"Keeping Things Whole" by Mark Strand

I wrote an analytical essay on this poem in ninth grade. I'm pretty sure I got an A.

"Keeping Things Whole"

In a field

I am the abscence 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