Freedom And Necessity Poem by Dennis Ryan

Thursday, April 11,2019 at 3: 06 p.m.; revised on Monday night,
September 26 at 9: 45 p.m.

Freedom or necessity—every situation dictates
a choice of one or the other, of abiding by constraints
or rejecting them, setting new standards for ourselves.
The greater the willingness to change, the greater
the tolerance of conflict, external, internal, both,
every change in life having a price tag. Who was
I yesterday, and who am I today, and how much
time has elapsed in the interim? We change.
We pay this price for every change we make,
for each choice chosen to remake ourselves,
our lives, in this garden of good and evil.