By Huck Fairman
We live on a planet both large and small.
There is so much, as we know, to it all.
So much has chance and nature made
to which we add what each can fashion,
what we too eagerly have displayed,
through our arts and imperatives
of acquisition.
Yes, all our stuff through ages,
across the continents, upon the pages,
does accumulate,
until the planet seems to stumble
beneath the piling up of every kind of thing,
under our increasing rubble,
which our species through the ages
seems innately to want to double.
It seems our ever hungry, collecting souls
cling to expanding lists of possessions
that appear to please appetites and selves.
So it is that in our world of wonders
people succumb to expanding greed
and other blunders as they seek some purpose
for their lives,
which too often means adding items
to the lists of what they already have.
Many find satisfaction through increasing wealth,
even if it sometimes seems to stunt
their mental health.
Too many proceed by cutting trees,
pumping oil despite our warming seas,
polluting rivers, paving land, killing bees,
leaving us with conditions the world we know
won’t long survive.
It’s sad so many focus on acquiring stuff,
when it’s pretty clear we have enough.
But our cultures have not provided
sufficient understanding
of what fulfills our souls.
Too many think it’s simply filling holes,
with objects large and small,
pleasing selves by filling shelves.
Instead, clichéd though it is,
exchanging love and helping one another
our neighbor and our brother,
brings us true fulfillment, and survival.
It’s not embracing the material life,
misguiding us to empty living,
where competition too often
brings us strife.
If we would only recognize
that we already have
the most miraculous prize:
that in this corner of the universe
our planet’s existence defies
the frozen emptiness
beyond our skies, of what astronomy all but cries.
All we really need to do, is help each other
preserve the planet that we have.
Everything we need is right here,
if we’d moderate our lust and acquisitions,
and learn to share, all for all – the greater good,
live as Lincoln said we should,
as our better angels truly would.
