Comments about Denise Levertov
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susanrichpoet: Please don't shoot the messenger
sccenglish: A poetry Advent calendar.
December 18th. 'Annunciation' by Denise Levertov.
"We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily."
godandchocolate: “Annunciation” by Denise Levertov
She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’
Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’
She did not submit with gritted teeth,
raging, coerced.
kwmdw6: Poem:
Annunciation
Denise Levertov
We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.
2/
sacredartstudio: But we have only begun
to love the earth.
We have only begun
to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
— so much is in bud.
-Denise Levertov
"The Artist's Prayer" blanket. Spring sale. Learn more & purchase here
BeatLiturgist: Looking ahead to Saturday and the annunciation and thinking of my favourite annunciation poem. Denise Levertov's Annunciation
theandrewarndt: Read this in Denise Levertov this morning. I can't stop thinking about it.
NewThinq: A personal favorite for World Poetry Day:
Matins, by Denise Levertov
SamRasnake: "Just when you seem to yourself
nothing but a flimsy web
of questions, you are given
the questions of others to hold
in the emptiness of your hands...
butterflies opening and closing themselves
in your cupped palms, trusting you"
- Denise Levertov
Photo: Alanah with Butterflies
cjlambert94: I'm currently writing on a libretto that Denise Levertov wrote for an oratorio on Oscar Romero, "El Salvador: Requiem and Invocation." I reached out to the theater in Boston, where it was performed in '83, and they connected me to the composer's wife who just sent me a Dropbox...
iglooddd: […] we count the
words in our pockets, we wonder
how it will be without them, we don’t
stop walking, we know
there is far to go, sometimes
we think the night wind carries
a smell of the sea…
Denise Levertov
rebeccapursell: I know I have uni work to be putting first, but for three days now I haven't been able to stop thinking about this poetry collection idea. I've neglected writing poetry, I do love it. Since reading essays by Denise Levertov, she's definitely inspired me.
NationPoetry: "because of the strong sight,
my clear caressive sight, my poet's sight I was given
that it might stir me to song,
is blurred."
This gem by Denise Levertov from our 1967 archive!
thedaybooks: I keep thinking about Denise Levertov's Mt. Rainier poems
thedaybooks: Here she is reading one
SunShaded2201: "The day's blow rang out, metallic -- or it was I, a bell awakened, and what I heard was my whole self saying and singing what it knew: I can" -- Denise Levertov
GroupOl27516629: Two girls discover the secret of lifein a sudden line of poetry.,Denise Levertov, Poems, 1960-1967,girls, poetry,
ToussaintDonvi5: The poem has a social effect of some kind whether or not the poet wills it to have. It has a kenetic force, it sets in motion...elements in the reader that would otherwise remain stagnant.,Denise Levertov,poetry,
FINALED: The thread by Denise Levertov.
etechne: For my fellow Lentventurers: Denise Levertov, Lynn Aldrich and Michael Card.
JillianWeise: "So to conclude: we are falling asleep and we need to be woken up."
] Am thinking of poet Denise Levertov: "Insofar as poetry has a social function it is to awaken sleepers by other means than shock.” [
profontheright: and there was no word he sang but I knew its meaning.
Denise Levertov, “A Tree Telling of Orpheus”
Karavanprolazi: Growth, branching, leafing, yielding blossoms and fruit and the sharp odor of dreams.
-Denise Levertov
UthmanFuntua: "In certain ways writing is a form of prayer."
- Denise Levertov
jocelynius: In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.
- Denise Levertov
jobacala: In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.
– Denise Levertov
lexlmerrill: Eros at the Temple Stream
Denise Levertov
The river in its abundance
many-voiced
all about us as we stood
on a warm rock to wash
slowly
smoothing in long
sliding strokes
our soapy hands along each other's
slippery cool bodies
Quiet and slow in the…
susanstewartw: Sojourners Voice of the Day:
You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.
- Denise Levertov
seventydys: watching your face
Jean Joubert, ‘Moonwater’, tr Denise Levertov
AlohChioma: "The substance, the means, of an art, is an incarnation - not reference but phenomenon" .... Denise Levertov. ❤️
oldbuffalo: if I had to choose a poem to go along with a picture, I think this poem by Denise Levertov would fit well. The picture is bleak but the poem has a spark of hope. the hope of language, that we learn to speak to one another again. nicely.
StayInspiredBot: Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus. - Denise Levertov
Badass4Mothers: I don’t care
if I never taste your fine food again,
neutral fellows, seers of every side.
