| Denise Levertov
Don't say, don't say there is no water to solace the dryness at our hearts. I have seen
the fountain springing out of the rock wall and you drinking there. And I too before your eyes
found footholds and climbed to drink the cool water.
The woman of that place, shading her eyes, frowned as she watched-- but not because she grudged the water,
only because she was waiting to see we drank our fill and were refreshed.
Don't say, don't say there is no water. That fountain is there among its scalloped green and gray stones,
it is still there and always there with its quiet song and strange power to spring in us, up and out through the rock.
(from The Jacob's Ladder. A New Directions Paperbook, 1958.) Labels: denise levertov, poetry |
