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You must believe: a poem is a holy thing - a good poem, that is. The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods.

Theodore Roethke

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Theodore Roethke
Age: 55 †
Born: 1908
Born: May 25
Died: 1963
Died: August 1
Poet
Teacher
Writer
Saginaw
Michigan
Thing
Short
Something
Poetry
Believe
Beyond
Good
Holy
Unwritten
Time
Written
Poem
Seems
Gods
Must
Miracle
Even
Capacity

More quotes by Theodore Roethke

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And soon a branch, part of a hidden scene,The leafy mind, that long was tightly furled,Will turn its private substance into green,And young shoots spread upon our inner world.
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What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?
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Reason? That dreary shed, that hutch for grubby schoolboys.
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So much of adolescence is an ill-defined dying, An intolerable waiting, A longing for another place and time, Another condition.
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The indignity of it!- With everything blooming above me, Lilies, pale-pink cyclamen, roses, Whole fields lovely and inviolate,- Me down in the fetor of weeds, Crawling on all fours, Alive, in a slippery grave.
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What's important? That which is dug out of books, or out of the guts?
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I learn by going where I have to go.
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The self says, I am The heart says, I am less The spirit says, you are Nothing.
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Fear was my father, Father Fear. His look drained the stones.
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Being, not doing, is my first joy.
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When I go mad, I call my friends by phone: I am afraid they might think they're alone.
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I lose and find myself in the long water. I am gathered together once more.
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Who rise from flesh to spirit know the fall: The word outleaps the world, and light is all.
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What falls away is always. And is near.
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Time marks us while we are marking time.
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The stones were sharp, The wind came at my back Walking along the highway, Mincing like a cat.
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Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire
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Live in a perpetual great astonishment.
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I am overwhelmed by the beautiful disorder of poetry, the eternal virginity of words.
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Let others probe the mystery if they can.Time-harried prisoners of Shall and Will -The right thing happens to the happy man.
Theodore Roethke