Keeping Things Whole

- Mark Strand

In the field, the speaker of the poem sees everything else except himself. He sees soil, grass, stones, etc. but he does not see himself there. He always sees his body organs, or parts, but his spirit is always missing. It is somewhere else, away from nature. The speaker has stopped loving nature.

When the speaker walks, his body divides the air into two parts. But immediately after him, the air fills the space created by his body’s previous existence. Human beings are progressing. They have been more advanced than in the past. But they have destroyed nature. Nature tries to restore the damage caused by human beings. But the complete restoration is not possible.

Everybody in the world has his or her own aim in life. Many people’s actions create fragmentations in human life’s various aspects. But the speaker says his action is always focused upon avoiding fragmentations.