(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Religious Freedom Day: "O Taste and See" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-16 . But in the case of this British-born American poet, she came with the wave of British “war brides” after WWII. Her unique heritage and upbringing had set her on what became a long and strenuous journey before she found the faith for which she had been seeking. It was later in her life, while she was teaching at Stanford University that she met Robert McAfee Brown, a pastor and professor of religion at the university, and Franciscan Murray Bodo. They became her spiritual advisors as she continued toward journey’s end. . Many Europeans have come to America in search of freedom from religious persecution. The First Amendment begins by prohibiting “the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion” or “impeding the free exercise of religion.” It is that freedom which we celebrate during Religious Freedom Week. The First Amendment gives each of us the right to choose a spiritual path of our own, or to reject religion entirely. January 16 is National Religious Freedom Day . It celebrates the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, and passed by the Virginia Assembly on January 16, 1786. It became the basis for the religious freedom section of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Denise Levertov (1923–1997) was born in Ilford, on the edge of London, just nine miles northeast of Charing Cross. Her mother was Welsh, but her father was a Russian Hassidic Jew who had converted to Christianity. He emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he became an Anglican pastor, but he was also a scholar and prolific writer in Hebrew, Russian, German, and English. "My father's Hasidic ancestry, his being steeped in Jewish and Christian scholarship and mysticism, his fervour and eloquence as a preacher, were factors built into my cells." Her parents home-schooled her. She showed an enthusiasm for writing from an early age. . This poem is from her first book of poetry, The Double Image, published when she was 23 years old. Ballad by Denise Levertov . Bravely in a land of dust we set out, as pilgrims must, you, who fear the dark, and I fearing winter in the sky. . Dark and cold the winter cloud hung above the hill of lies and my phoenix cried aloud, took flight toward the eastern skies. . Do you think I shall forget the tried intent, the diamond set solitary and forlorn in a coronet of thorn? . Beyond the high and frozen hill beyond the forest black and still I shall find you, where the fire burns the wings of my desire. . . When The Double Image appeared in 1946, Denise Levertov was hailed by Kenneth Rexroth as “the baby of the new Romanticism ... Her poetry ... could be compared to the earliest poems of Rilke or some of the more melancholy songs of Brahms." . Only three years later, she had met and married an American, moved to New York, and given birth to a son. In 1955, she became a naturalized American citizen. Levertov was passionately involved in the turbulent anti-war and civil rights protests of the 1960s and 70s, and much of her work concerned injustice, suffering and war. But the words “O taste and see that the Lord is good” from Psalms 34:8 on a subway poster in 1964 caught her eye: O Taste and See by Denise Levertov . The world is not with us enough O taste and see . the subway Bible poster said, meaning The Lord, meaning if anything all that lives to the imagination's tongue, . grief, mercy, language, tangerine, weather, to breathe them, bite, savor, chew, swallow, transform . into our flesh our deaths, crossing the steet, plum, quince, living in the orchard and being . hungry, and plucking the fruit. . . Levertov had always written some poems like “O Taste and See” which expressed her deep spiritual feeling and yet also her doubts about religion and her relationship with God. But in the 1980s, her exploration of the mystical and the religious intensified, which was also reflected in her work, especially her poetry. The culmination of this spiritual discovery was her conversion to Catholicism in 1990. Denise Levertov, ©1983 by David Geier, The National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) This poem is from her 1984 book Oblique Prayers: The Avowal by Denise Levertov . As swimmers dare to lie face to the sky and water bears them, as hawks rest upon air and air sustains them, so would I learn to attain freefall, and float into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace, knowing no effort earns that all-surrounding grace. . In 1994, Denise Levertov was diagnosed with lymphoma, and suffered pneumonia and acute laryngitis. Despite this she continued to lecture and participate at national conferences, many on spirituality and poetry. To Live in the Mercy of God by Denise Levertov . To lie back under the tallest oldest trees. How far the stems rise, rise before ribs of shelter open! . To live in the mercy of God. The complete sentence too adequate, has no give. Awe, not comfort. Stone, elbows of stony wood beneath lenient moss bed. . And awe suddenly passing beyond itself. Becomes a form of comfort. Becomes the steady air you glide on, arms stretched like the wings of flying foxes. To hear the multiple silence of trees, the rainy forest depths of their listening. . To float, upheld, as salt water would hold you, once you dared. –.– To live in the mercy of God. . To feel vibrate the enraptured waterfall flinging itself unabating down and down to clenched fists of rock. Swiftness of plunge, hour after year after century, O or Ah uninterrupted, voice many-stranded. To breathe spray. The smoke of it. Arcs of steelwhite foam, glissades of fugitive jade barely perceptible. Such passion — rage or joy? Thus, not mild, not temperate, God’s love for the world. Vast flood of mercy flung on resistance. . . In December 1997, Denise Levertov died at age 74. She left behind a looseleaf notebook with 40 poems. This is the last page: Aware by Denise Levertov . When I found the door I found the vine leaves speaking among themselves in abundant whispers. My presence made them hush their green breath, embarrassed, the way humans stand up, buttoning their jackets, acting as if they were leaving anyway, as if the conversation had ended just before you arrived. I liked the glimpse I had, though, of their obscure gestures. I liked the sound of such private voices. Next time I'll move like cautious sunlight, open the door by fractions, eavesdrop peacefully. . Sources POEMS: “Ballad” from The Double Image © 1946 by Denise Levertov (Cresset Press) — www.angelfire.com/... “O Taste and See” from O Taste and See © 1964 by Denise Levertov (New Directions) “To Live in the Mercy of God” from Sands from the Well. © 1996 by Denise Levertov (New Directions Publishing) www.poetryfoundation.org/… “The Avowal” from Oblique Prayers © 1984 by Denise Levertov (New Directions Publishing) — www.poemhunter.com/… “Aware” from The Great Unknowing: Last Poems ©1999 by the Denise Levertov Property Trust (New Directions Publishing) — www.poemhunter.com/... 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