The poem
I empty myself of the names of others. I empty my pockets. I empty my shoes and leave them beside the road. At night I turn back the clocks; I open the family album and look at myself as a boy.
What good does it do? The hours have done their job. I say my own name. I say goodbye. The words follow each other downwind. I love my wife but send her away.
My parents rise out of their thrones into the milky rooms of clouds. How can I sing? Time tells me what I am. I change and I am the same. I empty myself of my life and my life remains.
"The Remains," one of Strand's most puzzling and contradictory poems, weaves the recurring theme of self-alienation among its simple, precise language. The Strandian contradictions and paradoxes are particularly bewildering to the reader, because the poet refuses to elaborate on the persona's wish to empty himself of his life. This free verse illustrates the simple topic of finding one's identity through stripping himself of it. The somber tone of isolation and emptiness accompany each line's simplicity.