"Improv" Time - Week 2

Keeping Things Whole

Marc Strand (Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry)

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.

 * * * * * * * * * 

The End of the Whole

In the light

I open my eyes

to seek.

I take

tentative steps

on to the unknown.

This world is polished glass.

As I slip

I find a tree

encircled

by a wooden fence

where Time is spent.

I am a stranger.

The last leaf dangles -

then crashes.

I breathe

a world’s ending.