When We Look Up

Denise Levertov

He had not looked,
pitiful man whom none

pity, whom all
must pity if they look

into their own face (given
only by glass, steel, water
barely known) all
who look up

to see-how many
faces? How many

seen in a lifetime? (Not those that flash by, but those

into which the gaze wanders
and is lost

and returns to tell
Here is a mystery,

a person, an
other, an I?

Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell by Denise Levertov
Down through the tomb's inward arch

In California During the Gulf War by Denise Levertov
Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among

Losing Track by Denise Levertov
Long after you have swung back

Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus [excerpt] by Denise Levertov
Praise the wet snow

Sojourns in the Parallel World by Denise Levertov
We live our lives of human passions,

St. Peter and the Angel by Denise Levertov
Delivered out of raw continual pain,

The Broken Sandal by Denise Levertov
Dreamed the thong of my sandal broke

The Great Black Heron by Denise Levertov
Since I stroll in the woods more often

The Métier of Blossoming by Denise Levertov
Fully occupied with growing--that's

The Mutes by Denise Levertov
Those groans men use

The Secret by Denise Levertov
Two girls discover

The Sharks by Denise Levertov
Well then, the last day the sharks appeared