David Ignatow: The Bagel

I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

David Ignatow: Above Everything

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.

David Ignatow: That's the Sum of It

I don't know which to mourn. Both have died on me, my wife and

my car. I feel strongly about my car, but I am also affected by my

wife. Without my car, I can't leave the house to keep myself from

being alone. My wife gave me two children, both of whom, of course,

no longer live with us, as was to be expected, as we in our youth left

our parents behind. With my car, I could visit my children, when they 

are not too busy.

Before she died, my wife urged me to find another woman. It's advice

I'd like to take up but not without a car. Without a car, I cannot find

myself another woman. That's the sum of it.

David Ignatow: For Yaedi

Looking out the window at the trees
and counting the leaves,
listening to a voice within
that tells me nothing is perfect
so why bother to try, I am thief
of my own time.  When I die
I want it to be said that I wasted
hours in feeling absolutely useless
and enjoyed it, sensing my life
more strongly than when I worked at it.
Now I know myself from a stone
or a sledgehammer.

David Ignatow (untitled)

I should be content

to look at a mountain

for what it is

and not as a comment

on my life.