Poets are Present: Michael H. Levin

Poets are Present is a poetry residency in conjunction with David Ives’s adaptation of The Metromaniacs. As part of this unique theatre/poetry exchange, the Shakespeare Theatre Company is proud to host more than 30 D.C.-area poets in the theatre’s lobby. Throughout the run, we will share with you the poems that this residency inspired our guests to write. Visit our Poets are Present page to see a list of upcoming poets.

Michael H. Levin is a lawyer, solar energy developer and writer based in Washington DC and Menemsha MA.   He has published widely in Adirondack Review, MIdStream, District Lines  and other periodicals and has received poetry awards from Writers Digest, American Independent Writers, and Poetica.  His debut collection Watered Colors (Poetica Publishing, 2014) was named one of the “best books for May 2014” by Washington Independent Review of Books.

www.michaellevinpoetry.com

BLITHE HEART

(The Metromaniacs, Shakespeare Theatre, February 2015)

Blithe heart
you’re acting strange.
These lovebirds’ Act One phase
with fancy turns of phrase
and brain-dead rhymes seems artifice;
then goes where misdirection
forms a masked ball’s timed
surprise.

They switch their roles
en pointe but degagé,
inhabitants of trumped-up rooms
and flashy peau de soie costumes.
Yet silliness on stage finds
echoes in your space —
a comic sympathy

for scribblers who fail to see,
whose sight is blurred
by diction and cliché.
Cartoons they are; but what we all
may be – dim seekers
in an antic wood, whose love
when puckered masks are dropped

might be for art; might be

a player’s made-up part.

Michael H. Levin
2-13-15