Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SELF-ANALYSIS, by DAVID IGNATOW


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SELF-ANALYSIS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I am not writing because I feel as though
Last Line: Victims of their dreams.
Subject(s): Death; Poetry & Poets; Self; Dead, The


I am not writing because I feel as though
I am standing in my grave, looking out
upon the poetic excitement among the poets,
the businessmen stashing it away,
the lovers exuberant, the executives fierce
in their vision of efficiency. Each
has life by the hair.

Yet each will stand dumb, the poetry of their lives
will have come to a standstill. It will not occur
to them that they have carried the burden
of their charge to its limits, the poem taking over
and writing itself on their faces
as puzzlement and anguish. The poem will have become
the ruler of their lives to shape them
as it seems fit, as objects in the universe
of charged particles. They will end their lives
standing in an open grave and looking about them
at the crowds poetically mad with themselves,
in actions fit to their desires and singing.
We will hear their singing of money, of power,
of love, of success, and we will see it wind down
to their puzzlement and frustration and disbelief,
victims of their dreams.





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