Poetic Partner: A Man Who Can’t Be Owned By Anything

He owns no chain of silver shine,

No master’s leash, no grand design.

He walks the world with quiet grace,

A little dirt upon his face.

🍂🍁🍂

He needs so little, wants still less,

His life is lean, his mind a mess

Of thoughts made clean by sweat and rain,

By silence, hunger, loss, and gain.

🍂🍁🍂

Three days he spent with breath alone,

No voice, no sound, no ringing phone.

Then thirty more with weary feet,

Ten miles a day through cold and heat.

🍂🍁🍂

The roads were long, the blisters burned,

But strength was found, and limits learned.

For how can one grow fierce and true,

If one knows not what one can do?

🍂🍁🍂

He eats for fuel, he drinks for need,

He plants a thought instead of greed.

The sugar sings, he does not heed,

For discipline’s his favourite creed.

🍂🍁🍂

He sees the world in humble things,

The way a bird will test its wings,

An old pair walking hand in hand,

Two gentle souls who understand.

🍂🍁🍂

He watched one grey and quiet day

As squirrels dragged his seeds away.

The sky was dull, the ground was wet,

But peace had found his heart, and yet

He smiled, for life was sweet and small,

And he had learned to love it all.

🍂🍁🍂

He sees the rhythm, hears the rhyme,

The pulse that beats through space and time.

The trees exhale, the man breathes in,

The tide retreats, his thoughts begin.

🍂🍁🍂

The sand will scour, the salt will heal,

The mountain turns his thoughts to steel.

The world around, the world within,

Are not apart, but next of kin.

🍂🍁🍂

He owns no thing that owns him back,

No painted crown, no gilded track.

His gold’s the sun, his cloak’s the rain,

His wealth is peace instead of pain.

🍂🍁🍂

He knows his worth, his weight, his speed,

He tracks his truth, not lust or greed.

For men count coins and charts and fame,

Yet never learn their own true name.

🍂🍁🍂

So let them chase and let them buy,

He’ll simply live, and laugh, and try.

For he who needs the smallest part

Will always hold the largest heart.

🍂🍁🍂

He walks in calm, he walks in light,

He sleeps in peace each humble night.

He carries little, yet he brings

The joy of owning not a thing.

🍂🍁🍂

I hope you enjoyed this poem! This is what I call a ‘poetic partner,’ which is a pretty way of telling you it’s derived from one of my thought pieces published elsewhere on vocal. If you’d like to read the full piece, you’ll find it here: