Knowing What You Want

From an entry of November 18 in a tiny banana-leaf journal:

What I Want
To be here on a bench in a park in the snow
To work on my poems (and allow myself to love and relish them)
Not to listen to Alice Sebold's flat, sad voice reading Lucky*
To make rich, good hot chocolate
To laugh and pray
To talk to geese
To draw
To feed small creatures

Make a list of the things you want, small, feathered, bold, or outlandish.

*Apologies if you love this book. I was listening to it on tape and found it depressing. The schoolmarm in my head said I had to finish it, but writing this changed my mind.