A Poem: For Life

We are given all we need for life.

We are like trees planted
with water and sun enough,
earth in which to anchor ourselves,
oxygen to breathe.

We are given more than we need.
And the more we release
the less we desire to cleave,
until in lightness we live, readied for uplift.

For not only are we trees planted,
but we are also birds
flocking and roosting,
and rising up with wings outstretched,

not dependent on branches
so much as on the air
that is breathed
and which keeps us buoyant.

We, who are weighted down by things,
are like the ship wrecked
discarding the items
that would sink us.

How we realise everything
we truly need
is already within, and without too,
apart from us.

So there’s nothing in the end
to struggle to achieve or obtain.
Or to carry, as though it were worth
all the strain to bear.

We are already in receipt of,
and drawing down on our inheritance.

Did not the lilies of the field find
themselves arrayed in a splendour
beyond all expectations,
and all just by being?

So we are given
what we need to overflowing,
and then some,
which is ours to give away

in thanksgiving.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2023