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
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.
eye longest race running shakes
What shakes the eye but the invisible? Running from God's the longest race of all
happens happy mystery others prisoners shall time
Let others probe the mystery if they can/ Time harried prisoners of shall and will./ The right thing happens to the happy man.
pain fire bones
Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire
love-is joy torment
Love begets love. This torment is my joy.
roots soul body
God bless the roots! Body and soul are one.
my-own
I came to love, I came into my own.
soul body
The soul has many motions, body one.
heart poet
The poet: would rather eat a heart than a hambone.
astonishment perpetual
Live in a perpetual great astonishment.
girl writing boys
In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.
wings light bird
In this place of light: he dares to live Who stops being a bird, yet beats his wings Against the immense immeasurable emptiness of things.
art hysteria defense
Art is our defense against hysteria and death.
beautiful overwhelmed disorder
I am overwhelmed by the beautiful disorder of poetry, the eternal virginity of words.