The Caged Bird

Royal Club for Literature and Peace 

The Caged Bird

By - Sarmin Seema

The Caged Bird

By - Sarmin Seema

Date - 6 October 2026

The caged bird remains inside the cage,

while my soul rests its beak upon its bars.

How can I ever break that cage

if, within my own mind,

there are so many invisible chains?

Who will understand me

what has happened to me?

Where have I lost myself,

and where have I found that inner being

who has silently

been searching for me

within my own heart?

Who else is there within my heart

but You?

Everyone comes,

stays for a while like a passing shadow,

then crosses the river of time

and disappears

into the distant unknown.

You have been quietly

making me whole for so long

yet I did not understand.

I begged for wholeness

at the doors of human beings,

while the moment I opened

the door of my own heart,

Your divine light

was already awake

beside me.

I searched for You

in the minarets of mosques,

in the ringing bells of temples,

in the prayers of churches,

in the flowing rivers,

in the leaves of trees,

in the dew of dawn.

Then, one day,

I returned to my own heart

and discovered

You had been there

all along.

I divided humanity

by names,

by caste,

by religion,

by borders;

yet You taught me

that the color of blood

flowing through the human heart

knows no boundaries.

So today I say to the bird

if you wish to fly,

do not merely search

for the door of the cage;

first, recognize

the chains within yourself.

How can you break the cage

if your own inner world

has become a prison?

The day you conquer yourself,

you will discover

the sky was never far away,

your wings were never broken;

it was only fear

that kept you from flying.

“Where are You?”

You are there

in my breath,

in my conscience,

in the tears of another,

in the waiting of the hungry,

in a child’s laughter,

in a mother’s prayer,

in the silence

of a forgiving heart.

Who else is there within my heart

but You?

Even in the depths of the heart

of the one I have called

“the other,”

there lives the pulse of life

that You have given.

I want to free myself

so that I may see humanity free;

I want to light peace

within my own heart

and place

a lamp of peace

within the heart of the world.

And the heart

where the light of truth burns

is itself a boundless sky;

that human being

is the true bird;

and that flight

is the soul’s

true liberation.

documentation : Waffaa Badarneh