Mark Strand, Breath

When you see them
tell them I am still here,
that I stand on one leg while the other one dreams, 
that this is the only way, 

that the lies I tell them are different 
from the lies I tell myself, 
that by being both here and beyond 
I am becoming a horizon, 

that as the sun rises and sets I know my place, 
that breath is what saves me, 
that even the forced syllables of decline are breath, 
that if the body is a coffin it is also a closet of breath,

that breath is a mirror clouded by words, 
that breath is all that survives the cry for help 
as it enters the stranger's ear 
and stays long after the world is gone, 

that breath is the beginning again, that from it 
all resistance falls away, as meaning falls 
away from life, or darkness fall from light, 
that breath is what I give them when I send my love