PoemLooking, Walking, Being
Author / PoetDenise Levertov
TagsExistence, Language, Perception, Presence

“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.

Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov
24 Oct 1923 - 20 Dec 1997
Region: Central America
Period: Contemporary
Movement: Confessional, New American Poetry
Awards: National Book Award, The Robert Frost Medal

more poems by Denise Levertov

Poem NameTopic
In MindContrast, Imagination, Innocence
Wedding-RingDivorce, Loss, Memory
The WellDreaming, Moonlight, Transformation
The ThreadGently, Pulling, Silently
The QuestDream, Love, Pursuit
The MutesFemale, Grief-Language, Groans
The BreathingFog, Nature, Patience
The AvowalEmbrace, Float, Freefall
The Ache Of MarriageCommunion, Joy, Leviathan
Seeing For A MomentCocoon, Eschatology, Wings

all poems by Denise Levertov

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