Longing Is Not Desire<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Longing was never meant to be satisfied.
\nAlone with the ruins on the grassy promontory,
\nlow sun of early January on the sea,
\nI long to be alone with the ruins,
\nlow sun of early January on the sea.
\nWhen at last I look back, I long to look back,
\nruins in silhouette over silhouette of rocks,
\nsome of what\u2019s left of the day showing
\nthrough former windows. What desire makes
\ncrumbles with the weight of its own creation.
\nBut longing, longing wants most when it has. So forgive me,
\nwhen our blankets are spread before the cottage fire
\nand it\u2019s been night after night since I\u2019ve touched your skin,
\nif my finger tip lingers along one last seam.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Longing Is Not Desire” is reprinted from The Missouri Review.<\/em><\/p>\n Jonathan Johnson<\/a> is the author of two books of poems,<\/a> Mastodon, 80% Complete<\/em><\/a> (2001) and In the Land We Imagined Ourselves<\/em><\/a> (2010), both from Carnegie Mellon University Press, and the nonfiction book,\u00a0Hannah and the Mountain: Notes Toward a Wilderness Fatherhood<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(University of Nebraska Press, 2005).<\/em>\u00a0 His work has appeared in the Best American Poetry, The Writer’s Almanac,<\/a><\/em> and numerous other anthologies, as well as Southern Review<\/em>, Missouri Review,<\/a> Ploughshares<\/em><\/em>, North American Review<\/em>, and Prairie Schooner<\/em><\/em>.\u00a0 Johnson migrates between upper Michigan, Scotland, and eastern Washington, where he teaches in the MFA program at Eastern Washington University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Longing Is Not Desire Longing was never meant to be satisfied. Alone with the ruins on the grassy promontory, low sun of early January on the sea, I long to be alone with the ruins, low sun of early … Continue reading