Theodore Roethke: Trending quotes (page 4)

“The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.”

Theodore Roethke

"My Papa's Waltz," ll. 1-4
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Death , Boy

“Bless me and the maze I'm in!
Hello, thingy spirit.”

Theodore Roethke

"I Cry, Love! Love!," ll. 20-21
Praise to the End! (1951)

“I bleed my bones, their marrow to bestow
Upon that God who knows what I would know.”

Theodore Roethke book The Far Field

"The Marrow," ll. 23-24
The Far Field (1964)

God

“In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.”

Theodore Roethke

Source: Poetry and Craft (1965), p. 89

Age , Girl , Boy , Thinking

“You can't make poetry simply by avoiding clichés.”

Theodore Roethke

Poetry and Craft (1965)

“I study the lives on a leaf: the little
Sleepers, numb nudgers in cold dimensions.”

Theodore Roethke

"The Minimal," ll. 1-2
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Study

“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

"The Lost Son," ll. 107-111
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Money , Water , Time

“There's a point where plainness is no longer a virtue, when it becomes excessively bald, wrenched.”

Theodore Roethke

Poetry and Craft (1965)

“The mind moved, not alone,
Through the clear air, in the silence.
Was it light?
Was it light within?
Was it light within light?
Stillness becoming alive,
Yet still?”

Theodore Roethke

The Lost Son, ll. 161 - 167
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Light , Silence

“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 book The Far Field

"The Lizard," ll. 27-31
The Far Field (1964)

Bee , Sun

“I always felt mean, jogging back over the logging road,
As if I had broken the natural order of things in that swampland;
Disturbed some rhythm, old and of vast importance,
By pulling off flesh from the living planet;
As if I had committed, against the whole scheme of life, a desecration.”

Theodore Roethke

"Moss-Gathering," ll. 9-13
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Life , Nature

“You must believe: a poem is a holy thing — a good poem, that is.”

Theodore Roethke

Poetry and Craft (1965)

“Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.”

Theodore Roethke The Waking

The Waking (1953), The Waking

Love , Nature , Learning

“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

"The Light Comes Brighter," ll. 17-20
Open House (1941)

World , Parting

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

Theodore Roethke

"Plaint," ll. 13-16
Words for the Wind (1958)

Way

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

Theodore Roethke

The Lost Son," ll. 168-172
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Understanding , Waiting

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

Theodore Roethke

Poetry and Craft (1965)

God , Time

“Being, not doing, is my first joy.”

Theodore Roethke book The Far Field

"The Abyss," l. 100
The Far Field (1964)

Joy

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

Theodore Roethke

"The Harsh Country," ll. 13-16
Prevously Uncollected Poems (1975)

Hope , Travel , Country

“Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.”

Theodore Roethke

"Root Cellar," ll. 10-11
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Life