Denise Levertov: six poems

Denise Levertov reads six poems from her later collections, three from EVENING TRAIN (1992) and three later included in her posthumously published collection SANDS OF THE WELL (1998). This is an extract from an hour-long reading she gave for the Lannan Foundation in Los Angeles on 7 December 1993. The poems are: 'Settling', 'Open Secret', 'Tragic Error', 'The Danger Moment', 'A Gift' and 'For Those Whom the Gods Love Less', three of which were also included in her SELECTED POEMS (New Directions, 2002), which was published in Britain as NEW SELECTED POEMS (Bloodaxe Books, 2003):
www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepag...
Denise Levertov (1923-97) was born in Essex, and educated at home by her father, a Russian Jewish immigrant, who became an Anglican priest, and by her Welsh mother. In 1948, she emigrated to America, where she was acclaimed by Kenneth Rexroth in The New York Times as 'the most subtly skilful poet of her generation, the most profound, the most modest, the most moving,' and during the following decades she became 'a poet who may just be the finest writing in English today' (Kirkus Reviews). Throughout her life, she worked also as a political activist, campaigning tirelessly for civil rights and environmental causes, and against the Vietnam War, the Bomb and US-backed regimes in Latin America.
This video is copyright Lannan Foundation 1994 and posted on UA-cam with the permission of the Lannan Foundation.

[@DSensitize]

Denise Levertov saved me. I discovered her work while in a psych hospital when I was in my early twenties. I had no conception of what poetry was, what it could do. Suddenly, when I read her work, it was like I had fallen out of the ether and landed on a meadow of soft green grass.

[@BloodaxeBooks]

Thanks Daniel. That's wonderful to know.

[@laurenraine]

So often this poet has been a refuge for me.

[@PatriciaGoodsonpianist]

Miss you, Denise.

[@PoetryETrain]

Thank you, this has been added to our playlists...

[@rievans57]

Lovely!

[@RaveAllNight]

Glorious

[@gbem1]

Cool shirt to match the cool verse.

[@Fastclarice]

Interesting that, despite living for 45 years in USA, Levertov still sounds so English.

[@lilmowlds130]

Poem by Denise Levertov.

[@DavidJBauman]

Ah, Kristine, I should have expected to stumble into you here at this reading. :)

[@lilmowlds130]

Can you tell me which poem contains the lines lying on the sea

[@BloodaxeBooks]

Do you mean a poem by Denise Levertov? Or were you thinking of Elizabeth Bishop's poem "The Imaginary Iceberg' " which does have that line? - "perhaps the snows / Which so surprise us lying on the sea."

[@Poemsapennyeach]

It's very hard to read poetry. Poets rarely do themselves justice...when reading live...like this.

[@daisyabey6161]

She is excellent