Levertov, Denise
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- Levertov profoundly interacts with Christian relgious themes
- Nature in religion
- "Straight to the point can ricochet"
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The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes (New Directions Paperbook, 844)
Denise Levertov
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- Breathing the Water
- Thirst: Poems
ASIN: 0811213544 |
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Levertov profoundly interacts with Christian relgious themes.......2005-01-30
This collection of "selected poems on religious themes" is not to be confused with religious poetry, or inspirational poetry. Here we have a renowned modern poet from the late 20th Century, who embraced the Christian faith late in life, interacting with spiritual sources that crossed her path while on her journey of faith.
Often one only gets out of a poem what one brings to it, at other times the poem speaks for itself. Both are the case here. Levertov develops a personal dialogue with various texts, personages and paintings, such as Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, the Mass for St. Thomas Didymus, Caedmon from Bede's "History of the English Church," Velazquez's "The Servant Girl at Emmaus," Brother Lawrence's "Practice of the Presence of God," "Hail, space for the uncontained God" (from the Orthodox Christian Akathist hymn), as well as numerous New Testament passages.
Some of these poems presuppose at least a nodding acquaintance with the original source. Others, such as those dealing with Christ's suffering on the cross, will be more accessible, since most of our culture still retains an awareness of the life of Christ.
While I struggled through some of these works, knowing that if I took the time I could get much more out of them, others demanded to be read a second and third time immediately.
Such was the case with "Annunciation," which draws on the Gospel account of when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is to bear the Son of God: "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."
Many still believe that modern poetry and the Christian faith don't mix. Here is proof otherwise. Going through this volume may be like mining for gold for some, but believe me, it's worth the effort. If you like this volume, check out works by Scott Cairns, also found here at Amazon.
Nature in religion.......1999-01-14
The need for simple groupings of poems into thematic clusters may be too convenient and decpetive of the complexities of the poems themselves. But with Levertov, as with others, there is such a compelling predeliction towards specific themes and subjects that to do so can be useful.Here we have her major religious poems in a separate volume, just as there has been a volume of her poems on nature and a deserved volume of her political poems (if one hasn't been published already). These poems do chart Levertov's progressive understanding and acceptance of Christianity, but at their best they do something else. Their focus is often on natural scenes which have a humbling effect. The level sought isn't always that of the often over-mystified religious ceremony, though there's plenty of mystery to the poems. In "The Avowel" this effect is achieved through analogy, the submissive posture of lying on one's back hearkening not only a religious submission but one which the speaker is reminded of by the natural world. "As swimmers dare/ to lie face to the sky/ and water bears them,/ as hawks rest upon air/ and air sustains them,/ so would I learn to attain/ freefall, and float/ into Creator Spirit's deep embrace,/ knowing no effort earns/ that all-surrounding grace."
The "free-falling" that occurs is much like that effect of flight in George Herbert's concrete poem "Easter Wings," which takes the shape of a bird. Here the use of a center alignment (which is hard for me to approximate) gives the impression of both the "deep embrace" and the fall, each line arrising not from a speakerly margin but from a need more like song. Again, the groupings of these poems together is a faulty judgement of Levertov's range, yet considering her uncanny ability to mask her concerns in a seemingly banal tone through everyday language we should be thankful that these small volumes have been available as studies into one of the best American poets of the last half century.
"Straight to the point can ricochet".......1997-04-27
This set of books frighten me. Both are powerful and wonderful and deserve
your immediate and lasting attention. The poems are not new, they are a
themed selection. Interestingly enough placed in seperate but equal volumes.
The Stream and the Sapphire is a selection of poems that elucidate the
growth of Denise as a Christian. And an exciting growth it is. My favorite
of the moment are words I use as prayer: "How can I focus my flickering,
perceive at the fountain's heart the sapphire I know is there?"
The Life Around Us is subtitled "selected poems on nature". In "A Reward",
we live a harried day with the narrator and watch with her as "the heron,
unseen for weeks, came flying widewinged toward me."
What is probably a marketing tool, a most wise one by the publisher, is
what scares me about these two volumes. In theme, the power of God is told
in lush detail in both volumes. The heron in the nature selection is the
holy spirit of the religious selection, and in our natural state both can
and will be the same. Those brief moments of recognition of something
outside ourselves.
