Denise Levertov: "Gloria"

Praise the wet snow
            falling early.
Praise the shadow
            my neighor's chimney casts on the tile roof
even this gray October day that should, they say,
have been golden.
                                 Praise
the invisible sun burning beyond
       the white cold sky, giving us
light and the chimney's shadow.
Praise
god or the gods, the unknown,
that which imagined us, which stays
our hand,
our murderous hand,
                                     and gives us
still,
in the shadow of death,
               our daily life,
               and the dream still
of goodwill, of peace on earth.
Praise
flow and change, night and
the pulse of day.



"Gloria" by Denise Levertov, an excerpt from Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (William B. Ewert, 1981). Text as published in Selected Poems, edited by Paul Lacey (New Directions, 2003).

Art credit: "Chimney snow," photograph taken on March 15, 2011, by David Boyd.