Denise Levertov Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Hypocrite women, how seldom we speak
  of our own doubts, while dubiously
  we mother man in his doubt!

  Denise Levertov

  Mother, Hypocrite, Men

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.135, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• I thought I was growing wings— it was a cocoon. I thought, now is the time to step into the fire— it was deep water. Eschatology is a word I learned as a child: the study of Last Things; facing my mirror—no longer young, the news—always of death, the dogs—rising from sleep and clamoring and howling, howling.... ("Seeing For a Moment")

  Denise Levertov

  Dog, Children, Sleep

  Denise Levertov (1984). “Oblique Prayers: Poetry”, p.14, New Directions Publishing

  54 Copy quote

• Praise
  the invisible sun burning beyond
  the white cold sky, giving us
  light and the chimney's shadow.

  Denise Levertov

  Light, Sky, White

  Denise Levertov (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• I watch the clouds as I see them
  in pomp advancing, pursuing
  the fallen sun.

  Denise Levertov

  Clouds, Watches, Sun

  Denise Levertov, “Clouds”

  4 Copy quote

• Each part
  of speech a spark
  awaiting redemption, each
  a virtue, a power
  in abeyance.

  Denise Levertov

  Redemption, Speech, Sparks

  Denise Levertov (1973). “The poet in the world”, New Directions Publishing Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• Teachers at all levels encourage the idea that you have to talk about things in order to understand them, because they wouldn't have jobs, otherwise. But it's phony, you know.

  Denise Levertov

  Teacher, Jobs, Teaching

  Denise Levertov, Jewel Spears Brooker (1998). “Conversations with Denise Levertov”, p.39, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• What joy when the insouciant
  armadillo glances at us and doesn't
  quicken his trotting
  across the track into the palm brush.
  What is this joy? That no animal
  falters, but knows what it must do?

  Denise Levertov

  Animal, Track, Joy

  Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley, Paul A. Lacey (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.19, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals.

  Denise Levertov

  Book, Thinking, Effectiveness

  Denise Levertov (1981). “Light Up the Cave”, p.123, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Do you mistake me?
  I am speaking of living,
  of moving from one moment into
  the next, and into the
  one after, breathing
  death in the spring air.

  Denise Levertov

  Life, Spring, Mistake

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.84, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Wear scarlet! Tear the green lemons off the tree! I don't want to forget who I am, what has burned in me, and hang limp and clean, an empty dress -

  Denise Levertov

  Who I Am, Tree, Tears

  Denise Levertov (1979). “Collected Earlier Poems, 1940-1960”, p.88, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• So absolute, it is
  no other than
  happiness itself, a breathing
  too quiet to hear.

  Denise Levertov

  Happiness, Breathing, Quiet

  4 Copy quote

• We have the words in our pockets,
  obscure directions. The old ones
  have taken away the light of their presence.

  Denise Levertov

  Taken, Light, Poetry

  Denise Levertov (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.34, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The fire in leaf and grass so green it seems each summer the last summer.

  Denise Levertov

  Summer, Fire, July

  Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley, Paul A. Lacey (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.52, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Among a hundred windows shining
  dully in the vast side
  of greater-than-palace number such-and-such
  one burns
  these several years, each night
  as if the room within were aflame.

  Denise Levertov

  Night, Years, Numbers

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.28, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The vast silence of Buddha overtakes
  and overrules the oncoming roar
  of tragic life that fills alleys and avenues;
  it blocks the way of pedicabs, police, convoys.

  Denise Levertov

  Block, Silence, Police

  Denise Levertov, Peggy Rosenthal (2006). “Making Peace”, p.25, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• 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, Home, Eagles

  Denise Levertov (1993). “Evening Train”, p.3, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The stairway is not
  a thing of gleaming strands
  a radiant evanescence
  for angels' feet that only glance in their tread, and need not
  touch the stone.

  Denise Levertov

  Angel, Feet, Needs

  Denise Levertov (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.25, New Directions Publishing

  5 Copy quote

• Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry.

  Denise Levertov

  Girl, Two, Secret

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.87, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Let me walk through the fields of paper touching with my wand dry stems and stunted butterflies.

  Denise Levertov

  Butterfly, Touching, Paper

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.143, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• In city, in suburb, in forest, no way to stretch out the arms - so if you would grow, go straight up or deep down.

  Denise Levertov

  Cities, Growth, Arms

  Denise Levertov, Jewel Spears Brooker (1998). “Conversations with Denise Levertov”, p.128, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• In June the bush we call
  alder was heavy, listless,
  its leaves studded with galls,
  growing wherever we didn't
  want it.

  Denise Levertov

  June, Growing, Want

  Denise Levertov (1983). “Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967”, p.97, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The last cobwebs
  of fog in the
  black firtrees are flakes
  of white ash in the world's hearth.

  Denise Levertov

  Fog, White, Black

  9 Copy quote

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

  Denise Levertov

  Morning, Rain, Winter

  Denise Levertov, “Bearing The Light”

  8 Copy quote

• Let the space under the first storey be dark, let the water
  lap the stone posts, and vivid green slime glimmer
  upon them; let a boat be kept there.

  Denise Levertov

  Dark, Space, Water

  Denise Levertov (1967). “The Sorrow Dance: Poems”, [New York] : New Directions

  4 Copy quote

• our nerve filaments twitch with its presence
  day and night,
  nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying,
  nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
  the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

  Denise Levertov

  War, Night, Nerves

  Denise Levertov, Peggy Rosenthal (2006). “Making Peace”, p.4, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

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