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4
Oblivion that slides in, recedes,
Slides in, all the while fl oating all that is,
Is best of all -- `Come, sleep,' come dark that feeds
Into the veins cool nothingness --
The old poets, broken, wrote their loveliest
That the god might dip misdeeds,
Fears, all, in the deep sleep of the old psychopannychist --
5
And yet just yesterday I fought
Afternoon drowsiness off to watch how each
Curt stroke of Nicholas of Cusa's thought
Bore him on, into a bright reach
Where Infi nite and Finite co-inhered
And the mere world on a taut
And shining gossamer of wisdom reappeared....
6
A rocks-crawling-with-rattlers dream,
Dream where each act, as Clausewitz said of war,
Is simple, and very diffi
cult; trout stream
I know I've visited before
(But where?) fl owing opaque with sewage; gray
Steep vacant street, dark store
And offi
ce in a strange, vast city where I stray