So with these two volumes to recommend, why should I be trepiditious? The
marketing folks know us so well, and as poets we cannot overcome the
marketing department. "Christians" are right winged slobs that grow fat and
salute the flag and make fools of themselves on TV. They have absolutely no
regard for nature because they are Republicans bound and determined to
destroy the rainforest. Friends of the natural world cannot be interested
in true spiritual life because they worship nature, and are Democrats, and
would not consider a Christian a person. A nature person is good and
upright and has never done wrong, and therefore has no need of the "crutch"
of Christianity.
Crass? Yep. That's why I'm scared of these two books. Because it brings out
the crass nature of our commercialized economy. Everything is cut and dry -
a cookie cutter product determined and produced by a media that thrives on
exacting stereotypes. I can hear the salesman now walking into the
Christian bookstore pitching the blue book; and the same salesman waking
into the New Age bookstore pitching the green book. I'm saddened and scared
that it's come to this - even in poetry. It's been with us in every other
aspect of life for so many years now that I guess it had to be inevitable.
Truth is, most Christians live in a more calm life than the wild-eyed
frothing at the mouth pentacostal, or the bomb-throwing fanatic at an
abortion clinic. It may be surprising to those who only read newspapers and
watch tv to find out that many Christians believe God commanded them to
take care of the planet. And vice-versa. Not all nature lovers worship the
earth as God. Not all folks who are concerned with the environment are
anti-Christian. Surprisingly to the media-fed public is the fact that there
are many people who love the outdoors who feel abortion is just as wrong as
shooting a bald eagle or a snowy songed owl.
Not all republicans are anti-abortion; not all democrats are pro-abortion;
and not all those who could care less about politics have no opinion either
way. There are many varieties of individuals; and within most of us, I
believe strongly, there is a wonderful mixture of all the above. Let's face
it, when confronted with a child molester who just raped his child, the
strongest anti-abortion catholic would probably much rather kill the man as
see him live, even if only for a brief moment. Why? Because we are human.
Which brings this around from a silly sermon back to the issue at hand -
Denise Levertov celebrates our humanity. We see Thomas - in some circles
known as the twin brother of Christ - struggling with his doubts. We hear
in other places the voice of the poet struggling with questions and
wandering doubts. In the nature series we hear the narrators of the poems
finding a deep peace - if only momentary, a solace - a knowledge. Read
together we find these powerful insights are all one insight into our inner
selves.
And, slyly, in selecting the poems, Denise was able to confound the
marketing department. From the nature series: "God is imaged as well or
better in the white stillness resting everywhere, giving all things an hour
of Sabbath." And from the religious series: "Dull stones again fulfill
their glowing destinies, and emptiness is a cup, and holds the ocean." Why
not combine these two selctions of poems into one fine volume? Marketing.
Sad, but true. Recently, ND published Robert Duncan's selected - 170+ pages
for $12.95. By seperating Denise's poems for a perceived dual market (and
unfortunately the perception is probably true), the sales force is able to
sell the two slender volumes for $8.95 apiece. A few extra bucks - and
because of the targeted audience - a lot more sales!
My recommendation? Confound the marketing department. Buy both books!
Praise both books. And praise Denise for giving us such interesting
meditations on life. If you can, then read or re-read her past volumes and
experience her growth in a more natural form; but if you are in a position
of experiencing her poetry for the first time, these two small volumes will
be an appetizer that will send you searching to experience the flavors of
The Jacob's Ladder, Evenings In Babylon, Evening Train, and quite a few more
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- Lovely.
- Mahatma Denise
- A fitting memorial
- Magnificent poems in a beautiful book.
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This Great Unknowing: Last Poems
Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: New Directions
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- Breathing the Water
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- Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation: Emotional Engagement in the Analytic Process (Relational Perspectives Book Series)
ASIN: 0811214036 |
Book Description
Poetry. When Denise Levertov died in 1997, she left behind 40 finished poems, which now form her last collection, This Great Unknowing.
