Word by Word

Practical insights for writers from Jessica P Morrell

Remembering Mark Strand

Written By: Jessica Morrell - Dec• 02•14
Mark Strand
In case you’re not aware that Mark Strand, a former Poet Laureate, has passed away at 80 or of the beauty, scope and importance of his work, here is the link to his obituary. It’s a noisier world without him in it observing, bringing us into his golden lantern light.
THE END
Not every man knows what he shall sing at the end,
Watching the pier as the ship sails away, or what it will seem like
When he’s held by the sea’s roar, motionless, there at the end,
Or what he shall hope for once it is clear that he’ll never go back.
When the time has passed to prune the rose or caress the cat,
When the sunset torching the lawn and the full moon icing it down
No longer appear, not every man knows what he’ll discover instead.
When the weight of the past leans against nothing, and the sky

Is no more than remembered light, and the stories of cirrus
And cumulus come to a close, and all the birds are suspended in flight,
Not every man knows what is waiting for him, or what he shall sing
When the ship he is on slips into darkness, there at the end.
– Mark Strand
The Continuous Life

 

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