what is it in us that lives in the past?

Both "No Words Can Describe It" by Mark Strand and The Stranger by Albert Camus share a remarkable ideology. "No Words Can Describe It" is a prose poem that focuses on a nostalgic flashback. The poem laments the relentless pressure of the future, and the realization that once a moment has passed, it cannot be brought back. Meanwhile, The Stranger's first chapter follows Meursault and his travels regarding the death of his parent. He had become estranged from his mother, and while she left for the resident home, he survived on his limited wages. In a way, The Stranger ponders the unattainable solution to the one answer unable to be proven mathematically. The first chapter by Camus follows Meursault, who wanders trancelike through his mother's home in Algiers, through a silent vigil, and through her funeral. Strand writes, "What is it in us that lives in the past and longs for the future or lives in the future and longs for the past?" Here the poem pushes at the boundary of meaning and value in one's life, and asks what it all means.