“On Belief in the Physical Resurrection of Jesus” by Denise Levertov

It is for all

‘literalists of the imagination,’

poets or not,

that miracle

is possible,

possible and essential.

Are some intricate minds

nourished

on concept,

as epiphytes flourish

high in the canopy?

Can they

subsist on the light,

on the half

of metaphor that’s not

grounded in dust, grit,

heavy

carnal clay?

Do signs contain and utter,

for them

all the reality

that they need? Resurrection, for them,

an internal power, but not

a matter of flesh?

For others,

of whom I am one,

miracles (ultimate need, bread

of life) are miracles just because

people so tuned

to the humdrum laws:

gravity, mortality-

can’t open

to symbol’s power

unless convinced of its ground,

its roots

in bone and blood.

We must feel

the pulse in the wound

to believe

that ‘with God

all things

are possible,’

taste

bread at Emmaus

that warm hands

broke and blessed.

-“On Belief in the Physical Resurrection of Jesus” by Denise Levertov