Longs for time with poles (6)
I believe the answer is:
yearns
'longs for' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'time with poles' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 'year' (year is a unit of time).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'poles' becomes 'NS' (North and South poles).
'year'+'ns'='YEARNS'
(Other definitions for yearns that I've seen before include "Longs for, pines" , "'Hankers, longs (6)'" , "'Craves, longs for (6)'" , "Desires strongly" , "Craves, longs intensely" .)