What I wanted

Written By Margaret Wack
"What I want is what I've always wanted. What I want is to be changed." - Mary Szybist, "To Gabriela at the Donkey Sanctuary"

Mary Szybist, "To Gabriela at the Donkey Sanctuary"

"Lord, I confess I want the clarity of catastrophe but not the catastrophe. / Like everyone else, I want a storm I can dance in. / I want an excuse to change my life." - Franny Choi, "Catastrophe is Next to Godliness"

Franny Choi, "Catastrophe is Next to Godliness"

"burst like a star: for here there is no place / that does not see you. You must change your life." - Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo"

Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo"

"What I wanted was to have looked up at the right time, / to see what I was meant to see, / to be pried up out of my immortal soul, / up, into the sizzling quick—" - Jorie Graham, "History"

Jorie Graham, "History"

"There is—so much—of it— / I want to get outside—of it all— / I would—if I could— / even if it killed me—" - Agha Shahid Ali, "In Search of Evanescence"

Agha Shahid Ali, "In Search of Evanescence"

"I want to be be broken, / to be eaten by the anonymous mouths, / to be eroded like minutes and seconds, / to be reduced to water / and a little light. / I want to rise, / the doors of the rain to open" - Li-Young Lee, "Rain Diary"

Li-Young Lee, "Rain Diary"

"Ruin is everywhere. The plague of soft rain endless. / We sing of loss because the only voice they gave us / was song and reasoning. It is not love we are after. / No love. Not singing. But a somber thing." - Linda Gregg, "Not Singing"

Linda Gregg, “Not Singing”

"I think of writing to you / in this way—welcoming / the adventure of it— / & of being wrecked / proper, of being ruined." - Meg Day, "Another Night at Sea Level"

Meg Day, "Another Night at Sea Level"

"I felt the moment pass / Right through me, currency as it was spent, / That bright, loose change, like falling leaves, that mass / Of decadent gold leaf, now turning brown— / I could not keep it; I could write it down" AE Stallings, "Lost and Found"

AE Stallings, "Lost and Found"

"I wished for what I always wish for. / I wished for another poem." - Louise Gluck, "The Wish"

Louise Gluck, "The Wish"

Margaret Wack

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