What We Want
What We Want
by Linda Pastan
What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names–
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache,
We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
and the stars are there
even in full sun.
Damn, we don’t know what we want…unless we look deep down and feel it. Clarity. What we think will bring us happiness more times than oft does not. We are here to experience happiness but knowing the nature of the world and knowing ourselves is a necessity to ‘seeing this light’.
i wanna say that i’d read this poem before, had enjoyed its beauty and truth–perhaps that too was a dream? Thx for sharing Linda!
This seemed familiar to me as well. I enjoy it, however many times before it has found me. That’s good poetry.