Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
Keeping Things Whole
Mark StrandIn a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.
MARGINALIA
I am starting a creative journal as a requirement in school. It’s a tentative beginning to a relationship with my dreams. I haven’t decided yet if this is a worthwhile activity that should be pursued for my whole life, or a pretentious attempt to be an artist. Either way there are poems to keep my feet on the ground, and poems to encourage me to fly away. Knowing that both exists is comforting.
ABOUT MARK STRAND
Mark Strand was born on Canada’s Prince Edward Island on April 11, 1934. He received a BA from Antioch College in Ohio in 1957 and attended Yale University, where he was awarded the Cook Prize and the Bergin Prize. Strand was the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Collected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014); Almost Invisible (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012); New Selected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007); Man and Camel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006); Blizzard of One (Alfred A…. (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: identity • movement • absence • Or browse the index
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Liesl Jobson
This must have been one of your early posts, T. So glad you kept at it. Your blog is also part of the wonder and goodness that in these dark and desperate times is keeping things whole. Thank you.