Customer Reviews:
Lovely........2004-08-17
Denise Levertov, This Great Unknowing: Last Poems (New Directions, 1999)
I am ashamed to admit that for many years, based on some of her very early writings, I have mindlessly lumped Denise Levertov in with the Beats, specifically a number of the Beats whom I've never been able to stomach (Diane Wakoski being chief among them, with Robert Creeley and that Kelly fellow who used to publish a book every two weeks or so on Black Sparrow running a close second). It took me reading Richard Jackson's fantastic The Dismantling of Time in Contemporary Poetry a year and a half ago, in which Levertov is one of the six poets he discusses in depth, for me to consider changing that idea; by association, he puts her on the same level as such giants as Robert Penn Warren, John Hollander, and the finest living poet working in America today, Charles Simic, among others. My mind shifts gears gradually, sometimes very gradually, and I am just now getting round to giving the late Ms. Levertov another try. I'm quite glad I did, and wish I'd read The Dismantling of Time in Contemporary Poetry when it first came out some twelve years ago.
This Great Unknowing is, not surprisingly, a book overshadowed with the idea of death. Not an uncommon theme for a writer who's approaching the age of seventy-five and knows she probably isn't long for this world. The work herein is also possessed of a great maturity (something many seventy-five-year-old poets never acquire), a fine ear for tonality, and a decided calming of the radical spirit, though it has not gone away entirely. And when the radical spirit comes out, as with most poets, the work does suffer; Levertov, like almost all of her contemporaries, was never big on the art of subtlety. She has, however, over the years taken an increasing interest in letting the story tell itself, so once in a while the pokes at society do manage to find themselves enmeshed in a poem, rather than a political screed. Which puts her well ahead of most of the pack in that regard.
Her work speaks with a quiet authority here, a need for sharing rather than for imparting, and that makes all the difference;
"...In the crook
of an old and tattered snag
something gleams amid the stillness,
drawing the gaze: some bit of heartwood
so long exposed, weather and time
have polished it, as centuries
of awed lips, touching
a hand of stone, rub it
to somber gleaming."
(--"A Cryptic Sign")
or
"...(Meanwhile,
the April sun, cold though it is,
has opened the small daisies,
so many and so humble they get underfoot--
and don't care. Each one
a form of laughter.)..."
(--"Noblesse Oblige")
The few places where it does degenerate into the non-poetry of political rhetoric do cause the book to suffer, but by no means should those few spots (limited to a few lines here and there, never a whole poem) stop you from seeking this book out at your earliest opportunity. Levertov is a fine poet, and this seems an excellent starting point. I know I'll be reading more of her late work, hoping it's this good. ****
Mahatma Denise.......2004-01-24
I miss Denise Levertov. I never knew her personally, but she spoke to me through her poetry in ways that few others have. I still remember how stunned I was to hear of her death--several months after the fact, in casual conversation with Deborah Larsen, a great-souled poet in her own right.
I've been rereading during these bleak but beautiful winter months Levertov's posthumous poems. To my mind, they offer some of the best work she ever did. They continue her themes of yearning for something that can't quite be uttered, her love for the particular, her striving to reach a level of awareness before which the heart of being will be revealed, and her concerns for justice and for the environment. But now there's a poignancy, a nostalgia, an anticipation--and perhaps an acceptance--to her verse that suggest a woman awaiting the end. I read her words--her sighs, really--and my soul expands just a little bit more than it would've.
One poem especially touches me--"Memory demands so much." Part of it is a fitting swansong for Levertov:
Take me flying before
you vanish, leaf, before
I have time to remember you,
intent instead on being
in the midst of that flight,
of those unforeseeable words.
Farewell, Denise. And thanks.
A fitting memorial.......2001-02-04
Denise Levertove (1923-1997) was born in London and educated at home. She came to American in 1948 and was introduced to the reading public in "New British Poets", going on to publish more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and translations, as well as enjoying a career as a distinguished university professor. This Great Unknowing is a fitting memorial to her talent as poet and observer of the human condition.
