Tags
becoming awakened, Denise Levertov, life, mystery, poetry, wonder
The whole purpose of life, of this extraordinary experience in being, is to be awake to the wonder and mystery around us in all their myriad forms. These two poems speak eloquently to that need.
Primary Wonder
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
Variation On A Theme By Rilke
A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me–a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. 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.
Both by Denise Levertov
Reblogged this on fading to…WHITE and commented:
I’m breathless, with wonder again. God really wants to talk a lot today. His Glory is Everything…and Everywhere…
Yes! Thank you for the reblog.
Those two poems were “alive” for me this day.
Thank you so much for having posted them.
You are so welcome. They were “alive” for me too.
Beautiful photo and poem ! You are so outstanding !
Thank you. The photo is of my granddaughter picking flowers in the meadow behind out house.
Wow, your hometown looks so beautiful and close to nature ! It’s so admirable ! Besides, your granddaughter looks so cute and pretty, too. LOL !
Thank you. It is lovely here.
hi Deborah!
Thanx for sharing. Talking of Rilke, do read, “Lettters to a young poet” , if you haven’t already.
Best wishes 🙂
I haven’t read that in such a long time. I need to do it again. Thanks for the reminder.
I have really just discovered Denise Levertov these past several months. There are a number of writers of her “generation” whose work strikes a chord with me including Galway Kinnell. I think that the two of them wrote some of the most subtle poetry of the late-1960s through early 1970s among American writers (I know Levertov is originally English). I also think she provided some of the most powerful anti-war poetry of the period also.
I haven’t read as much of Levertov as I should. But what I have read has always struck a chord.
Pingback: YOU’RE FUNNY! | jdawgsrunningblog