Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was born in Essex, England. Her father who was an immigrant Russian Jew converted to Christianity, married her mother, a Welsh woman, and became an Anglican clergyman. Denise was educated entirely at home. She married the American writer Mitchell Goodman in 1947, moved with him to the United States in 1948, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955. Levertov’s first important poetry collection, Here and Now (1957), was followed by Overland to the Islands (1958), With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1959), and several others. She opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War and was active in the War Resisters League, for whom she edited the collection Out of the War Shadow (1967). She taught at Stanford University from 1981 to 1994.

But we have only begun

to love the earth.

We have only begun

to imagine the fullness of life.

How could we tire of hope?

—so much is in bud.

How can desire fail?

—we have only begun

to imagine justice and mercy,

only begun to envision

how it might be

to live as siblings with beast and flower,

not as oppressors.

…here is too much broken

that must be mended,

too much hurt we have done to each other

that cannot yet be forgiven.

We have only begun to know

the power that is in us if we would join

our solitudes in the communion of struggle.

So much is unfolding that must

complete its gesture,

so much is in bud.

— Denise Levertov from ‘Beginners’