Denise Levertov, The Stream and the Sapphire 1 The Avowal

       The Avowal

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

This poem was written for two of Levertov's friends, in remembrance of time spent together in 1983 celebrating the birthday of George Herbert. In the years following this poem Levertov gradually moved towards Christian faith, tentative, exploratory, with that mixture of reluctance and yearning that is the creative tension and energy of such personal commitment.

This poem is early in Levertov's conversion process, but already she recognises the risk that must be taken, not so much the leap of faith as the surrender of control to that which bears and sustains the soul so that it floats and does not fall, but is held. The poet recognises that faith in God requires a letting go, a relinquishing of that self-determination that can be so self-protective we never learn to swim in deep water or fly in the shadow of mountains.

She is still searching for a view of God adequate to her longing, just as she searches for words to articulate where that longing comes from and where it will ultimately take her. What she does know, and will retain throughout the rest of her life is that she is created, loved and surrounded by goodness, mercy, acceptance, the embrace of grace.

Interestingly she had bought a copy of Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love for her niece the same year this poem was written. The cosmic optimism and personal hopefulness of this short poem has spiritual affinities with Julian, but as yet lacks the Christological vision of the crucified Christ as the source and demonstration of that embrace, that all surrounding grace. One of Julians's recurring  phrases is "enfolded in love"; and likewise one of Julian's more daring theological reflections, is her vision of the motherliness of Christ's love.

Knowing no effort earns that all surrounding grace is a remarkable paraphrase of the Apostle Paul; "By grace you are saved, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God." I doubt if we ever reach a stage when those words lose their power to contradict our pride, heal our anxious performance-oriented devotions, renew with a different energy our frantic, or complacent walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Levertov reminds us that's as it should be. For the gift of God is the gift of God himself, promised presence, sufficient grace, love incognito, the goodness and mercy that follows us, with patience and hopefulness, bearing us up when otherwise we would fall.

Denise Levertov's images of floating and soaring, of being borne by power outside ourselves, expresses the reality of a life thus borne up, a call to take the risk of trust, and perhaps also to the trusting of risk as the only way to swim and fly. Faith is a dare, a personal surrender to the grace that is all surrounding, but becomes personal in the embrace of the one who creates and gives life.

A year after this poem was written, while still exploring what Christian commitment might mean for her, she wrote an essay that closes with these words:

It must therefore be by the exercise of that faculty [Imagination] that one moves towards faith. Poems present their testimony as circumstantial evidences, not as closing argument. Where Wallace Stevens says,'God and the imagination are one', I would say that the imagination, which synergizes intellect, emotion and instinct, is the perceptive organ through which it is possible, though not inevitable, to experience God." (A Poet's View.)

That is the prose context for her poem 'The Avowal', a title which means "an affirmation of the truth of what you believe." The poet imagines floating looking skywards, and flying looking earthwards. "So I would learn to attain freefall…" That word too, is carefully chosen by a poet precise with words and awake to theological nuance. Freefall is when no external force influences flight other than gravity, and the gravity of the Creator Spirit pulls towards deep embrace and all-surrounding grace. This poem is a deep footprint on Levertov's path that would eventually lead to her conversion, and her own personal act of surrender to God as revealed in Jesus Christ.