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Poetry About Greed

Greed is the hunger that eating can never satisfy. It is a hole in the soul that we try to fill with things - gold, land, power, approval. These poems examine the corrosive nature of avarice, how it blinds us to the true value of the world.

From the dragon guarding its hoard to the modern accumulation of wealth at the expense of the earth, greed isolates and consumes. It turns people into commodities and forests into lumber, leaving behind a wasteland of 'mine'.

Featured Poems

The Golden Touch

The classic tragedy of wanting too much.

I wished for the world to shine, and now it does, cold and hard and dead. My daughter is a statue, a perfect, priceless thing that will never laugh again.
I cannot eat, for the bread clangs against my teeth like a coin. I am the poorest man alive, surrounded by everything I asked for.

- Midas Junior

More

The word that never ends.

It starts with a seed, a small want. Then a garden, then a field, then the neighbor's field. The fence moves outward until the horizon is the only boundary.
But even then, looking at the curve of the earth, the hunger whispers: "What about the moon?"

- Ivan More

The Collector

Surrounded by stuff, empty inside.

My house is full of beautiful things. Vases from periods I can't pronounce, paintings of people I don't know. They sit on shelves, gathering dust and envy.
I walk through the rooms like a curator of my own tomb. Everything is mine, and yet, I possess nothing. The things own me.

- Penny Hoard

Classic Voices

The World Is Too Much With Us

by William Wordsworth (1807)

A critique of materialism disconnecting us from nature.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Avarice

by George Herbert (1633)

A metaphysical examination of greed.

Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe, Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine? I know thy parentage is base and low: Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine.

Micro Verses

He counted his coins until his fingers turned grey, and missed the sunset giving gold away.

- Poor Rich Man

The hand that is tight can hold nothing new. Open it up, let the world through.

- Giver

Greed is drinking salt water to quench thirst.

- Sailor

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

- Grave Digger

Deeper Explorations

Corporate Greed

Modern avarice.

The Bottom Line

Numbers on a screen, green arrows going high, while the river turns black and the fish float by.

- C.E. Oh

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