Denise Levertov / The needless

THE NEEDLES

by Denise Levertov
BIOGRAPHY

Denise Levertov / Las agujas

He told me about

a poem he was writing.

For me.

He told me it asked,

'When I mean only to brush her gently

with soft feathers,

do the feathers

turn into needles?'

His telling me

was a cloud of

soft feathers, I closed

my eyes and sank in it.

Many weeks

I waited. At last,

'Did you, were you able

to finish that poem

you told me about,

once?'

'No', he said

looking away.

Needles paused

for an instant on my skin

before they drew blood.

"Poems 1968-1972"

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1987