Re-Statement of Romance | A poem by Wallace Stevens, 1935
anon
The night knows nothing of the chants of night.
It is what it is as I am what I am:
And in perceiving this I best perceive myself
And you. Only we two may interchange
Each in the other what each has to give.
Only we two are one, not you and night,
Nor night and I, but you and I, alone,
So much alone, so deeply by ourselves,
So far beyond the casual solitudes,
That night is only the background of our selves,
Supremely true each to its separate self,
In the pale light that each upon the other throws.
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Wallace Stevens, Re-Statement of Romance, 1935
Even on the poorest streets people could be heard laughing. Some of these streets were completely dark, like black holes, and the laughter that came from who knows where was the only sign, the only beacon that kept residents and strangers from getting lost.
Roberto Bolaño / 2666 / 2004
An unfamiliar city is a fine thing. That's the time and place when you can suppose that all the people you meet are nice. It's dream time.
You can lose your way groping among the shadows of the past.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline / Journey to the End of the Night / 1932
Even the moon is only poetical because there is a man in the moon.
G.K. Chesterton / The Man Who Was Thursday / 1908
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