Years ago, in my studies,
I would dive down for days
Without sleeping or food
In a feast of ideas, books, conversation,
A thrash in my mind, how to consume the world,
Blasting and tilting life,
Reciting my verses, test tubes and flame,
Measuring movements of planets,
Diagrams, algebra, history and empire,
Ethics and dualism—all of it swallowed
In great heaving gulps, brain rush,
Intent on being chemist or poet.