The Thinklings

"People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy."

- G.K. Chesterton

Monday, June 30, 2008

"Days pass when I forget the mystery"

Posted by Bill @ 7:11 am CDT
Filed under: Quotes, Contemplation

Primary Wonder
Denise Levertov, from Sands of the Well

Days pass when I forget the mystery
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversion, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.

And then
once more the quiet mystery is present to me, the
throng's chamber recedes; the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all, let alone
cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void; and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

(quoted in Philip Yancey's Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference?)

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Comments on ""Days pass when I forget the mystery"":

1. Bathsheba - 06/30/2008 9:48 am CDT

woe!!!!!

2. The Ancient Mariner - 06/30/2008 10:36 am CDT

One minor thing: that's Denise Levertov (ends in a "v"), one of my favorite poets. The story of her conversion is rather a remarkable one.

3. Bill - 06/30/2008 6:00 pm CDT

Thanks AM - my fault. I've fixed.

Do you have a link on her conversion story? I'd love to read it.

4. The Ancient Mariner - 07/01/2008 8:47 am CDT

I don't know that I've ever seen it online; we studied her work in one of my sem classes, which is where I heard the story. (I don't remember if Maxine knew her or not; I know she knew the other modern poet we read, Margaret Avison, whom I also strongly recommend.) I'll have to see if I can dig up my notes, since I'm sure I have them around here somewhere. I remember her conversion came in the course of writing a long poem--I don't remember the title precisely, but it was structured according to the parts of the Mass--and you can see it happen over the course of the work. It's quite a remarkable thing.

Great poet. By all accounts, great human being, too.

5. dbd - 07/02/2008 4:59 pm CDT

I'm surprised too!

Googling yields this cluster of articles about her work (the link is to one, others are listed in the sidebar). At first skim-through none seems to refer to her conversion, though.

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