David Ignatow World Poems
- 1. Walt Whitman In The Civil War Hospitals
Prescient, my hands soothing
their foreheads, by my love
I earn them. in their presence
I am wretched as death. They smile
... - 2. It Is
It is heart-rending to know a kiss
cannot cure the world of its illnesses,
nor can your happiness, nor your tragedy
of being a discrete person, for the bodies
... - 3. An Illusion
She was saying mad things:
'To hell with the world!
Love is all you need! Go on
and get it! What are you
... - 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. Midnight
It's midnight, the house silent,
in the distance a musical instrument
being played softly. I am alone.
It's as if the world has come to an end
... - 6. Information
This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves.
Perhaps I missed a leaf or two but I do feel triumphant
at having persisted in counting by hand branch by branch
and marked down on paper with pencil each total.
...
