I am Waiting: a collective list

I am waiting to remember

I am waiting for everything and for nothing at all

I am waiting for the ocean to toss the perfect shell up on the shore

I am waiting for my new walking shoes to come in the mail

I am waiting until I finish work before I have a cup of hot tea

I am waiting for the last leaf to fall before I rake

I am waiting for the mail to come and I hope I get a juicy letter from a friend

I am waiting for a chance encounter with Tyne Daly

I am waiting to be reunited with a certain set of keys

I am waiting to discover the perfect notebook but in the meantime, I hold auditions

I am waiting for a return email regarding my inquiry into being a volunteer clown in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade; apparently I am not the only person prepared to do my part in oversized shoes and polka dots

I am waiting for an uncluttered moment to put pencil to paper

I am waiting for this country to have a government by and for the people

I am waiting to see how it will be when you've left

I am waiting — still! — to feel grown up

I am waiting for you to make me laugh

I am waiting for that perfect B-flat on my euphonium

I am waiting to find out how to jump out of bed wide awake

I am waiting to be cast as an alien in the next Star Wars movie

I am waiting for a wandering bear to upend the seed cans some fine night

I am waiting for the roof repairs to be finished so the thumping overhead will finally cease

I am waiting for a fun night of playing pinochle with friends who won't care whether or not I've cleaned the house

I am waiting (in my imagination) on a warm sandy beach with my face turned up to brilliant sunshine

I am waiting for an idea, any idea, worthy of my notebook and this pen

I am waiting until I remember and then I'm leaving

I am waiting for the weather to be comfortable enough to travel to Pennsylvania and I'm waiting for the trip to be fabulous

I am waiting for the grief from my father's death to carry me away

I am waiting to finish Adam Bede so I can start another George Eliot book

I am waiting to sound like a native when I speak French

I am waiting to find a pair of leather boots that look pretty and don't pinch my toes

I am waiting for a new refrigerator to arrive so we can finally buy and freeze ice cream again

I am waiting to realize my true potential and to become my most authentic self

I am waiting to get busy living — time is important

I am waiting for my hands to be dirty with ink and paint again

I am waiting to stop cooking the same things over and over

I am waiting and reminding myself "all in due time"

I am waiting for my children to have children 

I am waiting to learn what I am meant to be

I am waiting to grow tired of imagining ways to fix up the house

I am waiting to see the play "Waiting for Godot" at long last

I am waiting in lines, incessantly

I am waiting for snowflakes on the pond

I am waiting for the right kitty to come to me

I am waiting to see a redpoll at my feeder again

I am waiting to get organized, after all these decades

I am waiting for another day spent with friends at the park by the lake

I am waiting to see my three grown children in one room again

I am waiting for a good grapefruit season

I am waiting to buy a new microwave

I am waiting to clean the litter box until someone else does it

I am waiting for everyone to love me a lot, all of the time

I am waiting to start dancing again

I am waiting for my older sister to cherish me

I am waiting for the message in the bottle to bring clear instruction as I meditate

I am waiting to join the unseen ones around me, in lovely communication

I am waiting because he is always late and thinks he will intuitively know without a timepiece

I am waiting for rhubarb again

I am waiting (and excited) to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life

I am waiting to find a new rhythm

I am waiting to figure out if being an artist is going to help me find a path, or if being an artist is the path

I am waiting for truths to speak from my present, and mysteries to unfold from my future

I am waiting to repaint my house — rainbows of colors, fresh coats, new start

I am waiting to shed shyness like an old coat

I am waiting for a perfectly interchangeable, everything coordinates "I can get dressed in five minutes and always look perfect" wardrobe

I am waiting for my mind to clear

I am waiting for a French Bulldog to manifest

I am waiting for silence and inspiration

I am waiting for my cardiac ablation to take effect

I am waiting for my daughter to be offered a job teaching creative writing at the college near my home

I am waiting for hope to replace defeatism

I am waiting to find the right-colored wooly bear to tell me exactly how bad this winter will be

I am waiting for a kale recipe that won't disappoint me

I am waiting for the motivation to get up off my duff

I am waiting for my lost blue sock to reappear

I am waiting for the squirrels to stop eating my daffodil bulbs

I am waiting for the attic to re-arrange itself

I am waiting for my mind to learn the past tense in Italian

I am waiting for the end of the story that is my life

I am waiting for my father to appear in my dreams

I am waiting for my ukelele to go out of tune

I am waiting for my next breath

I am waiting for the cat to start paying his way

I am waiting for my mother to say she is sorry for abandoning her three children

I am waiting for my interest in sports to arrive

I am waiting to dig into downsizing with commitment

I am waiting to see how much money I can give away this year

I am waiting for my seven-year-old dog to figure out that outside is for pooping

I am waiting to feel good enough to travel again

I am waiting to stop being phobic about snakes

I am waiting to talk more often than I'm listening

I am waiting more patiently than you know

I am waiting instead of doing

I am waiting to wake up thin

I am waiting for clarity and inspiration and certainty

I am waiting for a day to spend doing nothing except crafts

I am waiting to find the perfect sweater

I am waiting for the chives to spring up in the kitchen garden again

I am waiting for the dog to stop stealing peanut butter jars from the counter and taking them outside — how does he manage to unscrew the caps?

