I Choose to Choose

And I choose to dance into freedom

I choose to flit from the hand that caught me. I choose perspicuous flight. I choose to choose — to crack open my third blind eye.

to fasten my ankles, my feet parallel to fold under the pressure

of my own free will.

My joints loose, to angle my knees, the point of my compass, at 90 degrees

To arrange my legs into delicate position: an imperfect dégagé

to throw myself from open palm —

and for a moment I am frozen in a grand jeté.

~A poem written by Chloe Paulina Hawes

Thank you, Carolyn Hastings, for inviting me to complete this prompt! Carolyn’s “I Choose" poem can be found below. She is quite talented and her work is very engaging and pleasing to read, so check it out, along with her other creations!

I also want to thank and give a shout out to Sahil Patel. Sahil Patel initiated the popular “I Choose” prompt, and taking a few minutes of your time to check out his work is definitely worth it. Anyone is free to participate in the prompt. The prompt has few “rules,” and simply asks you to write a piece on the topic of personal choice, hence “I Choose".

Sahil Patel — click his name and you’ll be directed to his page, and to his inspirational “I Choose” poem.

I invite William J Spirdione, Svetlana Smith, Kristie Darling, Somsubhra Banerjee, kurt gasbarra, Priyanka Srivastava, Penofgold, R. Rangan PhD, Lori Lamothe, Jay Squires, Muhammad Nasrullah Khan, and Rolli ☕ https://ko-fi.com/rolliwrites to participate in this unrestricted “challenge,” because you are all lovely writers and lovely people. Even if you end up not publishing the piece, just give it a shot and see what comes!

Thanks to ILLUMINATION for hosting my poem, I Choose to Choose. I am grateful for everything the editors and other writers and contributors do at ILLUMINATION, which is a fantastic publication.