The Idea Poem by Mark Strand

The Idea

Rating: 4.3


For us, too, there was a wish to possess
Something beyond the world we knew, beyond ourselves,
Beyond our power to imagine, something nevertheless
In which we might see ourselves; and this desire
Came always in passing, in waning light, and in such cold
That ice on the valley's lakes cracked and rolled,
And blowing snow covered what earth we saw,
And scenes from the past, when they surfaced again,
Looked not as they had, but ghostly and white
Among false curves and hidden erasures;
And never once did we feel we were close
Until the night wind said, "Why do this,
Especially now? Go back to the place you belong;"
And there appeared , with its windows glowing, small,
In the distance, in the frozen reaches, a cabin;
And we stood before it, amazed at its being there,
And would have gone forward and opened the door,
And stepped into the glow and warmed ourselves there,
But that it was ours by not being ours,
And should remain empty. That was the idea.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
doug scotney 27 April 2019

lucky there was another place to belong to

0 0 Reply
Seamus O Brian 22 December 2016

The desire to possess beauty that does not belong to us, which may only exist as an idea. Interesting contemplation.

1 0 Reply
Pranab K Chakraborty 28 August 2014

Looked not as they had....exactly.

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Mark Strand

Mark Strand

Prince Edward Island, Canada
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