The stairway is not Denise Levertov More Quotes by Denise Levertov More Quotes From Denise Levertov The AvowalAs swimmers dareto lie face to the skyand water bears them,as hawks rest upon airand air sustains them;so would I learn to attain freefall, and floatinto Creator Spirit's deep embrace,knowing no effort earnsthat all-surrounding grace. Denise Levertov knowing air lying Very few people really see things unless they've had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus. Denise Levertov names life people Looking, Walking, Being, I look and look. Looking's a way of being: one becomes, sometimes, a pair of eyes walking. Walking wherever looking takes one. The eyes dig and burrow into the world. They touch, fanfare, howl, madrigal, clamor. World and the past of it, not only visible present, solid and shadow that looks at one looking. And language? Rhythms of echo and interruption? That's a way of breathing. breathing to sustain looking, walking and looking, through the world, in it. Denise Levertov echoes eye past my pleasure Denise Levertov noble flesh dream You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night. Denise Levertov flower doors night I learn to affirm Denise Levertov light truth mind If woman is inconstant, good, I am faithful to ebb and flow, I fall in season and now is a time of ripening. Denise Levertov ebb-and-flow women fall Prophetic utterance, like poetic utterance, transforms experience and moves the receiver to new attitudes. The kinds of experience--the recognitions or revelations--out of which both prophecy and poetry emerge, are such as to stir the prophet or poet to speech that may exceed their own known capacities; they are "inspired," they breathe in revelation and breathe out new words; and by so doing they transfer over to the listener or reader a parallel experience, a parallel intensity, which impels that person into new attitudes and new actions. Denise Levertov poetry attitude moving Love is a landscape the long mountains Denise Levertov distance love long 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 eye dark heart It is fatal to one's artistic life to talk about something that is in process. Denise Levertov artistic-life artistic process I'll dig in into my days, having come here to live, not to visit. Grey is the price of neighboring with eagles, of knowing a mountain's vast presence, seen or unseen. Denise Levertov women eagles home Writing poetry is a process of discovery...you can smell the poem before you see it....Like some animal. Denise Levertov writing discovery animal What joy when the insouciant Denise Levertov track joy animal There comes a time when only anger is love. Denise Levertov there-comes-a-time Peace as a positive condition of society, not merely as an interim between wars, is something so unknown that it casts no images on the mind's screen. Denise Levertov ubuntu war peace There's in my mind a... turbulent moon-ridden girl or old woman, or both, dressed in opals and rags, feathers and torn taffeta, who knows strange songs but she is not kind. Denise Levertov girl moon song When you're really caught up in writing a poem, it can be a form of prayer. I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer. I feel it in different degrees and not with every poem. But in certain ways writing is a form of prayer. Denise Levertov degrees prayer writing Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August. Denise Levertov sweetness breathe august We have the words in our pockets, Denise Levertov poetry light taken
