Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov selected sixty-two poems for The Life Around Us, gathering decades of attention to plants, animals, weather, water, and threatened landscapes. New Directions gave the compact 1997 collection its subtitle, Selected Poems on Nature. In her foreword, Levertov connects poetic perception to the sensory world, while the selection joins celebration with fear of environmental loss. Poems such as April in Ohio, Silent Spring, In the Woods, and What One Receives from Living Close to a Lake show how her nature writing moves between close observation and ethical concern. The volume appeared during the final year of her life, alongside The Stream and the Sapphire, a companion selection focused on religious themes. Born in England and later an American citizen, Levertov was also a political activist whose lyric practice often linked reverence with public responsibility. The Life Around Us offers a concise route through that sustained ecological strand without reducing her work to scenery alone.