W.W. Norton. Reprinted this morning on The Writer's Almanac
What We Want
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
even in full sun.
Painting by Karen Kucharski
6 comments:
I used to think I read a lot of poetry and knew a lot of the poets but once again you are introducing me to a new poet and poem... Thank you. I really enjoy the paring of the poem and the illustration.
Now the words are echoing in my mind - "what we want..."
oh, oh, oh, oh
yes
I have a poem by Linda Pastan that I've saved for years, cut out from an old New Yorker. It's lovely to read another of hers. She so beautifully conveys that feeling of what we want, elusive and yet always present. I recognize the longing for the stars in full sunlight.
The painting is quite eloquent.
The painting is quite eloquent.
Thank you both to Sigrid Jardin and divajood. I enjoyed the story, poem, and comments, and being the artist of the painting, Night Dream Landscape III, I was delighted to read of your appreciation.
Karen Kucharski
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