Magnificent poems in a beautiful book........1999-12-22
This book was my first introduction to the poems of Denise Levertov. I heard about it in an essay written by Kathleen Norris in The Christian Century. The poems are strikingly beautiful and accessible to anyone. Levertov captures our imagination with the depth of her insights and the beauty of her words--not with the obscurity of her images. I have given copies of this to no less than four friends and each of them have bought other copies of her works for themselves. Highly recommended.
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Seasons of Light
Peter Brown , and Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: Rice University Press
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New & Selected Essays (New Directions Paperbook)
Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
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ASIN: 0811212181 |
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- Beautiful!
- A gem of erotic poetry conveying the flavor (rasa) of love.
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In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali
Jr., Edward C. Dimock , and Denise Levertov
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ASIN: 0226152316 |
Book Description
Arising out of a devotional and enthusiastic religious movement that swept across most of northern and eastern India in the period from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, the powerful and moving lyrics collected and elegantly translated here depict the love of Radha for the god Krishna--a love whose intensity and range of emotions trace the course of all true love between man and woman and between man and God. Intermingling physical and metaphysical imagery, the spiritual yearning for the divine is articulated in the passionate language of intense sensual desire for an irresistible but ultimately unpossessable lover, thus touching a resonant chord in our humanity.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful!.......1998-03-05
The reviews say it all. This is a very fortuitous partnership of scholar and poet! The songs come alive in their hands. Makes me want to sing them.
A gem of erotic poetry conveying the flavor (rasa) of love........1997-06-27
That Edward Dimock, the consummate scholar of Bengali studies, and Denise Levertov, the consummate modern poet, would collaborate together is a match made in heaven. The book is a gem. Give it to someone you love, yet better still, read it to him or her.
Or savor it alone in quiet still moments so delicious that only spiritual erotic love poems, perfectly and sensually rendered, could dare express their rare flavor. That flavor, rasa, is the taste of love, served up authentically and exquisitely, but alas, in far too small a portion.
Nonetheless don't hesitate. Bite
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In a Dybbuk's Raincoat: Collected Poems
Bert Meyers
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
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ASIN: 0826337872 |
Book Description
Pitzer College, Claremont, California, is the site of the historic Grove House built in 1902 and moved to the college's campus in the 1970s. Within Grove House is the Bert Meyers Poetry Room, named in honor of the author of this collection and former teacher at Pitzer.
Bert Meyers wrote these poems between 1947 and 1979. Prior to his death at the age of fifty-one, Meyers determined what he considered his best work; following his death Meyers's widow and son added to the collection, all of which now appears in In a Dybbuk's Raincoat, introducing a new generation to Bert Meyers's poetry and songs.
Morten Marcus, friend of Bert Meyers, was asked by Meyers's widow to work with her and Meyers's son, Daniel, to get In a Dybbuk's Raincoat into print.
"There are terrific things here: prose pieces entirely new to me, pungent paragraphs about Paris, lively comments on poetry, and several naughty words about Yeats. Once in a while, one encounters old classics, such as 'Picture Framing.' It's marvelous that Morton Marcus and Bert's son, Daniel, have brought out this book."--Robert Bly, author of My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy
L.A.
The world's largest ash-tray,
the latest in concrete,
capital of the absurd;
one huge studio
where people drive
from set to set and everyone's
from a different planet.
For miles, the palm trees,
exotic janitors,
sweep out the sky at dusk.
The grey air molds.
Geraniums heat the alleys.
Jasmine and gasoline
undress the night.
This is the desert
that lost its mind,
the place that boredom built.
Freeways, condominiums, malls,
where the cartons of trash and diamonds
and ideologies
are opened, used, dumped into the sea.
Pencil Sharpener
It has no arms or legs, this tiny nude; yet grip
it by the waist, then stir its hips: a dry leaf multiplies,
a cold motor starts in the wood.
Revived, still shivering, the pencil sheds itself--
and there's a butterfly, teeth, the fragments of a
crown.
They Who Waste Me
When I ask for a hand,
they give me a shovel.
If I complain, they say,
Worms are needles at work
to clothe a corpse for spring.
I sigh. Whoever breathes
has inhaled a neighbor.<br/><br/>The late Bert Meyers is well known for his surprising, succinct observations on the state of the world and the human condition, finally collected here in one volume.
