Advent Correction: The Rest of the Levertov Poem

I am embarrassed. I published here (Advent 9) "Annunciation," by Denise Levertov.

Or so I thought.

I recently discovered that the website where I initially found the poem truncated it. It's "ending" was not, in fact, an ending. The poem continues. Here, nine days later, is the rest of it.

Ms. Levertov, my apologies.


This was the minute no one speaks of,
when she could still refuse.
A breath unbreathed,
Spirit,
suspended,
waiting.

~

She did not cry,
"I cannot, I am not worthy,"
nor "I have not the strength."
She did not submit with gritted teeth,
raging,
coerced.
Bravest of all humans,
consent illumined her.
The room filled with its light,
the lily glowed in it,
and the iridescent wings.
Consent,
courage unparalleled,
opened her utterly.