means to fly I am learning to let goOf what doesn't want to be mine I am kissing myself In a calm breeze I am finally able To anticipate my most intimate needs