SOURCE: “Eastward Ho!,” in New England Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter, 1995, pp. 198-99.

In the following excerpt, Slavitt reviews Against the Evidence, finding some of the works sentimental and flat but a few flawless.

… I wanted to close with a few pleasant words about David Ignatow's book [Against the Evidence: Selected Poems 1934-1994] which represents most of a lifetime's work in poetry. Here and there, I was able to find some fine small poems, like this one.

Gi; “midnight Ii” =~ S“midnight Ii”

In place of you the moon is a presence in my room I must turn my back on to sleep in the dark. 

What more could one want? Well, in a book of this length and extending back more years than I do, myself … something substantial. Beyond the well turned phrase or even the whole poem, one wants the authority of a secure voice, the wisdom...