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Secular or Eclectic : Beat
Jewish
20th Century

About Denise Levertov

Timeline (1923 - 1997)

Denise Levertov, Denise Levertov poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, Beat poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Jewish poetry

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Original Language
English

The Secret

Themes
  Death
  Lover and Beloved
 
 
 

 

Recommended Books

Breathing the Water, by Denise Levertov
Candles in Babylon, by Denise Levertov
Collected Earlier Poems: 1940 - 1960, by Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov: Poetry as Prayer, by Murray Bodo
Denise Levertov: Selected Poems, by Denise Levertov

More >>

Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.
 
I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me
 
(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even
 
what line it was.  No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,
 
the line, the name of
the poem.  I love them
for finding what
I can't find,
 
and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that
 
a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines
 
in other
happenings.  And for
wanting to know it,
for
 
assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.

 

 

-- from Denise Levertov: Selected Poems, by Denise Levertov

Amazon.com

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.