A Vision
A (nondream? hypnogogic?) vision, 1965 or '66, by Denise Levertov
"The intellectual love of a thing is the understanding of its perfection."
Spinoza, quoted by Ezra Pound
Two angels among the throng of angels
Blue and green glowed the wingfeathers
so far as angels may dispute, were poised
for these tall ones, angels
would top pines or redwoods, live by their vision's harmony
These two hovered dazed before one another,
and the other's eyes flickered with vision of
But as these angels, the only halted ones
on the angelic wings of the other,
leapt up among blues and greens strongshafted,
so that each angel was iridescent with the strange newly-seen
never became a shrinking to opposites, and they remained free in the heavenly chasm,
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EDITOR'S NOTE
This seems medieval, but is just one of three 20th-century dreams or visions of oversize archetypes (worldviews?) of different colors facing off or dueling: see Long Road to Heaven & China & America.
I'm reminded of Yoko Ono's maxim "Your body is the scar of your mind." That is, these angels' colors are flags--allegiances to worldviews. What exactly? The vision finds that irrelevant. What Levertov cared about is that great spirits appreciate differences. While we squabble.
--Chris Wayan
SOURCE: The Sorrow Dance, Denise Levertov, New Directions Press, 1967, p.73-4. Date estimated from section (5 of 6); book collects poems from '63-66
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