Keeping Things Whole
In 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.
Commentary
This sparse, philosophical free verse poem is from Mark Strand’s 1964 “Sleeping With One Eye Open”. Strand teaches at the University of Chicago, and is the Poet Laureate of the U.S. (though born a Canadian… another import we’ve acquired and made our own)
I can turn the opening 3 lines around and around in my head for ages at a time, playing with the meanings, exploring the depth of the idea. These and the last 2 lines of that stanza are practically koans, and worthy of meditation.
The second stanza seems just a short explanation for the sake of those with too little time for navel gazing, but the last stanza locks the poem’s appeal to a drifter like me.
A friend of mine was showing me Strand’s ‘Eating Poetry’ in a compilation, and I opened to this one and fell in love with his talent at expressing such grand thoughts in so few beautiful words.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Gaurav Khanna · 11 June 2000
hi abraham/martin:
coupla requests:
1. what does koans mean (explanation, second paragraph, last line)
2. could you pleas run “night of the scorpion” by nissim ezekiel - i remember studying it at school and would love to read it with the notes you guys provide
thx a ton and keep it up!
gaurav
Tracy Mattingly · 18 June 2000
Mark Strand was the Poet Laureate in 1990-1. Robert Pinsky is the current Poet Laureate.
Moletecles · 18 May 2003
Second time (it is late for a party begun at noon.)
A friend of mine — we met in 1971 – died (age 63) a few weeks ago; at this year’s
Birmingham Festival “City Stages” there was a hole. Spider Martin is dead, and there is a hole no one could keep whole.
At some time this evening, I recalled the last two lines of the Mark Strand poem, did a google search, and thankfully found this site.
Thank you.
Jane Backus · 8 July 2003
My favorite poem – the justification for keeping things lively and evolving – like I need a justification…JHB
dedalus · 10 July 2003
people here have commented on the wandering, vagrant feel of the speaker in the poem, and also on the need for keeping things lively and changing. i think that the poet is also expressing another sort of experience – he feels that his presence is disruptive. it’s a nice play on words – hole and whole. he is a hole, and for him to be somewhere is to interrupt the world, to interrupt relationships. and so he alienates himself from the world and, presumably, from others so that they can be left complete.
—————————————————————— They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and whither they shall go The dew upon their feet shall manifest.
–From “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens