PAD Challenge - Day 21 - Chaotic Simplicity

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt was to write a back to basics poem. I rather liked the idea. I've been on a quest to simplify my life for a while now. I've discovered I need much less than I once thought I did not only to survive but to be happy. The boundaries between simple and complex have a tendency to blur...

Here's my back to basics poem...

Chaotic Simplicity

I wanted more
Always more
More wasn’t enough
Filled the empty spaces
Overflowed the filled places
Stuffed more in to the excess
Until chaos ensued
Numbing the voids within
With stuff I forgot I had
Looking for more and more
Buying every opportunity offered
Trying to find something that mattered
Fooled myself into thinking I needed more
Every time I gave away unneeded item after item
Packed up a house full of material things
Purged the unnecessary yet again
Convinced myself I lived simply
Only buying exactly what I needed and nothing more
Throwing away outdated food from the pantry
Giving away boxes of indulgences never opened
Recycling paper galore
Felt like losing an outer dirty skin
Seeking to find an inner peace
I’d surrounded myself with chaos
As I pealed back the layers
I saw a pain no material item could comfort
I felt a disconnect no material item could connect
I understood numbness leads to atrophy
As I began to move
The excess fell away
I saw myself in the chaos
I released my need for material security
Discovered I complicated the simple and
Simplified the complicated
Surrounding myself with material goods
A blanket turned from comforting to suffocating
I sought a simpler lifestyle in the midst of chaos
Perhaps someday I’ll stand firmly in the midst of simplicity
T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

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