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
fall
What falls away is always. And is near.
light darkness
The darkness has it's own light.
sleep dark blessing
But when I breath with the birds, The spirit of wrath becomes the spirit of blessings, And the dead begin from their dark to sing in my sleep.
civilization culture
Civilization is over-rated, but there isn't much else.
dark mind dark-times
In a dark time, the mind begins to see.
fear father stones
Fear was my father, Father Fear. His look drained the stones.
long mind substance
And soon a branch, part of a hidden scene,The leafy mind, that long was tightly furled,Will turn its private substance into green,And young shoots spread upon our inner world.
self shields naked
My truths are all foreknown,This anguish self-revealed.I'm naked to the bone,With nakedness my shield.
believe miracle poetry
You must believe: a poem is a holy thing - a good poem, that is. The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle; unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods.
self-esteem soul should
Should we say the self, once perceived, becomes the soul?
death suicide mark
Time marks us while we are marking time.
humility heart self
The self says, I am; The heart says, I am less; The spirit says, you are Nothing.
light white water
I learned not to fear infinity, The far field, the windy cliffs of forever, The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow, The wheel turning away from itself, The sprawl of the wave, The on-coming water.
cutting water break-out
I can hear, underground, that sucking and sobbing, In my veins, in my bones I feel it,- The small water seeping upward, The tight grains parting at last. When sprouts break out, Slippery as fish, I quail, lean to beginnings, sheath-wet.