Wednesday, October 30
Pre-note:
These two poets have long been alive in my reading life, William Carlos Williams and Denise Levertov. A friend from U Penn’s grad program where we met in 1993, surprised me with the news that these two poets, a generation apart, lived a close connection. (It’s all in this post first published on Feb 8, 2019.)
john st sj
Here’s the original post:
William Carlos Williams & Denise Levertov — a generation apart, but very close
George Danko to jstsj, May 22, 2018
“Dear John,
I recently read a children’s book, A River of Words, about William Carlos Williams, the pediatrician and poet who wrote and administered to families in my hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey. His son also followed his father in a medical career and was my pediatrician. It turns out that Williams, despite fragile health in his later years, mentored younger poets at his home. One of them was Denise Levertov, a favorite of yours.
George”
George and I met in early September 1973 as we both began finding our way around U Penn’s PhD program in American Civilization. These 45 years later we remain good friends who sometimes trade stories of insight or grief or beauty. Last May, George surprised me. One day, reading the Work Day/Hard Times poetry list, he recognized that the poets William Carlos Williams and Denise Levertov often appeared there. Until last May, I had no notion that they shared a living room where Williams listened to Levertov’s young voice and told her what he heard – – a magical inter-generational mentoring kinship.
Two poets, two poems. I hope you can find time to read each one out loud, with pauses. They will be worth the time. Have a blest day.
john sj
p.s. Just now, c. 6:30 am here on the foothill slope of the Rocky Mountains, lovely snow has been falling since the middle of the night, large flakes helped along by gusts of wind. I woke to 3 degrees Fahrenheit and notable snow.
Post #1: William Carlos Williams, “The Manoeuvre”
I saw the two starlings
coming in toward the wires
But at the last,
just before alighting, they
turned in the air together
and landed backwards!
that’s what got me —
to face into the wind’s teeth.
William Carlos Williams
September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams
Post #2: Denise Levertov, “The Poem Rising By Its Own Weight”
‘The poet is at the disposal of his own night.’
Jean Cocteau
The singing robes fly onto your body and cling there silkily,
You step out on the rope and move unfalteringly across it,
And seize the fiery knives unscathed and
Keep them spinning above you, a fountain
Of rhythmic rising, falling, rising
Flames,
And proudly let the chains
Be wound about you, ready
To shed them, link by steel link,
padlock by padlock–
but when your graceful
confident shrug and twist drives the metal
into your flesh and the python grip of it tightens
and you see rust on the chains and blood in your pores
and you roll
over and down a steepness into a dark hole
and there is not even the sound of mockery in the distant air
somewhere above you where the sky was,
no sound but your own breath panting:
then it is that the miracle
walks in, on his swift feet,
down the precipice straight into the cave,
opens the locks,
knots of chain fall open,
twists of chain unwind themselves,
links fall asunder,
in seconds there is a heap of scrap-
metal at your ankles, you step free and at once
he turns to go —
but as you catch at him with a cry,
clasping his knees, sobbing your gratitude,
with what radiant joy he turns to you,
and raises you to your feet,
and strokes your disheveled hair,
and holds you,
holds you,
holds you
close and tenderly before he vanishes.
Denise Levertov
October 24, 1923 – December 20, 1997
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Levertov