THE BIG QUESTIONS, 10: LITTLE QUESTIONS? (WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS IN A SOCIETY? IS THERE SUCH A THING AS SOCIETY? AM I FREE?

This is Poem #10 in my series of poem responses to the Big Questions posed by philosophers, scientists, and even "village cranks", to celebrate National Poetry Month (NaPoMo, April 2013). Is there such as a thing as society? What are my rights in this society? Am I free? What does it mean to be free?

 

LITTLE QUESTIONS?

Is there such a thing as Society? What are my Rights? Am I free?---Simon Blackburn, The Big Questions, Philosophy*
 

There must be a little door

that will not end in a room.
Space is all. Is there an end
to these rooms? An exit
into a free space all my own?

I require a room-less door

to step out of when leaving
would finally mean being
unbound, no walls to fence me
in, no house to shackle a home.

For what would a sky be for?

Why would suns set over hills?
Suns rise from the edge of seas?
Why do springs expand to falls?
Why is beauty is own excuse?

Whence come this splendour,

what does it mean for a flower
to bloom? When all questions
have been answered, where
ends he whose end is a question?

Or are answers simply next door?

--- ALBERT B. CASUGA


*Simon Blackburn, The Big Questions, Philosophy, "Am I Free? (Choices and Responsibility)?". pp. 28 etseq., "Is There Such a Thing as Society? (The individual and the group), pp. 66 etseq.. Quercus Publishing Plc, London, UK, 2009.