Saturday, September 20, 2014

THE SECRET TO NOT BEING GREEDY IS DON'T BE GREEDY



TELL ME AGAIN…WHAT I NEED TO WANT
I’ve never known money,
paper and metal parsed out
as the articles of worth, exchange, value,
a way to account or keep score. I suppose.
But I never met money,
had a conversation
over a bottle of bourbon
with money or its brother cash.
(Although I would have not minded having one
with Johnny Cash, while rocking some hours away).

I wonder if I am missing out on a part of living
by having more than I need,
not wanting more than I have.
I heard money could show me what I don’t have
but then I’ve also been told that the more I see,
the more I need, and the more I need,
the more I must meet what I have never met
to get what I see, that I don’t really need.

Unless of course I’m just confused;
really need more than I want.
Like a longer porch,
I’d like a longer covered porch
with a rocking chairs where I could sit
and rock over the notion while in motion
about all the other things I’ve never met.
Like a bullet in flight,
I’ve never been valuable enough to either side
to have met one of those.

Looking back over the years of never mets
it seems that when they come to mind the never mets
all fall into the category
of what others tell me I need to want.
Nobody ever told me I wanted a longer porch,
I just think it’d be nicer
to be able to rock in the rain without getting wet.

© M Durfee
9.20.2014

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hey I went and looked at your blog, a bit of a tart I agree but evil? Naw simply one who likes to pop!


      Be Well Red.

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  2. Ah, to rock in the rain without getting wet. So says it.

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    1. MY dream Barbara. Just to watch the water fall to the earth and think of its destiny from the point it hits.

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  3. yeah, no one ever tells you the important things. They assume you know.

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    1. Charles I have no knowledge of needs or wants, that I was born with. Yet at some point in time the knowledge of them was born within me, and the overcoming of that knowledge is for some a lifetimes struggle.

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  4. There are people who call it "green frost" and treat it like Kryptonite. The root of all evil, after all.

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    1. I don't know Alice if money is evil, but the more you have the more you can see and the more you see the more you convince yourself you need. What's the difference between a new Bentley and a new Ford? They both serve the same purpose and they both break with the same frequency?

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  5. Sometimes it really sucks having to play in some one else's sand box because you don't have your own, doesn't it? Well, come over to mine ... I'll share with you ... any day ... :) Love, cat.

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    1. OH but Meowmomma i do have a sandbox, it may be filled with tacks and broken glass but I've learned to play in it just the same. Now if you have a long porch with 2 rocking chairs then...I'm in.

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  6. i like this A LOT. beautifully written, economical, and beautifully executed, as a critic would say.

    gets me thinking, mark, ' i need to want.' and to personify the brothers money and cash--very clever. I don't think this poem could be improved upon.

    love
    kj

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  7. Thank you for those kind words kj. Although you're the first to ever call my language economical. ;-[)

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  8. Mark, it's not the money we have but how we let it affect us. The Keys casa has a covered porch and I have sat and watched many a storm come across the bay. xo

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So Walking Man I was thinking...