Poems on Denise Levertov by Top Critiquers

To compensate for my father’s
muted choice, I turned to poetry—  
backpacks of word folded  
precisely as parachutes.  

Bullets from a magazine
shell-shocked my faculties—  
ricocheted off the metal floor  
of a downed chopper in ‘Nam.  
  
Levertov referenced Rilke—  
formless lumps he carried about;  
the irony, or not  
referencing her raw dough:  
  
pebbles that plague memory  
decades after the same war:  
Rilke’s bitterness, Levertov’s weight  
both buried mines in my...