Theodore Roethke. A poet with a very interesting story. Roethke grew up in the northern US state of Michigan. His family operated greenhouses and so he always had a sort of charged affinity for plants and primitive life which would serve as inspiration for his earlier works. Later in life, Roethke would suffer from bouts of mental illness, in some cases manic energy and spells of depression. What seems most noteworthy is that he managed to turn his issues with mental illness to what would be to his poetic advantage as he would explore these often changing mental states as journeys through internal poetic landscapes as opposed to altogether getting lost in madness. It seems it would prove, poetically speaking, an interesting adventure through the human psyche.
And so, his poem The Waking:
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 behind 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 lonely 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.
Theodore Roethke 1908-1963
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