Jan 14 2022

Denise Levertov – Looking, Walking, Being

Published by at 7:56 am under Poetry

Looking, Walking, Being
by Denise Levertov

“The World is not something to
look at, it is something to be in.”
— Mark Rudman

I look and look.
Looking’s a way of being: one becomes,
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking.
Walking wherever looking takes one.

The eyes
dig and burrow into the world.
They touch
fanfare, howl, madrigal, clamor.
World and the past of it,
not only
visible present, solid and shadow
that looks at one looking.

And language? Rhythms
of echo and interruption?
That’s
a way of breathing.

breathing to sustain
looking,
walking and looking,
through the world,
in it.

— from Poems of Denise Levertov: 1960-1967, by Denise Levertov


/ Image by Amizyolaroid /

Okay, let’s start off with those wonderful lines:

Looking’s a way of being: one becomes,
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking.

This poem is a response to the Mark Rudman quote, “The World is not something to / look at, it is something to be in.” Denise Levertov answers that looking IS being.

The eyes
dig and burrow into the world.
They touch…

I suspect that Rudman was discouraging passivity and lack of presence, but Levertov, I think, is getting at something deeper still. Humans, all beings, in fact, are fundamentally beings of awareness. Each individual is a point of perception, a viewpoint in the universe. We are, each of us, “a pair of eyes walking.”

We are present through perception, not action. Yes, action and interaction can be a powerful way to force us to pay attention, but it is also common to use action to shut down the awareness. Whether in movement or in stillness, the real goal is to keep the eyes open and feel fully with the heart and with the gut. We want to do more than look, but to see and see deeply. We need to see what is ignored and glossed over, to “dig and burrow in the world.”

Even in complete stillness, truly seeing is one of the most profound actions we can engage in. People are brought to tears by a gentle gaze in the eyes. This is what the soul craves, to be seen, to be recognized, to be truly acknowledged. This is true not just of the human soul, but of the world soul. I think of this when Denise Levertov writes of how the world “looks at one looking.”

And language? Rhythms
of echo and interruption?
That’s
a way of breathing.

We forget that language is built of breath. We see the written word and we read it silently. Words become mental concepts, tools of the intellect. But words are not fundamentally discrete units of meaning. They flow and stop and flow again, as the breath does. Words aren’t inherently meaningful; they are the ornaments that accompany the flow of awareness.

Words affect breath. Thoughts affect breath. Breath guides awareness.

…breathing to sustain
looking…

Through the breath, we bring the outside world inside us, inside the body, inside the awareness. The boundary between self and the world is bridged by the breath. Through breath, we touch, we feel, we internalize, we connect, we participate, we come alive. Through breath we move and we see.

…walking and looking,
through the world,
in it.

Vision, language, breath… communion.


Recommended Books: Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov: Selected Poems Poems of Denise Levertov: 1960-1967 Breathing the Water The Great Unknowing: Last Poems Candles in Babylon
More Books >>


Denise Levertov, Denise Levertov poetry, Secular or Eclectic poetry Denise Levertov

US (1923 – 1997) Timeline
Secular or Eclectic : Beat
Jewish

More poetry by Denise Levertov

Share this page ~

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Denise Levertov – Looking, Walking, Being”

  1. Anna M.on 14 Jan 2022 at 11:23 am

    Hi Ivan,

    How nice to hear again from you!

    In latest days was thinking about you and was
    wondering how are you doing.

    Even thought you get to close down Poetry Chaikhana
    or you get in winter hibernation…:)

    Probably you just rest in silence…
    We all need of such periods…

    =

    Being drown so deeply,
    that one is feeling that no one breathe,
    but is being breathed…being breathed…
    it is unique perception…
    …and then no difference between
    “look at and Be in”…

    =

    Be well and come here
    as much often as you can…

    …or just to say

    “Hi…I am alive….”

    Anna M.

  2. Carolon 15 Jan 2022 at 5:23 am

    Thank You, Ivan. This poem ‘Looking, Walking, Being’ by Levertov, required more
    than one reading of me. And of course your commentary helped as always.
    This New Year’s Day, I wakened with an amazing feeling of hope for 2022. 2021 was
    very difficult, but as one commentator said it was better than 2020, and I agree.

    Your closing of ‘May this new year be one of vision, language, breath. . .communion’
    stay with us.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply