American Poetry Review

Search

vol. 55 | no. 05

Diane Seuss

I want to want to want to

want. I want to want as I

once wanted. I once

wanted and it was

glamorous. I wanted

at one time

and it was divine.

It was divinity. A trinity:

three wants added up

to one half-have.

Want and want and want,

not the object

of the want:

Candy.

Money.

“Cock,” as Ginsberg

writes, “and endless

balls.” But

comes

the end

of endless

balls, and thus

the end of endlessness,

though

having

wanted, the memory

almost

does not

dissipate, leaving

again the want

to want

again, I feel it

hard here,

driving through

this

endless

monologue of fog.

Found In Volume 55, No. 05

Read Issue

Diane Seuss

About the Author

Diane Seuss is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Modern Poetry (Graywolf Press 2024), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. frank: sonnets (Graywolf Press 2021) was the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Althea: Poems is forthcoming in May 2027. Seuss is a member of the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors. She was raised by a single mother in rural Michigan, which she continues to call home.

LOGIN