Summary of Keeping Things Whole: Mark Strand
‘Keeping Things Whole’ is about the conservation of ecology and the environment. Poet Mark Strand requests for wholeness. He is against the usual fragmentation, which is going on in everyday life. For strand, he is the absence of field, when he goes there. He always finds himself missing, wherever he goes. While walking, he divides the air. When he goes forward, the air movers in to fill space, where his body had been before. Poet says that all have reasons to move, but he moves to keep things whole.
This poem seems very simple on the surface but it has a deep symbolic meaning. Indirectly poet says that people are breaking the completeness of nature. It means that they are destroying the forest, using natural resources excessively. By erecting (making) tall buildings, industries, and doing unnecessary infrastructural development, people are fragmenting (destroying) natural beauty. So, the poet suggests us to advocate for wholeness. By exposing the bitter reality of fragmentation, he requests us to conserve natural beauty.
