Take the Lively Air

From "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke (American poet 1908-1963):

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.

                                 ...

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.


In my opinion, one of the best American poems of the twentieth century.

Great Nature does have another thing to do to you and me, so we must take the lively air and seize the day.    Thus begins my blog of short essays on poetry, words, literature, travel, and life.  

More to come.