Basic Needs Poems | Examples

The Ugliness of Money

Why do so many not have enough
    for their most basic needs

While others have more
    than they can ever spend

They can’t take it with them in the end

Kvetching

If all your basic needs are met,
Your bills are paid, no cause to fret,
Whatever food you want, you’ll get – 
It’s then you can be kvetching.

For if you have no place to sleep
And hunger makes you want to weep,
The only thoughts your mind can keep
Might deal with budget stretching.

It takes some chutzpah to complain
When others’ lives are filled with pain,
Yet human nature can’t refrain
From some entitled retching.

Heaven and Earth Will Pass

Scattered without wind
as though on wings
gmo seeds
land on lava rocks
and icy hills
will there be spring?
Aged old wheel
shooting double
beams
lowers lid on eye
turning noon 
to night
will dawn glow pink?
Battered old earth
shaking parched lap
vomits lava out
of its dragons' 
mouths
birds stop singing
trees in ashes weeping
Midas ego king
deprived of 
basic needs
turns fragile wits
to instincts of beasts
darkness without
darkness within
how dark will be night
without Jesus' light
at the flash of His beam 
darkness will flee
uncreated Sun
a new day will begin
for those who have kept
lamp of love lit.

Honorable Mention: Brian Strand: A Feb 2025 Posted Poem-2/23/25

Becoming a Dog

Like in the depths of summer
There is a dogs days of winter
When inside is the best place to be
And dogs just want to lay around sleeping

The older I get the more like them I become
Contented to sit and read, go for daily walks
And eat; not necessarily in that order
And the happier I am just doing nothing

It’s not tough being such a dog
With all my basic needs met
There are advantages to becoming old after all
Like simply waking to another day

(1/5/25)

Thanks Giving Day

Thanksgiving Day comes this one day a year
A simple reminder
To enjoy the simplest things in life
The nourishment of basic needs
Of family and friends (food and football!)
In whatever passes for community,
Be it small or large, 
Limited to just one
Or extended across generations.

It’s a holy day but one that embraces all faiths
Reminding us to keep the faith
In what has provided for us 
- Be it Earth or God, Self or other -
And what we have to live for,
For each of us have our own lives to be thankful for
No matter how painful or challenging they be
Thankful for our parents 
And all the lives before
Leading up to today.

A day that can be any day
We live in thanks.

(11/28/24)

The Gift

A gust of wind
Blew through my door
Placing gently on the floor
A gift from Mother Nature’s store
Such beauty, such delicacy
Woven by the burly tree
Made me stop.
Made me ponder
Then take stock
To see such wonder
A perfect master of design
From base to apex, so divine
And yet this tiny, feathered blade
Has toiled through life
Its one-year age
To serve its host with basic needs
For mighty trees depend on leaves
And now its labour is all done
At the cooling of the sun
It’s discarded easily
Yet still yields its energy
The endless cycle spirals on
Because its work is not yet done
As worms begin their arduous toil
Turning leaves to rich, moist soil
The tree takes strength and so it weaves
Perfectly recycled leaves.

Everything Except His Love

"I Am as I Am complete
Though ego opines otherwise
Invoking grace we feel God’s heartbeat 
What else does there remain for us to realize"



Once you have truly felt the heart of God 
there is no emotion on earth 
that can ever match it! 

Not the flight of Angels nor the joys of heaven  
Not the human touch nor your basic needs
nothing can ever appease you
like the love of your God; 
  
Without the seat of His soul,  
you own nothing substantial to sit on;  

Once you have realized this simple truth,  
nothing remains to be seen, its all illusion * 
  
When it comes to pass,  
everything shall perish, 
everything except, His undying love for you.

Just Me

I’m ok being amethyst alone
No one to share my  humble home with
I guess I do miss a kiss
But is that lust or just
Just an infatuation to resist

I think I’m too selfish to love him
And at the same time like many
I’m self sacrificing because
We are given dolls to care for as girls
Taught to nurture the whole world
Yet never given permission to be
A recipient of the same emerald energy

Never taught that boy who hits you
Has no right phuck that HE LIKES YOU 
Never taught to get out your head
That girls want more than to be fed

The hard years of my life I was alone
The odd years of strife solitude was a throne
Sure I have basic needs
But that comes goes with burgundy breeze

I’m ok being alone with myself
I’m not so bad I am just and fair
And if God sent Prince Charming now
I’d send him packing at the next town

Not that I don’t believe God 
Just that I have peace at heart
Why add to my serenity 
When I’m ok alone with just me

Not Really Very Much

What do people really need
To live a life that’s guaranteed
To let them blossom and succeed?
Not really very much.

