Theodore Roethke Quotes

Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light.

Self-contemplation is a curseThat makes an old confusion worse.

Be sure that whatever you are is you.

Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.

I trust all joy

By daily dying, I have come to be.

What is madness but nobility of the soul at odds with circumstance.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going whe...

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

May my silences become more accurate.

The GeraniumWhen I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,She looked so limp and bedraggled,So fooli...

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

I learned not to fear infinity,The far field, the windy cliffs of forever,The dying of time in the w...

What's madness but nobility of soulAt odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!I know the purity of...

I learn by going where I have to go.

What's freedom for? To know eternity.

The stones were sharp,The wind came at my back;Walking along the highway, Mincing like a cat.

My Papa's Waltz:The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such...

(Dreams drain the spirit if we dream too long.)

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.

What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.

I've recovered my tenderness by long looking;I'm a Socrates of small fury.The waves bends with the f...

Love alters all. Unblood my instinct, love.

What grace I have is enough.

I learn by going where I have to go

When true love broke my heart in half,I took the whiskey from the shelf,And told my neighbors when t...

The MistakeHe left his pants upon a chair:She was a widow, so she said:But he was apprehended, bare,...

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,Keeps buzzing ...