Theodore Roethke - Heart Quotes

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A terrible violence of creation,
A flash into the burning heart of the abominable;
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.

Theodore Roethke

I saw the separateness of all things!
My heart lifted up with the great grasses;
The weeds believed me, and the nesting birds.

Theodore Roethke

I take this cadence from a man named Yeats:
I take it and I give it back again:
For other tunes and other wanton beats
Have tossed my heart and fiddled through my brain.
Yes, I was dancing mad, and how
That came to be the bears and Yeats would know.

Theodore Roethke

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.

Theodore Roethke

I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart of form.

Theodore Roethke