#david ignatow

[havingapoemwithyou]

above everything by David Ignatow

[apoemaday]

Above Everything

by David Ignatow

I wished for death often but now that I am at its door I have changed my mind about the world. It should go on; it is beautiful, even as a dream, filled with water and seed, plants and animals, others like myself, ships and buildings and messages filling the air — a beauty, if ever I have seen one. In the next world, should I remember this one, I will praise it above everything.

[garadinervi]

Inscription by Juner Jordan to David Ignatow [on Kathy Engel's 'Banish the Tentative. Poems', WingDing and Honey Publications, New York, NY, 1987] [Between the Covers, Gloucester City, NJ]

«1987 – Dearest David, I just want you to know you are in my thoughts frequently and that I am sending you much, much love… along with this splendid first book by a young poet whom I think you will find delightful! Love to you! June.»

[shy-girl04]

Photographed - Sebastian Kim : Hedvig Palm, 2015

Brief Elegy

In every beautiful song is a promise of sleep.

I will sleep if you will sing to me,

but sing to me of sleep

when the bells have hushed in the towers

and the towers have hushed from their sounds.

Sing to me, strolling through silent streets.

David Ignatow

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Ignatow

[seekingstars]

The Song - David Ignatow

[marjorierose]

David Ignatow, "Rescue The Dead"

Finally, to forgo love is to kiss a leaf, is to let rain fall nakedly upon your head, is to respect fire, is to study man's eyes and his gestures as he talks, is to set bread upon the table and a knife discreetly by, is to pass through crowds like a crowd of oneself. Not to love is to live. To love is to be led away into a forest where the secret grave is dug, singing, praising darkness under the trees. To live is to sign your name, is to ignore the dead, is to carry a wallet and shake hands. To love is to be a fish. My boat wallows in the sea. You who are free, rescue the dead.

[cutiewithawakenedheart]

"To feel the sky

once more resisting my head."

----David Ignatow