Mark Strand

Biography

Well known for his translations, art criticism, and especially for his volumes of poetry, Mark Strand was named the U.S. Poet Laureate in 1990, and in 1999 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Blizzard of One. His last book, Collected Poems (2014), was a finalist for the National Book Award.

See Work

POETRY / Spring 1978

Poems of Air

By Mark Strand

The poems of air are slowly dying;
too light for the page, too faint, too far away,
the ones we’ve called The Moon, The Stars, The Sun,
sink into the sea or slide behind the cooling trees
at the field’s edge. The grave of light is...

POETRY / Winter 1978

Night Piece

By Mark Strand

It is night. I feel it is night
not because darkness has fallen
(what do I care about darkness falling)
but because down in myself the shouting
has stopped, has given up.