Poems by Denise Levertov | Poetree

All Poems Original Poems Translations

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Hymn To Eros

Hymn To Eros

O Eros, silently smiling one, hear me.

Let the shadow of thy wings

brush me.

Let thy presence

enfold me, as if darkness

were swandown.

Let me see that darkness

lamp in hand,

136

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Denise Levertov

An Embroidery

An Embroidery

Rose Red's hair is brown as fur

and shines in firelight as she prepares

supper of honey and apples, curds and whey,

for the bear, and leaves it ready

on the hearth-stone.

Rose White's grey eyes

look into the dark forest.

Rose Red's cheeks are burning,

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Denise Levertov

Bearing The Light

Bearing The Light

Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appearrs, with considered judgement, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds — the indivisible shared out in endless abundance.

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Denise Levertov

Intrusion

Intrusion

After I had cut off my hands

and grown new ones

something my former hands had longed for

came and asked to be rocked.

After my plucked out eyes

had withered, and new ones grown

something my former eyes had wept for

came asking to be pitied.

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Denise Levertov

Web

Web

Intricate and untraceable

weaving and interweaving,

dark strand with light:

designed, beyond

all spiderly contrivance,

to link, not to entrap:

elation, grief, joy, contrition, entwined;

shaking, changing,

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Denise Levertov

Grey Sparrow Addresses The Mind's Ear

Grey Sparrow Addresses The Mind's Ear

In the Japanese tongue of the mind's eye one two syllable word tells of the fringe of rain clinging to the eaves and of the grey-green fronds of wild parsley.

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Denise Levertov

The Métier Of Blossoming

The Métier Of Blossoming

Fully occupied with growing—that's

the amaryllis. Growing especially

at night: it would take

only a bit more patience than I've got

to sit keeping watch with it till daylight;

the naked eye could register every hour's

increase in height. Like a child against a barn door,

proudly topping each year's achievement,

170

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Denise Levertov

The Great Black Heron

The Great Black Heron

Since I stroll in the woods more often

than on this frequented path, it's usually

trees I observe; but among fellow humans

what I like best is to see an old woman

fishing alone at the end of a jetty,

hours on end, plainly content.

The Russians mushroom-hunting after a rain

trail after themselves a world of red sarafans,

149

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Denise Levertov

Celebration

Celebration

Brilliant, this day – a young virtuoso of a day.

Morning shadow cut by sharpest scissors,

deft hands. And every prodigy of green –

whether it's ferns or lichens or needles

or impatient points of buds on spindly bushes –

greener than ever before. And the way the conifers

hold new cones to the light for the blessing,

a festive right, and sing the oceanic chant the wind

161

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Denise Levertov

St Peter And The Angel

St Peter And The Angel

Delivered out of raw continual pain,

smell of darkness, groans of those others

to whom he was chained—

unchained, and led

past the sleepers,

door after door silently opening—

out!

And along a long street's

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Denise Levertov

September 1961

September 1961

This is the year the old ones,

the old great ones

leave us alone on the road.

The road leads to the sea.

We have the words in our pockets,

obscure directions. The old ones

have taken away the light of their presence,

we see it moving away over a hill

165

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Denise Levertov

Illustrious Ancestors

Illustrious Ancestors

The Rav

of Northern White Russia declined,

in his youth, to learn the

language of birds, because

the extraneous did not interest him; nevertheless

when he grew old it was found

he understood them anyway, having

listened well, and as it is said, 'prayed

105

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Denise Levertov