David Ignatow Life Poems
- 1. In A Dream
at fifty I approach myself,
eighteen years of age,
seated despondently on the concrete steps
of my father's house,
... - 2. At This Moment
I'm very pleased to be a body. Can there be someone without a body?
As you hold mine I feel firmly assured that bodies are the right thing
and I think all life is a body. I'm happy about trees, grass and water,
especially with the sun shining on it. I slip into it, a summer pleasure.
... - 3. If We Could Be Brought
If we could be brought to the surface
like a gleaming fish and served for supper,
if we could eat and swallow our own life
to make a good meal, if we could go fishing
... - 4. Against The Evidence
As I reach to close each book
lying open on my desk, it leaps up
to snap at my fingers. My legs
wonâ??t hold me, I must sit down.
... - 5. Listening
You wept in your mother's arms
and I knew that from then on
I was to forget myself.
... - 6. On Freedom
In a dream I'm no longer in love. I breathe deeply this sense of freedom,
and I vow never again to seal myself in, but I am reminded it is myself I love
also and that too is a kind of sealed condition. I am committed to taking
care of my body and its home accommodations, its clothes and neat
...
