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...

A string vibrates,
a thousand hairs raise
  on the flat plain of reception.

To run free on a mind with great abandon
     a contrition traces it's steps
         linking it's contrivances
     making dark seem light.

Spun sugar, spiderlike and
     unwoven at great speed;
  a neural acceleration,
     a locus unwinding.

All praise this intricacy
     tied to my elation,
        palpating my senses.
All praise this flytrap
     forming forevers traceability.

Sweet hubris of...