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In the dark I rest,
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need
more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.

— Denise Levertov

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Topics

Nature

More quotes by Denise Levertov

Praise
the invisible sun burning beyond
the white cold sky, giving us
light and the chimney's shadow.

Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (1981)

Acknowledgement, and celebration, of mystery probably constitutes the most consistent theme of my poetry from its very beginnings.

A Poets View (1984)

Poems present their testimony as circumstantial evidences, not as closing argument.

A Poets View (1984)

Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)

I like to find
what's not found
at once, but lies within something of another nature,
in repose, distinct.

With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1960)

All Denise Levertov quotes →

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Utu, shepherd of the land, father of the black-headed, when you go to sleep, the people go to sleep with you; youth Utu, when you rise, the people rise with you.

Lugalbanda

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body.

Jesus

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Denise Levertov (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.