There is a bit of a Walt Whitman poem that is inscribed on an amulet I have given as a gift lately. It says: “Now voyager… sail thou forth to seek and find.” Great for birthdays, big transitions, etc. Very encouraging.
Or so I thought. I came across more of the poem recently—specifically, the preceding lines. The full effect, including title, reads:
The Untold Want
The untold want by life and land
ne’er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find.
So the sailing forth and seeking… are in response to a natural and inevitable disappointment… the untold want that is “ne’er granted.” Not sometimes; never. In fact, it’s the disappointment that is essential, the impetus to the sailing forth.
Romantic? Cruel? Accurate? Pointless? I confess I blow hot and cold on this poem fragment. It makes me nervous, probably because it is too close to home, because it hints at an eternal restlessness, a constant leavetaking. Is there just an endless loop here, the eternal folly of seeking and never finding, and thinking that the next time will be different?
Then I stop, and read it again. And something floats up: The “land” never granted the want, and the advice is to set sail, to go to the waters. Things might be different there. Hmmm… what might these metaphors mean for us, in our spiritual lives? What do we know of land we need to leave, and uncharted waters—be they the unconscious, dreams, new relationships, new challenges—that may hold what we are seeking to find?
Are your church, your relationships, your prayer life places where you are safe voicing your deepest wants, places that are truly in the launching business—the supportive launching into a life of radical transformation that Jesus spoke of, demonstrated, was killed for? This poem is an invitation to the full dance of life: desire, disappointment, resilience, searching, ongoing faith.