A Reflection on "What We Want," What I want...

Thank you to the Writer's Almanac, and poet Linda Pastan for this poem.

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—
now they want us.
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,
as the stars are there.

"What We Want," by Linda Pastan, from Carnival Evening. © W.W. Norton. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Response.

My favorite lines include:
what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises
our arms ache.
the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there.

I think of children, with curly hair, smirking lips, brown skin, twinkling eyes, who giggle and writhe when I see them. They are from my dreams. My arms know their weight. My body holds space for their conception. They are there, just the other side of the room; sometimes coming toward me, tugging on my jacket. They are as real as stars, as varigated leaves on the sugar maple outside my house, as oxygen I breathe. Burning, unfolding, going in and out of constant presence. My dreams, wants, deepest desires, they are. Yes.

And you? What do you want? What do you see with your eyes open and closed?

Happy Contemplating!
Melissa