A home they like and clothes to wear,
Some friends and family who care,
A job or craft with time to spare
And Nature’s gentle touch.

If all the basic needs are met,
With war or sickness not a threat,
There shouldn’t be a cause to fret,
Yet most require a crutch.

Band of Brothers

Bonded by basic needs, so to speak,
Canine cliques congregate for a leak; 
Not hard to foresee -
Neighbour’s only tree -
Scoop by scoop will turn into s..t’s creek.

Forgotten

Can she who births a human flock,
forget to give her newborn suck.
Oh yes indeed! She may forget,
and leave their basic needs unmet.

To amnesia our minds are prone,
As by wild winds our lives are blown,
seniors in nursing homes alone 
forgotten by their flesh and bone.

And what of children on the streets
who forage bins for food to eat.
Clothes dark with dirt, disdained and scorned,
Forgotten as though never born.  

Some soldiers who return from war
Are left to suffer from their scars.
They fought to secure freedom sweet,
Forgotten now they roam the street.

Worst are the infants strapped in seats,
and left to perish in the heat.
So many die, it is so sad
Forgotten by their mom or dad.
 
Feeling forgotten in your soul,
like a sole mole inside a hole?
Cheer up and ponder well this thought,
humans forget, but God does not.

It Is Time To Live Together

What’s the reason of hate? To hide love?
All these feelings are real, 
My mind manufactures only to be manipulated.
Afraid to love that’s why we hide behind “facts and language”?
If you’re tired of being lied to and you know it clap your hands.
if you’re tired of being fed a narrative to stop your thinking,
Can I get an Amen?
God is great, fear is a weapon, 
Time to disarm the ruling class.
Basic needs of every human being, love, safety, and happiness. 
Our resources have been hijacked, stolen, and being used to threaten. We are the people, and the people would gladly share with their neighbors. 
Your land is my land.
The ones who seek ways not to share, scare instead console, turn lies into truth simply by repeating. 
The world needs peace, and by god there’s plenty so everyone can have a piece.
Why are we so blind? Why are we so hesitant? The revolution doesn’t need to be a war but a realization that we are one by kingdom come as Earth as it is in heaven. Not everyone believes in the same religion but we all know god is real. Regardless of the differences in our stories and beliefs there is a common spirit of love, forgiveness, and righteousness we need to embrace.

Cathexis

Psychic energy that is misspent on an idea, 
perhaps an object, and often on a person,
is referred to as a cathexis, an action 
to satisfy an urge or need that can worsen.

In his explored psychoanalytical theory 
of personality disorders, Sigmund Freud
theorized about this rather unhealthy drive 
in which a life can be hindered or destroyed.

He believed that psychic energy is found 
within the id, the ego, and the superego
The id directs a person's most basic needs,
deviating reality, but just how far will it go?

To satisfy the fanatic compulsion it craves 
it can throw someone's energy into disarray,
This personality disorder is totally cognitive,
borderline psychotic, leading the mind astray.

Ego cathexis is a median nature of narcissism
causing a break down of stored up emotions.
Anger may occur, irrational to say the least,
often filling the brain with devious notions.


May 9, 2023
Pick-A-Title, Vol 36 Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh

Gaslighted

Without truth ! there is no shore
so swimming in the endless 
will be the struggle for ever more.
And no hope!  Of a clear new dawn
Instead a myre,  so deep , and truth
Is caged, beneath evils spawn.
Filth flows from mouths of the elected
choices to deselect are lost, gaslighted
humanity looks on, their basic needs rejected.
The irony is, you put them there!
these monsters of greed that have no care.

Our Soul's the Key

What sets a human apart from a dog;
we are both alive, and we both draw breath.
But dogs, unlike humans, live in a fog;
they're entirely oblivious to death.

Dogs only respond to their basic needs,
such as sex, shelter, water, food, and air.
But only Man can comprehend His deeds;
because human beings are self-aware.

Dogs have no conscience or soul to guide them;
therefore, they can't distinguish right from wrong.
And thus, can't accuse, approve or condemn;
they are content merely tagging along.

But humans see beyond what dogs can see,
understanding that our soul is the key.

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