Everything springs from nothing, then is thrust,
face forward, to infinity, declared
Pascal. To get to know the infinite,
he said, we all should strive to comprehend
the smallest of particulars.
Turgenev pitted the infinity of youth
against the boundless emptiness of our old age,
while Valery perceived the infinite in books:
to him, the thought of writing was a little like
the thought of adding to infinity.