Jighjigh Tersoo-Ivase ’13 has won the top prize at the Worcester County Poetry Association’s College Poetry Competition. This is the second year in a row a WPI student has grabbed this local poetry accolade. Tersoo-Ivase read his poems “We Are Not Free Men” and “I Walked On,” and won out of a competitive group which included students from Assumption, Clark, Holy Cross, and Worcester State for the performance prize. Read one of his winning poems below.
We Are Not Free Men
We are not free men
But what is freedom?
What is that fruit of revolution that we seek to evolve to?
That we might revolve on a spindle of clear conscience.
To some it’s a wish fulfilled
To some, a mindless kiss
***We are not free men***
Our lives are intertwined
Into the lives of other lives
In this puddle of life
I please you
Would displease
Him
Would encourage
Her
Would discourage
You
I love her
Means I can’t love you
At least not in the same way
***We are not free men***
We shout out!
We want to do that we want to do!
We want to follow our desires
Explore the view
But why I’m unhappy now?
It’s because of you.
I still don’t wish I was the only man in the world
***We are not free men***
We lie, we hide
We deceive, we abide
Because we fear the effect of our truth
The effect our truth may have on the other
***We are not free men***
So giving up this life
He gave himself to please those
Who believe in him
And by doing so
Though he believed in himself
Could not express that belief
Through any action
But he will not attempt to change a choice
“unfreely” made
For though the illusion of free-will
Might think it otherwise
No choice is freely made
***We are not free men***
Learn more about the Worcester County Poetry Association here:
