Need is All We Love

Alan Rayner
2 min readOct 11, 2020

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Preparing for Take-Off’ (Acrylic painting on board by Alan Rayner, 2018)

When we sense another’s need for care

As what we need our selves

Love blossoms between us

Knowing life can’t go on without it

Deep in our hearts

The strongest pull of all

Not discernible to the abstracted eye

That can’t perceive its birthplace calling out

From receptive, soulful, gathering darkness

To responsive, spirited, enveloping light

Arid Confrontation’ (Oil painting on board by Alan Rayner, 1973)

Where there’s no sense of need for care

We don’t

Seeking instead

To fulfil a life’s ambition

To gather admiration

Staving off the dread of loss

By isolating our selves

Splendidly attired

As self-fulfilling prophecy

In soulless desert

.

Where need is turned to greed

And hide is turned to pride

In unforgiving, loveless eye

That sees all we need as sinful insufficiency

Wasteful weakness of the spirit

Unable to care for itself

Or anyone else

.

So if we really wish

To see the desert bloom

Try watering it with loving care

Don’t expect it to water itself

Radiant Receptivity’ (Oil painting on board by Alan Rayner, 2020)

For Further exploration, please visit http://www.spamglefish.com/exploringnaturalinclusion

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Alan Rayner

Alan Rayner is an evolutionary ecologist, writer and artist, who is pioneering the philosophy of natural inclusion