I planned to start this new year we are entering on a happy note, with a cheerful salutation! But then poetry came – and changed everything:
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.
.
.
.
Mark Strand (1934–2014), “Keeping Things Whole” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1979, 1980 by Mark Strand.
sub rosa 
beautiful nonetheless… happy new year!
agree, and maybe a sober start is not too bad after all …
– happy new year!
This is one of my very favorite poems, I love that you’ve put it up for the new year.
I am very grateful for stumbling into this poem – it was pure coincidence, actually. But I imagine it is the kind of poem that stays with you, will stay with me, for a long time.