WEBVTT

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I'm happy to tell you tonight's
reading is sponsored by friends

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of the Poetry Center.

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You all know that
we do a lot of grant

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writing and hustling to
support the reading series.

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But one of our dearest and
friendliest source of support

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are the friends who are
local people and people

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around the country who give
whatever they can, whether it's

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$5 or $50 or $500, to help
support the reading series.

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So I want to give a special
thanks to those of you who

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are among those
friends and let others

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know that any kind
of contribution

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is always extremely
well appreciated

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by the Poetry Center.

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Tonight, I'm delighted
and honored to welcome

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one of our most important
and influential poets.

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Denise Levertov's 21st book with
New Directions, Evening Train,

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is just out.

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We do have some
copies in hardback

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here for sale tonight
out in the corridor.

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It will soon be followed
by New and Selected Essays.

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Born in England, Levertov
was educated at home,

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except for a period of training
in ballet, emigrated to the US

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in 1948.

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I first encountered her
work in the late '60s

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in the long defunct magazine
Caterpillar, then edited

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by Clayton Eshelman and
looked to, by many of us,

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with excitement for its
unpredictable offerings.

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There, I found, from
a notebook, October

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'68 to May '69, later published
as part of the book Staying

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Alive.

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It's sprawled across
page after page,

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a meditation upon the idea of
revolution to a world of peace

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and mutual aid, written
within the context

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of the activism of the '60s.

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It was, by turns, lyrical,
journalistic, and didactic,

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including instructions for
what to do when you went

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to a demonstration in Berkeley.

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The sprawl was held together
by a sense of political anguish

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which was common ground for
all of us in those days.

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Poetry was never the same again
for me nor was it, I suspect,

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for thousands of other readers
who discovered Levertov's

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work in those years and
developed an addiction

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to her books which
thankfully have

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continued to thrive over the
subsequent 30 years or so.

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But whenever a reader
should find her poems,

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one can count on a sense
of music, finely tuned

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to the inner life, to the
sensuality of experience,

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and to the urgencies of
our moment in history.

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Please join me in
welcoming Denise Levertov.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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