Theodore Roethke

“I learn by going where I have to go.”

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.”

“Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.”

“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 da...”

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

“By daily dying, I have come to be.”

“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.”

“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 plac...”

“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 mothe...”

“What is madness but nobility of the soul at odds with circumstance.”

“It’s your privilege to find me incomprehensible. I gave you my minutes; let them remain ours. I hope I haunt you.”

“Love begets love. This torment is my joy.”

“God bless the roots! Body and soul are one.”

“A lively understandable spirit Once entertained you. It will come again. Be still. Wait.”

“Time marks us while we are marking time.”

“The soul has many motions, body one.”

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.”