|
Denise Levertov (1923-1997)
...was an English-born American poet known for her deceptively simple
use of language. Levertov served as a nurse during World War II, helping Londoners throughout the bombings. In
1947, she moved to New York and became a naturalized American citizen in 1955. Her first volume of poetry, The
Double Image (1946) gained little notice. She continued to write, producing two more volumes in the 1950's and
five in the following decade. She also translated the Buddhist work In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali.
Her more recent volumes of poetry include Footprints (1972), Candles in Babylon (1982), Breathing the Water (1987),
A Door in the Hive (1989), and Evening Train (1992). She also published several volumes of selected poems.
 Snail
Burden, grace.
artifice coiled
brittle on my back, integral,
I thought to crawl
out of you,
yearned for the worm's
lowly freedom that can go
under earth and whose
slow arrow pierces
the thick of dark
but in my shell
my life was,
and when I knew it
I remembered
my eyes adept to witness
air and harsh light
and look all ways.
|
