New Selected Poems Quotes

“Each moment is a place
you've never been.”
― Mark Strand, New Selected Poems

“In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.”
― Mark Strand, New Selected Poems

“The Man in the Tree"

I sat in the cold limbs of a tree
I wore no clothes and the wind was blowing
You stood below in a heavy coat
The coat you are wearing

And when you opened it, baring your chest
White moths flew out and whatever you said
At that moment fell quietly onto the ground
The ground at your feet

Snow floated down from the clouds into my ears
The moths from your coat flew into the snow
And the wind as it moved under my arms
Under your chin, whined like a child

I shall never know why
Our lives took a turn for the worse, nor will you
Clouds sank into my arms and my arms rose
They are rising now

I sway in the white air of winter
And the starlings cry...lies down on my skin
A field of ferns covers my glasses; I wipe
Them away in order to see you

I turn and the tree turns with me
Things are not only themselves in this light
You close your eyes and your coat
Falls from your shoulders

The tree withdraws like a hand
The wind fit into my breath yet nothing is certain
The poem that has stolen these words from my mouth
May not be this poem”
― Mark Strand, New Selected Poems