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The Selected Poems of Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov , and Paul A. Lacey
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
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- Poetry As Prayer: Denise Levertov (The Poetry As Prayer Series)
- Breathing the Water
- Conversations With Denise Levertov (Literary Conversations Series)
ASIN: 0811215202 |
Book Description
At last in a single volume: the breadth and depth of Denise Levertov's poetic achievements. Culled from two dozen poetry books, and drawing from six decades of her writing life, The Selected Poems of Denise Levertov offers a chronological overview of her great body of work. It is splendid and impressive to have at last a clear, unobstructed view of her groundbreaking poetry—the work of a poet who, as Kenneth Rexroth put it, "more than anyone, led the redirection of American poetry...to the mainstream of world literature." Described by Publishers Weekly as "at once as intimate as Creeley and as visionary as Duncan," Levertov was lauded as "one of the indispensable poets of our language, one of those few writers to whom it is necessary to pay attention" by The Malahat Review. No poet is more overdue for a single accessible volume; no career could be better to have within easy reach.
As a child, Denise Levertov (1923-1997) sent her poems to T. S. Eliot, who admired and encouraged her. Born in England and educated at home, she emigrated to the United States in 1948, and became one of the most important American poets of the second half of the 20th century. Levertov - who won the Robert Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the Lannan Prize—was also a staunch anti-war activist and environmentalist. "One of the essential poets of our time" (Poetry Flash), Denise Levertov was an inspiration to generations of writers.
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Evening Train (A New Directions, No. 750)
Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
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ASIN: 0811212203 |
Amazon.com
In the title poem of this collection, Denise Levertov again demonstrates the arresting imagery that has characterized her poetic career. Our unchanging perception of self, she writes, is "the dimension / that moves with us but itself keeps still / like the bubble in a carpenter's level." The image does a lot of poetic work for her, suggesting the way the self is constructed, with hidden flaws, faintly remembered blueprints, and room for repairs and revisions. A number of these poems bring to mind Eliot's old term "objective correlative," and rewards the reader's attention with hypnotic language. Here is a longtime favorite at top form.
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Conversations With Denise Levertov (Literary Conversations Series)
Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
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ASIN: 1578060745 |
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- Levertov's SANDS OF TIME Moves Us Gently toward Last Words
- reading only words
|
Sands of the Well
Denise Levertov
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
20th Century
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
United States
| Single Authors
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Levertov, Denise
| ( L )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
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- The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes (New Directions Paperbook, 844)
ASIN: 0811213161 |
Book Description
For the first time in paperback-Levertov's recent poetry, showing her at the height of her literary powers. Sands of the Well, first published in hardcover in 1996, shows the poet at the height of her considerable powers, as she addresses the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest coastal landscape in terms of music, memory, aging, doubt, and faith.
Customer Reviews:
Levertov's SANDS OF TIME Moves Us Gently toward Last Words.......1998-01-14
In this collection of Denise Levertov's last poems (1923-1996) we have a fine music moving us with her through commitment and conscience to an act of faith. That faith is in the God she came to connect with during her last years living in Seattle. To know that God, you must read the book and the countless poems of honest and delicate expression bonding us with Nature and humanity. In poem after poem she moves us through and beyond our daily details to a deep awareness of the transparent wonder of being alive. In the eight sections of the book, she captures in intricate detail and clear voice the movement of her life at its close. Her opening poem "What Harbinger?" hints at her own awareness of death's approach; and the final poem "Primary Wonder" answers with a brave acceptance. These are poems as "last words," reminding us of the beauty of our days and the wonder of language to record them. Levertov is America's poet of engagement and wonder.
reading only words.......1997-12-27
The title "Sands of the Well" may suggest that Ms. Levertov's labor was like eking out words but in them there are a collage from newspaper clippings, a love poem for former lovers and the time she's spent simply writing words.
Authors:
- Levi, Primo
- Levine, Philip
- Levy, D. A.
- Lewis, C.S.
- Lewis, Matthew
- Lewis, Sinclair
- Lewis, Wyndham
- Leyner, Mark
- Li Po
- Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph
Authors
Authors