Enlarged by desire

In a poem, Mark Doty asks "Aren't we enlarged / by the scale of what we're able / to desire?"

Well, certain parts of us may become enlarged--or, I should say, engorged--by what we desire,¹ but I don't think that was the spirit in which this was written.

I suppose I tend to agree, though my agreement only serves as a starting point for considering the ideas. The question seems to suggest that if we desire small, petty things, we are not enlarged, but perhaps we are--just in a negative sense. We become bloated with an excess of desire for an excess of things which keep us small in the most meaningful ways.

On the other hand, our more grand desires, even when unfulfilled, don't they enlarge the best part of us? They enlarge our mental landscape, our sense of ourselves and our sense of what is possible. Our desires can give us depth beyond what is evident just in our daily lives, in our actualities. They enlarge us as we fulfill our dreams, of course, as we become what we desire to become, but even our unfulfilled desires, if really embraced, do enlarge us, do make us into fuller human beings. 

tags: mark doty  dreams  desires  

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