the dim patina of these latest dreams, even as they faded, altogether too knowable, too obviously derivative from the larger activity of his conscience. This was no good. However, he thought, I'll take what I can get

 

*

 

found that even those excerpted thoughts, passages, images captured or manufactured, kept the pilot flame of his greater ambition, however dimly, from guttering, from extinguishing entirely 

 

*

 

the sparse vulgar traffic streaming mindless through and around the bare, hovering masses of winter trees

 

*

 

where he sat mutely and lengthily in the handicapped stall, perched above someone's discarded newsprint