Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FLAME LIGHTS UP by DAVID IGNATOW

Poet Analysis

First Line: MISTAKES ARE MANY
Last Line: THE SILENCE AROUND YOU
Subject(s): ERRORS;
I see time as the time of the body.
So now that I see myself as time
I am about to move into the shadow,
out of the high sun, the shadow
that is cooling to my skin and brain.

I may do exactly what I had been doing
under the sun, but now I may do it
mildly, letting the heat mount
at my own pace, at my own degree
of warmth of skin and brain.
I become my own master
in the shade.



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