nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
the deep intelligence living at peace would have.
Denise Levertov, Life at War
The latest podcast in the alt.NPR Poetry Off the Shelf series, Battle of the Bards, focuses on Denise Levertov’s poem Life at War and how her relationship with fellow poet and mentor Robert Duncan was severely strained by Levertov’s anti-war activism and her related poetry.
Ange Mlinko has a related piece,”Craft Vs. Conscience How the Vietnam War destroyed the friendship between Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov” at the Poetry Foundation’s Online Journal.
Previously on Book Patrol:
A New Wave of Political Poetry