Theodore Roethke quotes - page 3

I study the lives on a leaf: the little
Sleepers, numb nudgers in cold dimensions. (Theodore Roethke)

Goodbye, goodbye, old stones, the time-order is going, I have married my hands to perpetual agitation, I run, I run to the whistle of money. Money money money Water water water.

Theodore Roethke

To whom does this terrace belong? - With its limestone crumbling into fine greyish dust, Its bevy of bees, and its wind-beaten rickety sun-chairs? Not to me, but this lizard, Older than I, or the cockroach.

Theodore Roethke

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.

Theodore Roethke

I lived with deep roots once: Have I forgotten their ways - The gradual embrace Of lichen around stones?

Theodore Roethke

The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle; unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods.

Theodore Roethke

Yet for this we travelled With hope, and not alone, In the country of ourselves, In a country of bright stone.

Theodore Roethke

The wasp waits. The edge cannot eat the center. The grape listens. The path tells little to the serpent. An eye comes out of the wave. The journey from flesh is longest. A rose sways least. The redeemer comes a dark way.

Theodore Roethke

This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks, Cut stems struggling to put down feet, What saint strained so much, Rose on such lopped limbs to a new life?

Theodore Roethke

I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

Time marks us while we are marking time. (Theodore Roethke)

God bless the roots! Body and soul are one.

Theodore Roethke

Voice, come out of the silence. Say something. Appear in the form of a spider Or a moth beating the curtain. Tell me: Which is the way I take; Out of what door` do I go, Where and to whom? Dark hollows said, lee to the wind, The moon said, back of an eel, The salt said, look by the sea, Your tears are not enough praise, You will find no comfort here, In the kingdom of bang and blab.

Theodore Roethke

Mother of quartz, your words writhe into my ear. Renew the light, lewd whisper.

Theodore Roethke

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.

Theodore Roethke

Love is not love until love's vulnerable.

Theodore Roethke

The self says, I am; The heart says, I am less; The spirit says, you are Nothing.

Theodore Roethke

There's time enough. Behold, in the lout's eye, love.

Theodore Roethke

I'll seek my own meekness. What grace I have is enough.

Theodore Roethke

I know the motion of the deepest stone. Each one's himself, yet each one's everyone.

Theodore Roethke

I do not laugh; I do not cry;
I'm sweating out the will to die.

My past is sliding down the drain;
I soon will be myself again. (Theodore Roethke)

Snail, snail, glister me forward, Bird, soft-sigh me home, Worm, be with me. This is my hard time.

Theodore Roethke

And everything comes to One, As we dance on, dance on, dance on.

Theodore Roethke

Like witches they flew along rows, Keeping creation at ease.

Theodore Roethke

Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain!

Theodore Roethke

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Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke - Image

Occupation: American Poet
Born: May 25, 1908
Died: August 1, 1963
Quotes count: 114
Wikipedia: Theodore Roethke

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