Heart poems: Mind wanting more

by | Nov 22, 2016 | Grief, Growth, and Self-Care

sky-clouds-trees-moon-reduced

One more clear night in bed/ with the moon

In  her blog Heart Poems, counselling therapist Jan Falls shares poems that have touched
her deeply.  She writes “A gift is meant to be shared, given away to the larger world. These [poems] are gifts I have received that I want to pass on to you. Sometimes doors open that take us places we never could have imagined. I hope you will join me there.”

The following post is republished with permission from Heart Poems.

From Mind Wanting More by Holly Hughes

But the mind always

wants more than it has—

one more bright day of sun,

one more clear night in bed

with the moon; one more hour

to get the words right; one

more chance for the heart in hiding

to emerge from its thicket

in dried grasses—as if this quiet day

with its tentative light weren’t enough,

as if joy weren’t strewn all around.

(Read the whole poem here)

 

When this poem came across my screen recently, I had the kind of response that I sometimes do, a ‘must-have’, as my daughter would say.

Though the first stanza is evocative in its descriptions, it is the second that grabbed me by the heart.  Yes, of course, the mind always wants more than it has, like a child who wants one more cookie, one more bedtime story.

On this rainy day, one more bright day of sun, calls to me. With the moon coming into fullness, I shall be wanting one more clear night in bed with the moon.

The line that especially caught my attention was one more hour to get the words right. That just may be my last wish, always looking for the ‘right’ words as I do.

One more chance for the heart in hiding to emerge from its thicket in dried grasses – well yes, we can always ask for one more opportunity to open our hearts and it will be given.

as if this quiet day

with its tentative light weren’t enough,

as if joy weren’t strewn all around.

 

These final lines bring me to my knees, as if, as if enough is not all around us, as if joy is not there to be seen if we are not blinded by wanting more. This is a lesson I need to relearn over and over. May it be so for each of us.

Jan Falls
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