The following poem is my favorite poem of all time. I first read it when I was a teenager – I keep coming back to it.  At different times in my life it has brought to mind different things. Lately, I have been thinking about how it equates movement with stillness. I am now, in internal martial arts class, learning to be still, which is at times excruciating. But in being still, I am whole. Reading this poem has brought me one step closer to embracing this paradox.

"Ergonomic for you maybe" - From The New Yorker

Keeping Things Whole By Mark Strand 1934–2014

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.

Next: 21. 1/21/16: Clouds on the Horizon