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This poem is taken from PN Review 140, Volume 27 Number 6, July - August 2001.

Two Poems Robert Nye


Down Darkening

Down darkening or darkening down -
To not know what it means
To go down darkening or darkening down;
To rest content in mystery
Yet still to seek
The root of meaning,
Its broomstick shadow even,
In this down darkening or darkening down.

What if there is no bright original?
What if down darkening or darkening down
Is all there is to have by way of knowledge?
Go down then darker far than darkening down
To the first broomstick, and beyond the witch.
What's here? What's left at last but down and down
And nothing nothing nothing in the dark?
Better to go on without hope than come
...


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