Authors:

David Ignatow Quotes

I wish I understood the beauty in leaves falling. To whom are we beautiful as we go?

I wish I understood the beauty in leaves falling. To whom are we beautiful as we go?

David Ignatow
Beautiful, Fall, Wish
David Ignatow (2011). “Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994”, p.72, Wesleyan University Press

If flowers want to grow right out of the concrete sidewalk cracks I'm going to bend down to smell them.

David Ignatow
Flower, Smell, Cracks
"Poems, 1934-1969".

I like rust on a nail, fog on a mountain. Clouds hide stars, rooms have doors, eyes close, and the same words that began love end it with changed emphasis.

David Ignatow
Stars, Eye, Clouds
David Ignatow (2011). “Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994”, p.57, Wesleyan University Press

I should be content to look at a mountain for what it is and not as a comment on my life.

David Ignatow
Mountain, Looks, Should
David Ignatow (2011). “Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994”, p.45, Wesleyan University Press

One leaf left on a branch and not a sound of sadness or despair. One leaf left on a branch and no unhappiness. One leaf left all by itself in the air and it does not speak of loneliness or death. One leaf and it spends itself in swaying mildly in the breeze.

David Ignatow
Loneliness, Sadness, Winter
David Ignatow (2011). “Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994”, p.124, Wesleyan University Press

One can fall in love as often as a tree grows leaves. It is perfectly natural but not free of guilt and complications, unless one takes oneself to be a leaf.

David Ignatow
Falling In Love, Tree, Guilt

The burden of living one’s own life is experiencing sensations that no one else can share.

David Ignatow
Life Is, Burden, Share
David Ignatow, Ralph J. Mills (1980). “Open between us”, Univ of Michigan Pr

There are times when I can find myself in a book, too, for two or three hours. But afterward I have such an urge to go out and reach for other people. Very often they're not around. There's also a metaphysical loneliness. We all feel it. The burden of living one's own life is experiencing sensations that no one else can share. You take a step in a house, you start moving around the house, no one else moves with you. You're walking by yourself.

David Ignatow
Loneliness, Moving, Book
David Ignatow, Ralph J. Mills (1980). “Open between us”, Univ of Michigan Pr

You May Also Like: