Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997 / Ilford, Essex)

''putting his hope in certain death, lowering
his head again to the grass.''

''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.''

''image
of water, a brightness
not gold, not silver,
rippling
as if with laughter.''

''That sound, everywhere about us, of the sea—
the tree among its tresses has always heard it,
and the horse dips his black body in the sound
stretching his neck as if towards drinking water ...''

''Let me be at the place of the castle.
Let the castle be within me.''

''(1) Know the pinetrees. Know the orange dryness of sickness and death in needle and cone. Know them too in green health, those among whom your life is laid.''

''I have seen
not behind but within, within the
dull grief, blown grit, hideous
concrete façades, another grief, a gleam
as of dew, an abode of mercy....''

''As if that hand
squeezing crow's blood
against a white sky
beside an idiot's laughing face
were real.''

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

''not that horror was not, not that the killings did not continue,
not that I thought there was to be no more despair,
but that as if transparent all disclosed
an otherness that was blessèd, that was bliss.
I saw Paradise in the dust of the street.''