Poem: Perhaps No Poem at All But All I Can Say and I Cannot Be Silent
Author: Denise Levertov (1923–97) [bio] 
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5      <firstname>Denise</firstname>
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8    <life-events>
9      <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1923</date>
10      <date ty="death" circa="false" suffix="ad">1997</date>
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1

As a devout Christian, my father

took delight and pride in being

(like Christ and the Apostles)

a Jew.

5

  It was

  Hasidic lore, his heritage,

  he drew on to know

  the Holy Spirit as Shekinah.

My Gentile mother, Welsh through and through,

10

and like my father sustained

by deep faith, cherished

all her long life the words

of Israel Zangwill, who told her,

‘You have a Jewish soul.’

15

I their daughter (‘flesh of their flesh, bone of their bone’)

writing, in this Age of Terror, a libretto

about El Salvador, the suffering, the martyrs,

look from my page to watch

the apportioned news—those foul

20

dollops of History

each day thrusts at us, pushing them

into our gullets—

and see that,

in Lebanon

25

  so-called Jews have permitted

  so-called Christians

  to wreak pogrom (‘thunder of devastation’)

  on helpless folk (of a tribe

  anciently kin to their own, and now

30

  concentrated

in Camps . . .)

My father—my mother—

I have longed for you.

Now I see

35

it is well you are dead,

dead and

gone from Time,

gone from this time whose weight

of shame your bones, weary already

40

from your own days and years of

tragic History,

could surely not have borne.

To cite this poem:

MLA
Levertov, Denise. “Perhaps No Poem at All But All I Can Say and I Cannot Be Silent.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2026. Columbia University Press. 24 Oct. 2026. <http://www.columbiagrangers.org>.

Chicago Manual of Style
Denise Levertov. “Perhaps No Poem at All But All I Can Say and I Cannot Be Silent.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. http://www.columbiagrangers.org (accessed October 24, 2026). 

          
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40        <line n="4">a Jew.</line>
41        <line n="5">  It was</line>
42        <line n="6">  Hasidic lore, his heritage,</line>
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44        <line n="8">  the Holy Spirit as Shekinah.</line>
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48        <line n="10">and like my father sustained</line>
49        <line n="11">by deep faith, cherished</line>
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60        <line n="18">look from my page to watch</line>
61        <line n="19">the apportioned news—those foul</line>
62        <line n="20">dollops of History</line>
63        <line n="21">each day thrusts at us, pushing them</line>
64        <line n="22">into our gullets—</line>
65        <line n="23" legacy-tag="bt" indent="5">and see that,</line>
66        <line n="24" legacy-tag="bt" indent="5">in Lebanon</line>
67        <line n="25">  so-called Jews have permitted</line>
68        <line n="26">  so-called Christians</line>
69        <line n="27">  to wreak pogrom (‘thunder of devastation’)</line>
70        <line n="28">  on helpless folk (of a tribe</line>
71        <line n="29">  anciently kin to their own, and now</line>
72        <line n="30">  concentrated</line>
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76        <line n="32">My father—my mother—</line>
77        <line n="33">I have longed for you.</line>
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80        <line n="36">dead and</line>
81        <line n="37">gone from Time,</line>
82        <line n="38">gone from this time whose weight</line>
83        <line n="39">of shame your bones, weary already</line>
84        <line n="40">from your own days and years of</line>
85        <line n="41">tragic History,</line>
86        <line n="42">could surely not have borne.</line>
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