I am waiting to be with my husband again; we have been separated before but not from his passing on this earth

I am waiting to begin a new life in Ithaca, to make new friends here, and to see what my musical background will lead to in this city 

I am waiting to see our granddaughter grow up

I am waiting to begin sailing again

I am waiting to begin walking without help

I am waiting for a gas fireplace to be installed to keep our cats warm

I am waiting for my spouse to be healthy again

I am waiting to learn why I am here on earth

I am waiting for a birthday card from my son, again

I am waiting for a thousandth chance

I am waiting in the dark, in hiding, impatiently

I am waiting for a miracle

I am waiting for my love to return

I am waiting for sunrise so I can get up

I am waiting for my big break

I am waiting for my elderly dog to pass in her sleep

I am waiting for spring and a grandchild coming in April

I am waiting for the pear on the counter to ripen

I am waiting for the next Netflix movie to arrive

I am waiting for my book collections to become as valuable as vinyl records have now become

I am waiting for the Tompkins County Public Library to notify me that one of my reserved books is available

I am waiting to see if my house spiders are going to move out for the winter

I am waiting until it gets warm enough to start my new project of running around the block every day

I am waiting to learn patience

I am waiting to turn 65 so I don't have to pay for a colonoscopy as part of my insurance deductible

I am waiting to hear if the spot found on my mom's chest x-ray is something serious

I am waiting, as I do every morning, for the silence of the empty house

I am waiting for the missing piece of this map to appear before I take one more step forward

I am waiting for you to kiss me again

I am waiting for love to bloom when he returns to the east coast and walks with me near Cayuga Lake

I am waiting for the carrots to finally get fully cooked in the soup

I am waiting for a warm day to clean the last two garden pots on the deck

I am waiting to see if my orchid survived being accidentally abandoned for three weeks

I am waiting to see how my life will change with two new hips

I am waiting for a plus sign, a blue line, a baby of mine

I am waiting to clean out the office because when it's ready I'll need to do some actual work in there

I am waiting for it to get published

I am waiting for the vet to call and say my little cat, Fiona, has totally recovered and there is nothing whatsoever to worry about because she will live for at least 83 more purringly happy years

I am waiting until tomorrow to buy cranberries for Thanksgiving, but no longer than that because one year the grocery store ran out of them

I am waiting to phone my brother even though I should have done it months ago, but we really don’t have anything to say to each other even though we always talk too long

I am waiting to collect Green Stamps once again; the taste of licking them

I am waiting to become invisible and silent as a desert

I am waiting to find the two marbles that must be under furniture — I've loved those marbles

I am waiting to play Jacks with my grandchild who is only two

I am waiting to balance my checkbook

I am waiting for "a long time" to be over, and I'm not sure how long a "long time" is

I am waiting until after Christmas to buy new long underwear because it might go on sale

I am waiting before pressing "send"

I am waiting for more of you to realize that I have a lot to offer

I am waiting to hear the zing the sunshine makes

I am waiting for the heart's door to close but I know it never will

I am waiting to remember all the little epiphanies I have had and then immediately forgotten

I am waiting to become my younger, bolder self 

I am waiting for the pleasure of reading a book from start to finish, all in one day

I am waiting for the day when I am no longer waiting for anything

I am waiting to begin again

Thank you to all these contributors:

Alex Crump

Amy Bartell

Anne Killian-Russo

Annie Wexler

Antonia Matthew

Barbara Brazill

Barbara Cartwright

Blue Waters

Carol Bossard

Elizabeth Burns

Gabrielle Vehar

Grace Celeste

Jackie Andrews

Janet Klock

Julia Ganson

Katherine May

Lee Wagner

Linda Keeler

Margaret Dennis

Margaret Snow

Mary Carter Ginn

Maryam Wilson 

Maude Rith

Merry Gale

Michael Schaff

Nancy Gabriel

Nancy Osborn

Natalie Detert

Nina Miller

Patrick Robbins

Paula Culver

Peggy Haine

Persis Parshall Vehar

Rainbow Crow

Rob Sullivan

Roxanne VanWormer

Sara Robbins

Sharon K. Yntema

Stacey Murphy

Stacey K. Payette

Sue Crowley

Sue Norvell

Summer Killian

Susan Lesser

Victoria Boynton

Will Fudeman

Xin Li

Zee Zahava

If you would like to read the poem "I am Waiting For," by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, go to this site:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171598

If you would like to read about the "I am Waiting Poetry Series" that the Silver Birch Press is working on, go to this site:

https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/call-for-submissions-i-am-waiting-poetry-series/