“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

"The Shape of the Fire," ll. 56-63
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

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Theodore Roethke86
American poet 1908–1963

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