Assuming There Is Such a Secret

Levertov’s line would know it,
Not Levertov. Assuming
There is a secret, there is

A secret hiding somewhere,
Anywhere, why not in lines
Or equations whose authors

Admit to have no idea?
The secret to Levertov
Is that she was delighted

To hear of the girls who said
They’d found the secret of life
In her line, and was candid

To say so, to say she’d no
Idea about the secret,
Not even which line they meant.

Every line has a secret,
Every word and equation,
Even if it’s not that one.