Wanting

A Poem About Living the Only Life You Can

This is a poem I read aloud at our recent community call (I’ll post the replay for paid subs this coming week). I never know if a poem is ready to share, but this one felt right, so here it is. I’d love for you to give it a read and share in the comments your own relationship with wanting. It is, admittedly, something I struggle with. And if you like this sort of thing, you can always become a subscriber to show your support. Thanks! —JG

Photo by Nijwam Swargiary on Unsplash

What do you want,
Really?
Not, what were you told
Is worth the wanting?
But
What is it you really
Want?

It doesn’t matter if it’s
Good
Or possible,
Doesn’t matter what it is
At all.

What matters is that
You want it,
That there is a part of you, which won’t stop,
Until It gets what It
Wants.

You have to own the wanting
Or it will own you,
Directing your movements
In ways you won’t understand,
Haunting like Christmas teases children with possibility,
Disturbing a person
As they try to sleep through one more night
Of waiting.

It won’t work to delay or deny—
We all want something,
Even if it’s to not want anything
At all.
And if this desire is the same stuff
That put the universe into shape,
Then perhaps our wanting is a way of creating the world
Again,
This time
In our own image—
The same centrifugal force from Genesis,
Making everything spin.

It’s okay to need what you don’t have,
To long for more.
Wanting is part of being human,
An essential song calling us on
The dance floor of life.

So if you will live a life of wanting—
And we all do—
Then you had better understand
What it is to make peace
With the part of you that thirsts for an ocean
It has never seen,
The one that still dreams,
So that when you wake
You won’t forget
To live.

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