The MistakeHe left his pants upon a chair:She was a widow, so she said:But he was apprehended, bare,By one who rose up from the dead. - 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. - Theodore Roethke
I've recovered my tenderness by long looking;I'm a Socrates of small fury.The waves bends with the fish. I'm taughtAs water teaches stone. Believe me, extremest oriole,I can hear light on a dry day.The world is where we fling it; I'm leaving where I am. - Theodore Roethke
Love makes me naked;Propinquity's a harsh master;O the songs we hide singing to ourselves! - Theodore Roethke
from Open HouseMy 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. - Theodore Roethke
The stones were sharp,The wind came at my back;Walking along the highway, Mincing like a cat. - Theodore Roethke
A mind too active is no mind at all. - Theodore Roethke
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I? - Theodore Roethke
I learned not to fear infinity,The far field, the windy cliffs of forever,The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow,The wheel turning away from itself,The sprawl of the wave,The on-coming water. - Theodore Roethke
What grace I have is enough. - Theodore Roethke
Love alters all. Unblood my instinct, love. - Theodore Roethke
Be sure that whatever you are is you. - Theodore Roethke
What's freedom for? To know eternity. - Theodore Roethke
I do not laugh; I do not cry;I'm sweating out the will to die.My past is sliding down the drain;I soon will be myself again. - Theodore Roethke
I learn by going where I have to go - Theodore Roethke
May my silences become more accurate. - Theodore Roethke
In a dark time, the eye begins to see. - Theodore Roethke
Self-contemplation is a curseThat makes an old confusion worse. - Theodore Roethke