It is my brothers, my sisters,
whose blood spurts out and stops
forever
because you choose to believe it is not your business.
- Denise Levertov (“Goodbye to Tolerance,” 1975)
JohnSte40163279: If from Space not only sapphire continents,
swirling oceans, were visible, but the wars-
like bonfires, wildfires, forest conflagrations,
flame and smoky smoulder-the Earth would seem
a bitter pomander ball bristling with poison cloves.
- Denise Levertov
jackmalik_pr: “poetry gives passion to the roses, / the roses in the gypsy’s window in a blue / vase, look real, as unreal / as real roses.”
—Denise Levertov
MichaelPeach: To make
of song a chalice
of Time,
a communion wine.
Denise Levertov, from Entr'acte in Relearning the Alphabet
Shutterwink: Poetry’s highest task is “to awaken sleepers by other means than shock” Denise Levertov
TimDee4: Guillevic ~ Dwellings (translated by Denise Levertov).
Like Heidegger on acid. I love this poem.
GiedreP: Denise Levertov
LIVING
The fire in leaf and grass
so green it seems
each summer the last summer.
The wind blowing, the leaves
shivering in the sun,
each day the last day.
AliceGoodman17: Denise Levertov's father, the Revd Dr Paul Levertoff, I think.
elonsgirlcock: denise levertov, joanna newsom, myself. excuse the handwriting
__jajaja___: honestly iconic of denise levertov to describe Emily Dickinson as a bitchy little spinster
iam_mohammed98: the days of burning, and silence, and distance.
-Denise Levertov, Here and Now; from 'The Bird’
aliner: Wherein Denise Levertov asks William Heyen if he is "seriously referring to 'lady' poets"...
pubtheologian: Couple interesting quotes on the word 'religion':
Religion means "that which reconnects." ~Denise Levertov
Religion: the social place we go to work on our inner life. ~Ira Progoff
If only religion was known much more for this, instead of the violence, infighting and hypocrisy.
FINALED: Seeing for a moment, Denise Levertov.
mvalliant306: “It’s when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart.”
—Denise Levertov
burninginblue8: one knew
that heart of fire, rose
at the core of gold glow,
could go down undiminished…
- Denise Levertov
noonsnack: Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.
I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line.
--from Denise Levertov's "The Secret"
BirgitteUna: Candlemas
With certitude
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep night.
Denise Levertov
barbmilne: From ‘February Evening in New York’
“Prospect of sky
wedged into avenues, left at the ends of streets,
west sky, east sky: more life tonight! A range
of open time at winter's outskirts.”
Denise Levertov
7klrn: “i am tired of the fine art of unhappiness.”
— denise levertov, the freeing of the dust
7klrn: “your presence touched others,”
— denise levertov, the collected earlier poems; “everything that acts is actual,”
Bo0okss: With all my passionate intensity.
- Denise Levertov
poemakontsa: Poets and cats!
Denise Levertov
The Cat as Cat
The cat on my bosom
sleeping and purring
- fur-petalled chrysanthemum,
squirrel-killer -
is a metaphor only If I
force him to be one
FINALED: The need of dark, Denise Levertov.
mkimdorman: Where?
That which is not in stone,
not even in the wall of stones and earth,
not even in trees,
that which forever trembles a little,
must, then, be in us.
-Guillevic
(tr. Denise Levertov)
mkimdorman: A Nail
The nail
is only the least bit rusted.
It has not had to serve yet.
It has been resting,
the way one rests.
It's one of the things that make
this silence gone
in search of itself.
-Guillevic
(tr. Denise Levertov)
janine_hdz: The secret | Denise Levertov
mkimdorman: The little trout
slim as a penknife
can't find its rock
in the great brook.
-Guillevic,
from "Amulets"
(tr. Denise Levertov)
adrianmckinty: another poem from Denise Levertov
February Evening in New York
if the lady in this poem is still alive (it was written in 1957) I hope she still feels the same way
emmarcourt: January 21: "February Evening in New York" by Denise Levertov, for a January evening in New York, naturally!
braindump7788: You cannot will it to happen. But you can place yourself in a relationship to your art to be able to receive it if it should happen; this relationship is faithful attention. - Denise Levertov
MotivatBt: "Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus. (Denise Levertov)"
MayaJZeller: ". . . the condition of being a poet is that periodically such a cross section, or constellation, of experiences (in which one or another element may predominate) demands, or wakes in [them] this demand: the poem"
-Denise Levertov, from "Some Notes on Organic Form"
poemakontsa: Both Denise Levertov and Elaine Feinstein do a fantastic job bringing these images alive. I am slightly more obsessed with Feinstein's translation.
poemakontsa: Both Elaine Feinstein's and Denise Levertov's translations of Marina Tsvetaeva's poem 'Letter" here:
FINALED: Denise Levertov. The love of morning.
