James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

The Hierarchy of Needs

(“The Mothership”, 2024, photo collage of original encaustics)

The Hierarchy of Needs

In this world there is a hierarchy of need.
Of course it’s different for each of us.
Some just want to get ahead,
Some to get laid,
Or to score.
Some just want to be left alone.

I’m kind of in that last group
But I also have other priorities
And those are what comes after any hierarchy.

So what might those be?

The question really becomes 
What is the nature of this world
And it’s natural hierarchies?

Food, sex, shelter, connection, 
Self esteem and realization
But those are all within the pyramid,
That while leading ever upward
Never really leaves the ground.

What is it that transcends this sense of worldly need,
Transcends all we crave and strive for?

The word that come most readily to mind
Is space.
Space is what we find when we step off the top
And enter into that which is actually another dimension.

It may sound cool or far out perhaps,
But it isn’t.
It’s just what is when we step out of ourself,
Out of our mind, and
Into what has always been
Like the warm embrace of a lover
Or parent, or comforting scent of home.

Each of us are lost children
And each of us know that scent of home
Even if we don’t know.

The hierarchy of needs is what keeps us bound
To the wheel,
The wheel nothing more than a hamster’s habit.

Are you really a hamster?

I didn’t think so.

(8/31/25)

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