There is forgetfulness in me which makes me descend
Into a great ignorance,
And makes me to walk in mud, though what I remember remains.
Some of the things I have forgotten:
Who the Illuminator is, and what he illuminates;
Who will have pity on what needs have pity on it.
What I remember redeems me,
strips me and brings me to rest,
An end to what has begun,
A beginning to what is about to be ended.
—Charles Wright, from section III of “Apologia Pro Vita Sua” in Black Zodiac (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997)
