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Larry Levis Poems

A collection of select Larry Levis famous poems that were written by Larry Levis or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.

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by Levis, Larry
 My poem would eat nothing. 
I tried giving it water 
but it said no, 

worrying me. 
Day after day, 
I held it up to the llight, 

turning it over, 
but it only pressed its lips 
more tightly together. 

It grew sullen, like a toad 
through with being teased. 
I offered it money, 

my clothes, my car with a full...Read more of this...



by Levis, Larry
 --The Carpathian Frontier, October, 1968
 --for my brother

Once, in a foreign country, I was suddenly ill.
I was driving south toward a large city famous
For so little it had a replica, in concrete,
In two-thirds scale, of the Arc de Triomphe stuck
In the midst of traffic, & obstructing it.
But the city was hours away, beyond the hills
Shaped like the bodies of...Read more of this...

by Levis, Larry
 There are places where the eye can starve,
But not here. Here, for example, is
The Piazza Navona, & here is his narrow room
Overlooking the Steps & the crowds of sunbathing
Tourists. And here is the Protestant Cemetery
Where Keats & Joseph Severn join hands
Forever under a little shawl of grass
And where Keats's name isn't even on
His gravestone, because it is on Severn's,
And...Read more of this...


Book: Reflection on the Important Things