TO BLAISE PASCAL

Clever I have made a circle

and inside I stir my tea, ambition,

ladies, bank accounts and poetry,

and sophomoric erudition.

I keep as busy with my clutter

as a baby with his blocks,

I keep as busy as a sniffing

yapping hunting dog.

Keep busy is the rule of men

too shrewd to be too wise.

There is no horror in the air

until we realize.

[The allusion in the title is to Pascal’s notion of divertissements — our busy ways of averting our eyes from the abyss. The title of an earlier version of the poem was “The Advantage of Trivia”.]