When We Look Up, by 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?

into which the gaze wanders…

Levertov’s gaze wandered quite far. Definitely considered a contemporary American poet, Levertov was actually British borne, and happened to arrive in the U.S during a particularly interesting literary era. She took up with the Black Mountain Poets, and while considered  of that school and of the avant-garde, a great bulk of her work is steeped in sociopolitical consciousness.

I have only recently begun to read Levertov, and look forward to reading more widely of the Black Mountain Poets.

My contribution to APAD, Day 21 is Tuesday Morning. Con-crit is always welcome.