Levertov

[Antcliff]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180206

[Macavity]

Thanks for sharing Seth. Enjoyed. Very tuned in.

cheers

mac

[David]

Really good. I am seriously interested in Levertov, although the only book I can find is a Collected, which feels like a (first) step too far.

The one time I've been to LA we stayed in Santa Monica - lovely place, a sort of gentler seaside (and Chandleresque) LA ... but a lot of homeless people. So, a question: do you really need to have been somewhere to get the most out of a poem about said place?

[Antcliff]

Really good. I am seriously interested in Levertov, although the only book I can find is a Collected, which feels like a (first) step too far.

The one time I've been to LA we stayed in Santa Monica - lovely place, a sort of gentler seaside (and Chandleresque) LA ... but a lot of homeless people. So, a question: do you really need to have been somewhere to get the most out of a poem about said place?

LA itself has a lot of homeless people. I was always fond of Santa Monica Pier.

do you really need to have been somewhere to get the most out of a poem about said place?

The most? Possibly. A great deal/enough without that...I vote yes.

I may try and persuade a relation to buy me the collected for my birthday.

Seth

[Magpie Jane]

I am seriously interested in Levertov, although the only book I can find is a Collected, which feels like a (first) step too far.

This slim volume:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss ... ooks%2C221

contains a wee selection of 19 (if I can count) poems by Denise Levertov. (Rexroth & WCW aren't half bad either.)

Jane

[David]

Thanks, Jane. WCW I know, of course, but not Rexroth.

David

[Macavity]

Found her inconsistent, more of a poetry diary writer at times, but also produces some memorable writes.

best

mac

[bodkin]

Just reacting to those few in the link Seth posted...

For me she feels a bit consciously delicate and beautiful... if you see what I mean? The subject matter is very nice but the text is rather artificial in the manner of something carefully staged.

Possibly this is here deliberate style, but on the whole I have different biases.

I was going to say "I preferred the day-to-day" but then I realised I'm also very intellectual/technical at times, which isn't everybody's day-today... So I guess I mean more conversational but with the proviso that the conversationalists might be rare people

Ian

[Antcliff]

that the conversationalists might be rare people

Heightened conversation eh? Yeh, sometimes the more mannered poetry can seem...well, just more mannered. But I wouldn't want to reject the grander sound/tone on all occasions. I wouldn't want to read a more conversational version of Dylan Thomas, say.

Seth