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David Ignatow writes “beautifully clear and quiet poems seemingly without effort. How seldom a pet remains strong into his 70s we see demonstrates by silent voices on every side of us. With Robert Penn Warren and a small handful of others, Mr. Ignatow us a happy exception.”—Peter Stitt, New York Times Book Review
A celebrated poet turns his awe of death to a heightened awareness of life.
The character of a person, and the worth of a poet, may be judged by how he or she comes to terms with death. David Ignatow, not in his late 70s, faces the prospect of death squarely and speaks with quiet authority of his puzzlement, anger, grief, and ultimate acceptance. In 66 short poems, that together form one monumental work, Ignatow describes what it is to grow old—the isolation, loss of loved ones, idle hours, long walks —and ponders the elemental conundrum of ceasing to exist: “Why was I born if I have to die,/ buzzed the fly, and buzzed and buzzed.” He demonstrates his greatness as a poet when he moves beyond somberness to turn the awe of death into a heightened awareness of life and a force that clarifies how we should spend our brief time on this earth.
Divided into three sections, Ignatow’s conversational meditations are at first ironic and humorous as he addresses “you fool of a cosmos.” He then becomes more personal, considering what his dead parents would think of him as a white-haired old man, recalling the “silent company” of the last years with his aging wife, realizing that “it is death to be alone.” Ultimately, he finds solace in the natural world—the sound of rain, smell of grass, warmth of sunshine. Without becoming sentimental or mystical, he sees that death is much the glory and handiwork of god (if there be one) as are the mountains and the flowers, which will also die. The poet turns from self-absorption, sadness and regret to see death’s power as a reflection of life’s wonder: “I look/ out upon the dark, knowing/ death as one form/ of transcendence, but/ so is life.”
“‘I want, as a poet, to speak the whole truth,’ said David Ignatow in his memoirs. Now, in these latest poems, which deal with the difficult matters of age and approaching death, he is once more as truthful as a mortal writer can hope to be. Shadowing the Ground seems to me heroic in its plainness, humor, and quiet honesty”—Richard Wilbur
“David Ignatow is a genius in the subtle way he ties the death energy to the most ordinary details of ordinary life. One thinks nothing is happening, but the implications are enormous.”—Robert Bly
Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, PEN Oakland 1992
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DAVID IGNATOW teaches writing at Columbia University and has published thirteen volumes of poetry and three prose collections. Ignatow received both the Shelley Memorial Award (1966) and the Frost Medal (1992). His most recent books are New and Collected Poems, 1970-1985 (1986) and The One in the Many: A Poet’s Memoirs (1988).
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