Solutions: An environmental ditty

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.