"Pleasures" by Denise Levertov
For the month of April, we have created a video poem for each day.
Today, April 1st, Christine reads Denise Levertov's Pleasures.
Underappreciated, but pivotal, vital, and necessary, Denise Levertov is one of our greatest poets. Finally, we have her Collected Poems, beautifully published by W. W. Norton, with an introduction by Eavan Boland. Following a couple volumes of her correspondence with William Carlos Williams and Robert Duncan, this book should plant her back in the mainstream of American poetic history. Her range is astounding, from the political to the mystical, the wry social and psychological insight to the profound sensitivity to the natural world. Her influence is wide: from Mary Oliver to the Black Mountain poets; the San Francisco Renaissance to Nation magazine; winning the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, the Lenore Marshall Prize, and a Lannan Award. She is a master poet, generous, brilliant, and bighearted. Give this to the poet in your midst, and watch their mind, their heart, and their imagination open up. -- John Evans