Quotes from Theodore Roethke

When true love broke my heart in half, I took the whiskey from the shelf, And told my neighbors when to laugh. I keep a dog, and bark myself.

She moves as water moves, and comes to me, Stayed by what was, and pulled by what would be.

Dreams drain the spirit if we dream too long.

I prefer the still joy: The wasp drinking at the edge of my cup; A snake lifting its head; A snail's music.

Love makes me naked; Propinquity's a harsh master; O the songs we hide singing to ourselves!

O my poor words, bear with me.

What's freedom for? To know eternity.

Maybe God has a house. But not here.

What grace I have is enough.

The two duties are to lament or praise.

My secrets cry aloud. I have no need for tongue. My heart keeps open house, My doors are widely swung. An epic of the eyes My love, with no disguise. My truths are all foreknown, This anguish self-revealed. I'm naked to the bone, With nakedness my shield. Myself is what I wear: I keep the spirit spare. The anger will endure, The deed will speak the truth In language strict and pure. I stop the lying mouth: Rage warps my clearest cry To witless agony.

Loved heart, what can I say? When I was a lark, I sang; When I was a worm, I devoured. The self says, I am; The heart says, I am less; The spirit says, you are nothing.

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.

Brooding on God, I may become a man.

ROOT CELLAR Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch, Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark, Shoots dangled and drooped, Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates, Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes. And what a congress of stinks!-- Roots ripe as old bait, Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich, Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks. Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.

Where has he gone, my meadow mouse, My thumb of a child that nuzzled in my palm? -- To run under the hawk's wing, Under the eye of the great owl watching from the elm-tree, To live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the tom-cat. (from The Meadow Mouse )

Necessity starves on the stoop of invention.

The Surly One 1 When true love broke my heart in half, I took the whisky from the shelf, And told my neighbors when to laugh. I keep a dog, and bark myself. 2 Ghost cries out to ghost – But who's afraid of that? I fear those shadows most That start from my own feet.

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

She loved the wind because the wind loved me.

I kiss her moving mouth, Her swart hilarious skin; She breaks my breath in half; She frolicks like a beast; And I dance round and round, A fond and foolish man, And see and suffer myself In another being, at last.

She knows the speech of light, and makes it plain A lively thing can come to life again.

The grass says what the wind says: Begin with the rock; End with water.

I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go. The Waking