Theodore Roethke quotes - page 4

But who would count eternity in days? These old bones live to learn her wanton ways: (I measure time by how a body sways.) (Theodore Roethke)
Yet if we wait, unafraid, beyond the fearful instant, The burning lake turns into a forest pool, The fire subsides into rings of water, A sunlit silence. View quote
Theodore Roethke
They teased out the seed that the cold kept asleep, - All the coils, loops and whorls. They trellised the sun; they plotted for more than themselves. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Who stunned the dirt into noise? Ask the mole, he knows. View quote
Theodore Roethke
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen: For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face. View quote
Theodore Roethke
What's left is light as a seed; I need an old crone's knowing. View quote
Theodore Roethke
To know that light falls and fills, often without our knowing. View quote
Theodore Roethke
The wind sharpened itself on a rock; A voice sang: :Pleasure on ground :Has no sound, :Easily maddens :The uneasy man. :* "The Shape of the Fire," ll. 40 - 45. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Death was not. I lived in a simple drowse: Hands and hair moved through a dream of wakening blossoms. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Is pain a promise? I was schooled in pain. View quote
Theodore Roethke
The small become the great, the great the small; The right thing happens to the happy man. (Theodore Roethke)
Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay: I'm martyr to a motion not my own; What's freedom for? To know eternity. View quote
Theodore Roethke
What falls away is always. And is near. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go. View quote
Theodore Roethke
In this place of light: he dares to live Who stops being a bird, yet beats his wings Against the immense immeasurable emptiness of things. View quote
Theodore Roethke
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. View quote
Theodore Roethke
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? View quote
Theodore Roethke
God bless the roots! View quote
Theodore Roethke
I came to love, I came into my own. View quote
Theodore Roethke
The soul has many motions, body one. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Death was not. I lived in a simple drowse: Hands and hair moved through a dream of wakening blossoms. Rain sweetened the cave and the dove still called; The flowers leaned on themselves, the flowers in hollows; And love, love sang toward. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Beginnings start without shade, Thinner than minnows. The live grass whirls with the sun, Feet run over the simple stones, There's time enough. Behold, in the lout's eye, love. (Theodore Roethke)
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. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Be sure that whatever you are is you. View quote
Theodore Roethke
Civilization is over-rated, but there isn't much else. View quote
Theodore Roethke
I am overwhelmed by the beautiful disorder of poetry, the eternal virginity of words. View quote
Theodore Roethke