Just two more poets to go, one tonight and one tomorrow, to conclude National Poetry Month. But in a little while I am going to go visit with the boys and their mother at a huge local flea market. They sell the most exotic fleas! There’s a poem idea for you.

Anyway, since I don’t have time to bring you Wallace Stevens this morning yet–there I finally gave away an upcoming reading–here is one that I read two years ago, by Mark Strand, our poet from last night. This and “Eating Poetry” are probably his best known and most anthologized poems. Forgive the crappy visual quality of the lap top cam, but the sound I think is pretty good.

Keeping Things Whole
by Mark Strand

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.