Prison and poetry

I'm beginning to think I'm not made for blogging. I am working on a long, detailed, difficult post about Synecdoche (the Charlie Kaufman film), and you know, long and blog aren't really meant for each other. But I am not good at pithy. I did see this article, however, and it warmed my heart (on this very cold Midwest morning):
Shakespeare in prison

It's about some Indiana inmates who are reading and performing Shakespeare. The videos are being shown to "youths at risk". One inmate, life-sentenced for a murder, is performing in Romeo and Juliet:

Newton, 32, said reading and studying Shakespeare has already taught him a lot.

"I kind of direct the sail in my life," he said. "I get to determine what my life means, what I do with it, how I feel about it. I'm in control."

This reminded me of course of the Lovelace poem, which I read recently again in my poetry study group:

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage;

If I have freedom in my love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above

Enjoy such liberty.

Richard Lovelace 1618 - 1657

Liberty in art?
Alicia (back to long post revision)