So delicious. Happy morning!
pshares: "how can there be a poetry of
something that was never deeply experienced, never deeply felt?”
Read Yael S. Hacohen’s piece "Rules of Engagement: A Look2 Essay on Denise Levertov’s War Poetry" in the Winter 2022-23 Issue of Ploughshares:
seventydys: I’d really like someone to do a re-run of Alberta T. Turner’s 1977 anthology, which has rare reflections on writing by Louise Glück, Frank Stanford, Denise Levertov, Charles Simic, Russell Edson, Maxine Kumin, Michael S. Harper, Charles Wright and others.
qwertyuiop51559: 92Y/The Paris Review Interview Series: Denise Levertov with Deborah Digges
PaulSchlienz: Superb recitation of Denise Levertov's great poem.
susanrichpoet: Oh Denise Levertov, my first poetry hero
ZeeshanJaanam: One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language.
—Denise Levertov
aidaniamb: Every time I read Denise Levertov I am amazed.
qwertyuiop51559: 2015 Denise Levertov Conference Plenary: Mary Gordon
ay_maam_ck: In the dark I rest,
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need
more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.
Denise Levertov
_wabi_sabi__: Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of apathy, fatique,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.
– Denise Levertov
goodnatureart: Devin Kelly's take on Denise Levertov's "Action"
Aplm888Alana: Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus.
~ Denise Levertov
BrajeshOffice: Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus.
© Denise Levertov
truerkg: Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus.
© Denise Levertov
Videstellae: What’s everyone’s favorite New Year’s poem? Denise Levertov’s “For the New Year, 1981” is a standard for me.
joycebudenberg: You have to come to the shore.
There are no instructions.
Denise Levertov
jprapke: Pleasures by Denise Levertov
I like to find
what's not found
at once, but lies
within something of another nature,
in repose, distinct.
Gull feathers of glass, hidden
in white pulp: the bones of squid
which I pull out and lay
blade by blade on th…
HollyLynWalrath: Currently obsessed with this small poem by Denise Levertov: “Intrusion”
nurserytheology: Lindsey’s Substack: Annunciation by Denise Levertov
TheGoodbyeBaby: The poem has a social effect of some kind whether or not the poet wills that it have. It has kinetic force, it sets in motion...elements in the reader that would otherwise be stagnant.
— Denise Levertov
FINALED: Annunciation by Denise Levertov.
aahrens430: Happy Christmas, all.
“The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.
She was free to accept or to refuse, choice integral to humanness.
Aren’t there annunciations of one sort or another in most lives?”
-from Denise Levertov’s “Annunciation”
MaryannCorbett: Last night, after all the eating, I sat down to watch Carols at King's on Britbox. The music was as wonderful as ever, and the readings included poems by Denise Levertov and U.A. Fanthorpe. Here's the UAF:
GalleyBeggars: Now listening to Carols at Kings. That Denise Levertov poem (Annunciation) is a bit hard to swallow.
StGilesSheldon: Remembering The Annunciation today.
But we are told of meek obedience.
No one mentions courage.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.
She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.
Excerpt: Denise Levertov
Image: Jan van Eyck
OSacrumCorIesu: Stanzas 1, 2 & 4 from Denise Levertov's "Annunciation". Love the focus on consent.
"Consent, courage unparalleled, opened her utterly"
StreetsofC: An awe so quiet I don't know when it began.
A gratitude had begun to sing in me.
Was there some moment dividing song from no song...
When does night fold its arms over our hearts to cherish them?
When is daybreak?
― Denise Levertov, ‘Oblique Prayers’
Chicago Lakefront. Dec 2022
Bedouin105: What is green in me
darkens, muscadine.
If woman is inconstant,
good, I am faithful to
ebb and flow, I fall
in season and now
is a time of ripening.
From the poem Stepping Westward by Denise Levertov
StayInspiredBot: Very few people really see things unless theyve had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus. - Denise Levertov
EmmertAndrew: i did purchase the (near) complete works of Robert Duncan, including letters w Denise Levertov, which was probably a better place to put my energies.
BmillsBilly: The great Denise Levertov.
barbmilne: Denise Levertov
‘Its form speaks of gliding
though one had never seen a swan
and strands of silver, caught
in the branches near it, speak
of rain suspended in a beam of light,
one speech conjuring the other.’
