Poets always find more to Nourish
Them among their Fables than rich
People have among their Treasures²
Abandon Possessions and look for Life –
Despise worldly Goods and Save your Soul³
To count a person’s Wealth – you must first
Know the state of their Conscience and Health⁴
The Setting Sun is reflected on the windows of the
Alms-House as brightly as the Rich Man’s Abode⁵
Pay: you get Ripped off – Free: you get it All⁶
Within be Fed – Without be Rich No More⁷
The Sufficiency that comes from knowing
What is Enough is an Eternal Sufficiency⁸
When a person Dies – they Clutch in
Their hands: only that which they’ve
Given away during their Lifetime⁹
‘Tis Little I could care for Pearls
Who own the Ample Sea¹⁰
¹ Bias of Priene tr. original, quoted by Cicero
² Giovanni Boccaccio tr. Wayne Rebhorn, The Decameron
³ The Epic of Gilgamesh tr. N.K. Sandars
⁴ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Lifting and Leaning
⁵ Henry David Thoreau, Walden
⁶ Bill Hicks, Revelations
⁷ William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLVI
⁸ Lao Tzu tr. Charles Muller, Tao Te Ching 46
⁹ Jean-Jacques Rousseau tr. unknown, Confessions
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, ‘Tis Little I – Could Care for Pearls