- 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.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
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.
[NOTE: This was one of the earliest poems posted to the group, possibly sometime in late 2005 or early 2006.]
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I felt a strange sense of deja vu as I'm reading this because I had just read it yesterday for the first time in my current poetry anthology and reread it because I liked it and then again because I liked it some more. I was not part of the poetry group when it was first formed so this is good to know - that I do pause at similar poems. -Lakshmi
ReplyDeleteYes, I've often felt the same way, as well, about our poetry/poets selections. We seem to pause (for the most part) at similar places.
ReplyDelete- SM