Anonymity’s Joy
by Odin Roark

Walking through a surreal forest
where abundance not yet pruned of its integrity,
blooms a oneness pondering the sunlight
as it continues its respectful hide and seek,
the mind’s play with shade and light.

Even as “out there” encroachment drifts ever closer,
leaving behind that which once grew from roots,
long nourished by natures faithful bright and dark presence,
notoriety opts to become man's produce
a questionable harvest of covetous want.

Unfortunately…

Few know the dichotomy of society’s labels,
where fame and anonymity start as mere seedlings
sprouting from life’s innocent Petri dish
chancing absorption into polluted flesh of greed
or the ever-sharing breath of munificence.

What price must be paid
for convoluted lust of want,
once rendered by life's moisture,
mind's growth now worshiped as mist
from ambition’s narcissistic fog?

Will our children always strain
to see life’s vapid forest for the trees,
as its rapidly disappearing shade
makes inhospitable and barren the now seared,
once organic, rich, carpet of opportunity and self realization?

And what of these aspirant landfills,
where discarded dreams,
once of passion,
once of thought,
once of purpose,
now languor,
as “pushed” crumpled envelopes
waste and human-rodent invested greed.

Will our youth too be harrowed under
by the soul mover’s blade,
left to reach up through dusty residue
for that which was denied their work as well,
basic acknowledgment to encourage better effort,
worthy of respect?

Beware of fame and fortune’s price,
for labels of success care little of sunrise or sunset,
only the protective armor of conceit
that risks blackening the soul’s ether
into dark clouds to suffocate the light.

Wisdom knows constructive creation
is all that matters.

To remember what,
not who,
is the Nirvana of the mind…
and the heart, if open.

Lest we forget…

Namelessness never stoops to conquer,
only its work to elevate others to the level
of universal identity…
anonymity’s joy personified.