How little I need

On a drive
Through the beautiful mountains
Of a third-world country

I visited
Many towns and villages
Where people lived in what I called poverty

The more I drove
The more I realized how much I have
But how little of it I need

Change

Even the old

familiar

roads change

So must I

along with them

or become lost

Oh, the places I can go
When all I bring
Is imagination
And a little inspiration…

I found this map
Of Cassiopeia
Fourth planet circling
Alpha Andromedae

With instructions
For activating
The wormhole
At Stonehenge

Ah, if only I had
The time and patience
Of Nature’s paintbrush
The glories I could create

In this precious slice
Of time allotted
I record her beauty
With all my skill

Sometimes
The way seems impassable
Formidable barriers
Impenetrable walls

But I stand here, now
Beyond so many
Impassable barriers
All along the way

Stone tells a story
Of a vast sea
Millions of years old
Millions of years ago

Layer upon layer
Of silt
Of time
Accumulating

Patterns in the stone
Regular and irregular

In form
In structure
In colour
In time

Beauty pens her poetry
Deftly in the nature of things

In the dry
I am not thirsty
In the heat
I am not too warm

In the sand
I dig in roots
In the sun
I bask in life

I spend some time
In a place like this
A place which strips away

Pretense
Distraction
Aggrandisement
Avarice

I find my presence
In the present

And in that presence
Is love

In the cool grey
Of a cloudy afternoon
The air so still
Even the birds respect the silence

In repose
I reflect
On the day that has been
On the day to come

Until
Like the birds
I respect the silence
Let my mind go still