Denise Levertov




In Mind

There's in my mind a woman
of innocence, unadorned but
fair-featured, and smelling of
apples or grass. She wears

a utopian smock or shift, her hair
is light brown and smooth, and she

is kind and very clean without
ostentation –
                     but she has
no imagination.
                     And there's a
turbulent moon-ridden girl

or old woman, or both,
dressed in opals and rags, feathers

and torn taffeta,
who knows strange songs –

but she is not kind.