The Lost Son & Other Poems Quotes

“Dolor
I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils,
Neat in their boxes, dolor of pad and paper weight,
All the misery of manilla folders and mucilage,
Desolation in immaculate public places,
Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,
The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher,
Ritual of multigraph, paper-clip, comma,
Endless duplicaton of lives and objects.
And I have seen dust from the walls of institutions,
Finer than flour, alive, more dangerous than silica,
Sift, almost invisible, through long afternoons of tedium,
Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows,
Glazing the pale hair, the duplicate gray standard faces.”
― Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son & Other Poems

“A lively understandable spirit
Once entertained you.
It will come again.
Be still.
Wait.”
― Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son & Other Poems

“Money money money
Water water water”
― Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son & Other Poems