Reasons for Moving, Darker & The Sargentville Not

by Mark Strand

Reasons for Moving was Mark Strand's first book, and on its publication in 1968 Donald Justice called him "maybe the very best of the new poets." Darker followed, and Robert Penn Warren said, "the moment is always exciting when a true poet finds the secret self that is the wellspring of his inspiration." And Harold Bloom wrote, "these poems instantly touch a universal anguish as no confessional poems can, for Strand has the fortune of writing naturally and almost simply (though this must he supreme artifice) out of the involuntary near solipsism that always marks a central poetic imagination in America."

These key books in the career of a recent Poet Laureate of the United States are now reissued in one volume together with a private-press book of aphorisms dating from the same time. An essential book for a full understanding of one of our major poets.

Color woodcut, Night Scene, by Neil Welliver. Courtesy of the artist.

Genres: Poetry

105 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Mark Strand was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. He was a professor of English at Columbia University and also taught at numerous other colleges and universities.

Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.

He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.

Reviews

[Megan Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book of poetry where I memorized an entire poem because it moved me so much. Here goes, from memory:

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.

The absolute simplicity of this poem and the careful diction Strand chooses displays a mastery of the English language that I think only poets really possess.

If you read on, read more of his poems, you will see the theme of filling spaces and absences and voids. His words are so perfect. Every time.

For a long time I wanted to tattoo the last stanza of this poem on my body because it was the first piece of language I really, truly fell head over heels in love with.

Thank you Professor David Hamilton, University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, for introducing me to Mark Strand and for the subsequent love affair that followed.

It has been one of the most significant and lasting relationships I've ever had.

[Rafal S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strand's poetry often plays with themes of passing: death, memory, seasons. It's dark, but not depressing. Rather, his words feel nostalgic. To my eye, images drive his poems - he juxtaposes them to create complex shifts of perspective and pairs that with well-composed observations or ruminations that might reveal to the reader the questions underlying his words.

In Reasons for Moving, his poems led me to existential questions of the self. How do we live in the world, with such an incomplete understanding of ourselves? On the one hand, Strand says

Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

But our existence is too complex for us to simply relax in the fact of duality. In living, we hurt others via various means. And so we must live with the guilt, and our futile attempts to rectify it:

My hand is dirty.
I must cut it off.
To wash it is pointless.

But the guilt of past evils is nothing compared to the death we and everyone we love must eventually face.

nobody wants
To leave, nobody wants to stay behind.

So what do we do as we live, and watch ourselves grow frail in the mirror, fearing the moment we disappear from the mirror, but also scared of living in the closing prison of old age?

In Darker, Strand more clearly grapples with the idea of his own death. He offers no solace to assuage any fears, and instead reflects on the strange paradox of living: of being caught between two equally incomprehensible states of non-existence:

We have no heart or saving grace,
no place to go, no reason to remain.

Okay. So maybe on second thought this is all kind of depressing, as is the thought that:

The graves are ready. The dead
shall inherit the dead.

But, on the other hand,

Nothing will tell you
where you are.
Each moment is a place
you've never been before.

So, yeah, life is characterized by an unstoppable forward progression of the future being transformed into the past by the consciousness of ourselves in the present. But, on the upside, you only die once, and you have no way of knowing it's happening until the moment it does. So the rest of the time you're not dying, and can presumably get some enjoyment out of it.

[Klara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keeping Things Whole

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.
- p. 40

[Barclay Blankenship · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few collections that have moved me like this one. I was closer to tears when reading “The Man in the Mirror” and “Keeping Things Whole” than I have been in a long time while reading anything.

“In a field
I am the absence of
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.”

- from Keeping Things Whole

I mean, holy shit.

[Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Strand is like a poetry robot. A lot of lovely works in here, many pieces I dog eared, etc. However it lacked vulnerability and was almost too "cold" at times. Still, amazing work here.

[Abe Something · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metapoetics and Borgesian ideas.

[Jonesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poems, don’t read if you’re depressed

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection includes Mark Strand's first two books of poetry going back to 1968. While I did not read Strand's poetry then I am glad that I become acquainted with him since then. The confessional nature of the poetry and the breathtaking images combine to form poems with the power to carry you away to the places imagined by the poet. He has been United States Poet Laureate and has taught at many different Universities over the course of his career. I found his poetic voice as expressed in these poems and the aphorisms included in this volume a reader's delight.

[Mary Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Mark Strand and this is a great collection of collections. Included some of my Strand favorites, such as "Black Maps" and "Courtship" as well as many others that leave me speechless.

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

(from "Eating Poetry", Mark Strand)

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shattering. Especially in Darker- I felt like every poem was a diamond bullet that hit me right between the eyes. It was one of those rare books that I would have to stop after every few sentences to sigh, close my eyes, and reflect, before I could continue. A real gem that I will be returning to soon.

[helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

georgetown freshman year -- the first book of poetry i could make it through. mark strand is such a concise, artistic, and totally american poet -- i definitely recommend it for someone trying to get into poetry.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some of these poems already, but they are worth a re-read. The language Strand uses is mysterious and dreamlike, sometimes moving very quickly through time and othertimes slowly. Minimalistic, seemingly simple language. The meaning underneath runs deeper than is initially apparent.

[Katherine Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hadn't read much of his poetry before. He is deserving of his awards. There's a nice surreal quality while his images are sharp.

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find his poems compelling, insightful.. written in simple style.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking poems. Strand manages incredible subtlety with simple, direct diction. This is a book of poetry I found myself coming back to for weeks, reading one poem a dozen times through.

[Kasandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently re-read while getting back into writing after a long enforced hiatus. Strand always inspires me, this set of books in particular. Love love love.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two lines of this collection read:

There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

and Strand's verse proves a tasty snack indeed.

[Abdullah Hussaini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably the most essential collected works of his.