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# About Marriage
- URL: https://poetry101.love/about-marriage-levertov/
- Published: 2026-04-03T15:54:44.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-03T16:07:22.000Z
- Description: Denise Levertov
- Author: Melissa Anderson
- Tags: Denise Levertov, #Import 2026-11-04 19:11

Don't lock me in wedlock, I want  
marriage, an  
encounter --  
  
I told you about  
the green light of  
May  
  
(a veil of quiet befallen  
the downtown park,  
late  
  
Saturday after  
noon, long  
shadows and cool  
  
air, scent of  
new grass  
fresh leaves,  
  
blossom on the threshold of  
abundance --  
  
and the birds I met there,  
birds of passage breaking their journey,  
three birds each of a different species:  
  
the azalea-breasted with round poll, dark,  
the brindled, merry, mousegliding one,  
and the smallest, golden as gorse and wearing  
a black Venetian mask  
  
and with them the three deuce hen-birds  
feathered in tender, lively brown --  
  
I stood  
a half-hour under the enchantment  
no-one passed near,  
the birds saw me and  
  
let me be  
near them.)  
  
It's not irrelevant:  
I would be  
met  
  
and meet you  
so,  
in a green  
  
airy space, not  
locked in.

---

Levertov, Denise. [Poems of Denise Levertov, 1960-1967](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Poems%5Fof%5FDenise%5FLevertov%5F1960%5F1967/bpZNBhUw32QC?hl=en&gbpv=0&ref=poetry101.love). United States, New Directions, 2013.