Reading By Ways
--A. R. Ammons 

The epicurean (and stoic) philosophers,
monists and
dualists, 

are interesting (they show
that time over time
unwinds nearly the same story) but 

how can I resist the creek,
slowing over depth
or breaking into shiny ramshackles 

on a rise of pebbles or blurring
storm history in weed-slants
along high banks: I get 

caught up in clouds illustrating
the sky or muddying out: I can’t
get enough of nodding 

adjustments when a
squirrel leaps on or off a branch,
the trail quaking: still, I 

like it when the old philosopher says
live unknown, whole
histories like unread creeks.