This is the most powerful and beautiful poem I have ever experienced. My wife just came into the room and asked if I am ok, as I seem to be talking to myself. I am perfect, said I - I was reading out loud, to myself and to an imagined audience of feeling people, these words crafted to be absorbed through hearing as well as internalized by reading. The perfect poem delivered in the precise time.
Since college, in the 70s, I have loved Roethke. He perceives in nature a salvation from the demons that pursued him through life. An amazing poet, with great music in his words. Yet behind his darkness, there is a light that throws faint shadows. His is a metaphysical view but most of his poems are infused with innocence.
Spoke true! When I was in graduate school I studied with Galway Kinnell who was very into Roethke and would read his poems in our class. It was like a double gift to hear them through him.
I had been a free subscriber to Poetic Outlaws, and then one day you published a Roethke piece, and I stopped, and I remembered Roethke, and I wanted more, and now I am a paying subscriber, and I have a stack of Roethke books next to my chair. I read In A Dark Time early this morning. It took my breath away, and I am circling back to read it again tonight. I was going to print it out, but I think instead I will write it out by hand … every … single … word. Thank you!
This poem spoke deeply to me. I find that reading more complex poems, and any poems really, out loud and slowly helps me to really be immersed by them. It often takes reading them more than once as well.
In my humble opinion, poems are meant to be read outlaid just as plays are meant to be performed live. The intersection of rhythm, rhyme, and deep narrative create a visceral experience meant to be embodied.
I am amazed how many times and how many people in history have wrestled with this. I think we forget over and over again that we are never beyond history and never beyond being human. Yes, this is too true!
I also started paying when I saw Roethke. I have been a fan since the early 60s. I wrote a series of articles about him for a Sri Lankan newspaper. William Barillas, editor of The Field Guide to Theodore Roethke, saw the articles and asked me to write a review of his book.
I remember reading this very same Roethke poem in a lit. class my freshman year of college. And his relation to salvation through naturistic environment was just as amazing then as it is now.
Really good to climb out of fear as a fallen man. Best line: “what’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance?” Thought provoking as we try to keep pristine that nobility of our souls in these trying times.
A true mystic. I think the poets have always cried through time to say, We are human, yet connected to the divine and we going through this, again.
I find it compelling in the time of post-modern poetry (where bringing rhymes and structure back into the fold is a necessity) how he plays with the rhymes in each stanza. Sometimes making them repeat with a clear pattern and other times using a Dickinson-lke slant rhyme... but always making the ending couplet of each stanza a pure one syllable rhyme.
This is the most powerful and beautiful poem I have ever experienced. My wife just came into the room and asked if I am ok, as I seem to be talking to myself. I am perfect, said I - I was reading out loud, to myself and to an imagined audience of feeling people, these words crafted to be absorbed through hearing as well as internalized by reading. The perfect poem delivered in the precise time.
That is so powerful!
Since college, in the 70s, I have loved Roethke. He perceives in nature a salvation from the demons that pursued him through life. An amazing poet, with great music in his words. Yet behind his darkness, there is a light that throws faint shadows. His is a metaphysical view but most of his poems are infused with innocence.
Spoke true! When I was in graduate school I studied with Galway Kinnell who was very into Roethke and would read his poems in our class. It was like a double gift to hear them through him.
I had been a free subscriber to Poetic Outlaws, and then one day you published a Roethke piece, and I stopped, and I remembered Roethke, and I wanted more, and now I am a paying subscriber, and I have a stack of Roethke books next to my chair. I read In A Dark Time early this morning. It took my breath away, and I am circling back to read it again tonight. I was going to print it out, but I think instead I will write it out by hand … every … single … word. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your support!
Genius.
This poem spoke deeply to me. I find that reading more complex poems, and any poems really, out loud and slowly helps me to really be immersed by them. It often takes reading them more than once as well.
In my humble opinion, poems are meant to be read outlaid just as plays are meant to be performed live. The intersection of rhythm, rhyme, and deep narrative create a visceral experience meant to be embodied.
Exactly!
Who among us, who've wrestled with the Black Dog, cannot imagine what Roethke shares in this piece? It feels too true.
I am amazed how many times and how many people in history have wrestled with this. I think we forget over and over again that we are never beyond history and never beyond being human. Yes, this is too true!
And humans create in order to connect to all those before and after. To be a creative is to connect the dots of humanity in this physical world.
That rings so true I feel both my brain and my heart nodding together in accordance.
The tearing wind...profound.
Timely because it is timeless.
I also started paying when I saw Roethke. I have been a fan since the early 60s. I wrote a series of articles about him for a Sri Lankan newspaper. William Barillas, editor of The Field Guide to Theodore Roethke, saw the articles and asked me to write a review of his book.
Astounding poetry - pure genius, really.
Bittersweet. Nice!
I remember reading this very same Roethke poem in a lit. class my freshman year of college. And his relation to salvation through naturistic environment was just as amazing then as it is now.
One of my favorite poets.
Really good to climb out of fear as a fallen man. Best line: “what’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance?” Thought provoking as we try to keep pristine that nobility of our souls in these trying times.
I also love these lines:
"Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light."
and
"The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind."
So mystical and so true. I could stay up all night discussing this poem with you all!
A true mystic. I think the poets have always cried through time to say, We are human, yet connected to the divine and we going through this, again.
I find it compelling in the time of post-modern poetry (where bringing rhymes and structure back into the fold is a necessity) how he plays with the rhymes in each stanza. Sometimes making them repeat with a clear pattern and other times using a Dickinson-lke slant rhyme... but always making the ending couplet of each stanza a pure one syllable rhyme.