On Freedom (poem)
I was appointed High Bard by the Assembly of Nine in Spring 385YE, and took on the High Bard’s responsibilities to promote excellence and passion in performance, to inspire the Senate, and “to embody the artistic spirit of the Empire”.
If it is possible to say anything concrete about the artistic spirit of the Empire, it is that it cannot be a single thing. As well as my own compositions, therefore, I chose to publish an anthology because the spirit of the Empire should be one of Loyalty: of strength that is greater than the sum of its parts. From the battle-choirs of Highguard to the story-circle of Navarr, from the Wintermark scop who brings ancient heroes alive to the Dawnish troubadour inspiring new heroes to win their names, art is a window that lets one soul glimpse another, across nations and through ages.
I chose to make it about freedom because that is a topic on which the Empire’s voices are not in harmony and the discord shows no signs of resolving. Is it Virtuous or misguided to pursue freedom as a cause? Can we even do so? Do we value the idea of freedom too little or too much? Is freedom the same thing as anarchy, or Anarchy? What does it mean for a person or a nation to be free?
These questions are not small: they cut to the heart of the Doctrines of the Way. They are not academic: they are of profound importance to decisions that are being made now about where we should make war, when we should make peace, and how we should govern the territories brought into our borders. It is not trivial, it is not theoretical, and it is not going to go away.
Many of the poems in this book sharply criticise the actions of the Empire, as enacted by the Synod, Senate, Military Council, or all three. Some - in more or less measured terms - call for change to the Doctrines of the Faith. A few profess open support for nations or groups with which the Empire is, or was, at war.
In many nations of the world no poet would dare to write such opinions down, let alone publish them. Here, none of these things are illegal until they pass the point of preaching untested speculation as truth, or of directly providing aid to our enemies. Arguably the existence of this collection is itself a statement about the "dignity, freedom, prosperity" the Empire affords its people.
Yet this same freedom (for want of a better term) that allows art to flourish in the Empire has the side effect that we do not always recognise its worth - the vague feeling that weighty questions of Virtue and politics are not quite art’s business. Why make a poetry anthology about a deeply contentious political divide rather than holding a debate? Why collect poems about a painful theological disagreement and not sermons? Why not?
To go back to where we started: art is a window to another soul, and as such it is beyond anathema to the Cold Sun and all who fear that which is unlike themselves. To put sincere art into the world is by definition an act of Pride that spits in the face of Hatred, and my office gives me both the chance and the responsibility to lift up others to do so.
Some of the poets in these pages are well-practiced. For others, it is the first time they have gathered the Courage to put their words in front of other eyes. All, even together, can condense only a fraction of all the things there might be to say: one mentions in a footnote that even a single line of the poem it is attached to is the distillation of hours of theological debate; others put on the page years or centuries of inward scars or inherited pain. All carry the poet’s name: where a poet’s work speaks to you, I hope you will seek them out to say as much.
The path of Wisdom asks us to Let every word you speak carry meaning. I believe the words in this volume mean a great deal, and I hope that others find as much to consider in them as did I.