As in my covered sleep I dreamed of waking,
I dreamed that I went solitary roving
Over the sunk cities of my ancestors,

Over a darkness, over a deepness swimming.
Dreaming of this I was when they spoke to me.
Lovers they bragged of, long since dead and gone,

Whose ashes through the ages of their deaths
Patiently break. Long since are they gone.
What could these lovers tell me in my sleep?

Donne’s lovers saw another hemisphere,
Completing for each the world, as eye to eye
They pressed, than what I see. I am, they were.

—David Ferry, from “Learning From History”
Art Credit Anna Burns and Thomas Brown, Pop Pop Bang (Car)

10:56 am  •  31 December 2012  •  180 notes