Paterson (Excerpts I)

To make a start,

put of particulars

and make them general, rolling

up the sum, by defective means—

Sniffing the trees,

just another dog

among a lot of dogs. What

else is there? And to do?

The rest—have run out—

after the rabbits.

Only the lame stands—on

three legs. Scratch front and back.

Deceive and eat. Dig

a musty bone

For the beginning is assuredly

the end—since we know nothing, pure

and simple, beyond

our own complexities.

Yet there is

no return: rolling up out of chaos,

a nine months' wonder, the city

the man, an identity—it can't be

otherwise—an

interpenetration, both ways.

Rolling up! obverse, reverse;

the drunk the sober; the illustrious

the gross; one. In ignorance

a certain knowledge and knowledge,

undispersed, its own undoing.