freedom

Freedom is not following a river.
Freedom is following a river

...though, if you want to. 

It is deciding now by what happens now.
It is knowing that luck makes a difference.
No leader is free; no follower is free

 ...the rest of us can often be free.
Most of the world are living by
creeds too odd, chancy, and habit-forming

...to be worth arguing about by reason. 

If you are oppressed, wake up about
four in the morning: most places,
you can usually be free some of the time

..if you wake up before other people.

~ William Stafford

 from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems