“I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.”

—  Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.
New buds broke forth from me though it was full summer.
As though his lyre (now I knew its name)
were both frost and fire, its chords flamed
up to the crown of me.
I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.

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Denise Levertov photo
Denise Levertov 49
Poet 1923–1997

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