Tag Archives: Denise Levertov

How Can I Focus My Flickering Mind?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 5, 2017

If you have ever found your mind wandering as you knelt to pray, Denise Levertov knows how you feel.

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Pulled into the Ring of the Dance

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2017

In her Pentecostal poem “Caedmon,” Denise Levertov describes the moment when the early British poet was filled with the Holy Spirit and learned the art of song.

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Rosh Hashanah – A Stirring of Wonder

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2016

Two poems, by Muriel Rukeyser and Denise Levertov, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah by

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The Quiet Mystery Returns

By Robin Bates | Published: April 19, 2015

In “Primary Wonder” Denise Levertov wonders at the quiet mystery” that “there is anything, anything at all.”

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The Creator Spirit’s Deep Embrace

By Robin Bates | Published: January 18, 2015

Denise Levertov’s “Avowal” equates opening oneself to God to opening oneself to “the Creator Spirit.”

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War in the Name of Religion

By Robin Bates | Published: August 31, 2014

Denise Levertov, who called out Jewish complicity in the 1982 massacres by Lebanese Christians, might do the same today with Gaza.

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A Divine Stairway of Sharp Angles

By Robin Bates | Published: July 20, 2014

Levertov uses to story of Jacob’s Ladder to describe the miracle of poetry.

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Tormented, Torn & Twisted with Doubt

By Robin Bates | Published: April 27, 2014

In Levertov’s poem on St. Thomas, she links his doubts with that of the father of the demon-possessed son who comes to Jesus.

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What Rises So Far Above into the Light?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 7, 2013

Denise Levertov’s poem about moving amongst tall trees becomes a meditation on life and afterlife.

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