"The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

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."
— Theodore Roethke

"What we need are more people who specialize in the impossible."
— Theodore Roethke

"Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries. "
— Theodore Roethke

"Over every mountain, there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley."
— Theodore Roethke

"This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and taking my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go"
— Theodore Roethke (The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke)

"The darkness has it's own light."
— Theodore Roethke

"I lose and find myself in the long water. I am gathered together once more. "
— Theodore Roethke

"What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, my shadow pinned against a sweating wall, that place among the rocks--is it a cave, or winding path? The edge is what I have."
— Theodore Roethke

"Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light."
— Theodore Roethke

"How body from spirit slowly does unwind."
— Theodore Roethke

"Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't.
"
— Theodore Roethke (On Poetry and Craft)

"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go."
— Theodore Roethke (The Waking)

""I lose and find myself in the long water, I am gathered together once more""
— Theodore Roethke

"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."
— Theodore Roethke

"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."
— Theodore Roethke

"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go. "
— Theodore Roethke

"A mind too active is no mind at all."
— Theodore Roethke (Selected Letters of Theodore Roethke)

"What falls away is always. And is near."
— Theodore Roethke

""I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart
of form."


"
— Theodore Roethke

"I learn by going where I have to go.

"
— Theodore Roethke

"Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among the mysteries. "
— Theodore Roethke

"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go."
— Theodore Roethke