Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
Theodore Huebner Roethkewas an American poet. He published several volumes of award-winning and critically acclaimed poetry. Roethke is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 May 1908
CountryUnited States of America
knowledge thinking feelings
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
dark play soul
The body and the soul know how to play In that dark world where gods have lost their way.
fall light world
Who rise from flesh to spirit know the fall: The word outleaps the world, and light is all.
desire want partners
The living all assemble! What's the cue?-- Do what the clumsy partner wants to do!
Be sure that whatever you are is you.
simple wish events
I wish I could find an event that meant as much as simple seeing.
mean order broken
I always felt mean, jogging back over the logging road,As if I had broken the natural order of things in that swampland;Disturbed some rhythm, old and of vast importance,By pulling off flesh from the living planet;As if I had committed, against the whole scheme of life, a desecration.
light crow ears
The light comes brighter from the east; the cawOf restive crows is sharper on the ear.
fall sleep air
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how? The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair; I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. Great Nature has another thing to do To you and me, so take the lively air, And, lovely, learn by going where to go. This shaking keeps me steady. I should know. What falls away is always. And is near. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go.
book important importance
What's important? That which is dug out of books, or out of the guts?
mother boys hands
My Papa's Waltz: The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.
heart long quiet
I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart of form.
bangs kingdoms
In the kingdom of bang and blab.
distance space long
The fields stretch out in long unbroken rows. We walk aware of what is far and close. Here distance is familiar as a friend. The feud we kept with space comes to an end.