This gentle poem speaks of the failures of greed and the unnecessary pursuit of riches, when all around are wonders that are free. Alice Walker must have been something of a hippy.

We Alone

We alone can devalue gold

by not caring

if it falls or rises

in the marketplace.

Wherever there is gold there is a chain, you know,

and if your chain

is gold

so much the worse

for you.

Feathers, shells

and sea-shaped stones

are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:

to love what is plentiful

as much as

what’s scarce.

Alice Walker

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