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9
as of the mind itself, for
some feat of our attention --
as if a mind, having been
closed down, left a bitterness
suspended here -- a mind grave
and perhaps magnifi cent,
that had again been failed of,
and was again awaiting,
fatefully, some dominion.
So a term's done; I hurry
and fi nish my chores, leaving
as if I'd been driven out
so as to meet with this wind --
an unoccupied roaring
inside my ears. At the tip
of the headland the sea is
racing and the eye plunges
and ascends alertly; and
the bottom of the sea, some
intricate system, surely,
as of conceptions left un-
tended, bears those contorted
currents and lashed surfaces.
Santa Barbara, California,
August ­ September, 1962