The Conjuror Collects

"The conjurer collects his poor belongings –
the colored handkerchief, the magic rope,
the double-bottomed rhymes, the cage, the song.
You tell him of the passes you detect.
The mystery remains intact."

. . . Vladimir Nabokov . . . “An evening of Russian poetry,” The New Yorker, March 3, 1945, (23) . . .