Mark Strand - Keeping things whole (Manter as coisas)

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.

Num campo

eu sou a ausência

de campo.

É sempre assim,

onde quer que esteja,

eu sou o que falta.

Ao caminhar,

aparto o ar,

mas o ar desloca-se sempre,

preenchendo o espaço

que meu corpo ocupara.

Todos nós temos razões

para mexer.

Eu mexo-me

para manter as coisas.

      "Keeping Things Whole" suggests we interrupt the wholeness of things with our presence. An object or nature can’t be its truth self while we are there and present. We get a sense that our presence interrupts something else, which causes the speaker of the poem to keep moving, but this also suggests perpetual becoming. As we move to stop interrupting one thing, we will inevitably interrupt some other thing from its wholeness. Being interrupts but becoming implies future interruptions. We can never ourselves be whole.