Less-is-More

When life is at the dawn of discovery,
Needs are met with ease,
A child’s world
Where wants are satisfied
With the sway of a colorful mobile
Over the crib.
Leaning into the child’s small world
Comes a warm embrace,
A mother’s loving face,
A warm bottle of nourishment
Shelter,
A simple grace.
No yearning for an outside world,
Just basking in the glow of love is more.

But…

As time rolls on and youth makes way
For middle age,
Needs move to center stage,
Become the spotlight glare,
A stage where wants can roil in the draft
Of persuasive coaching coming from the wings.

Business beckons,
Society’s thrall,
Friends,
Family,
The media saturation.

Buy more,
Spend more
Encouraging debt’s silent creep
To become the slavery of wants.

Such a glare,
These performances of media domain,
Selling flickering dreams of life
Where buy buy buy is the endless cry,
Bringing innocent hearts to their knees,
Craving,
Wanting to match,
To beat the others' “haves”
As the urge to obsess on possession
Looks to be an escape from the have-not stress.

Still…

Marketing bangs its drum louder,
Its authoritarian modality becomes ones shroud,
Free will on its knees,
Having so much
While feeling so inadequate,
A hollow life,
A brittle riddle of endless proportions.

To break away
Is to find one’s own desert of vast embrace,
Needing nothing more than his personal kind of backpack,
His house secured atop his shoulders,
His fate free from wants,
From endless chasing,
A walk of slower pace,
Of peace.

In this less-is-more world,
One moves without the chains of desire,
Wishing,
Longing,
Breaking free of a covetous appetite.

Finally…

A soul unbound,
A spirit light,
Smiling with a sigh
In Nature’s arms,
Enjoying a life of freedom
A quiet breeze begetting harmony.