The Waking

"The Waking": a poem by Theodore Roethke

In Memoriam
John Paul II
1920 - 2005

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 beside 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 lowly 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 was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1908 and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1929. He taught at various colleges, ending his teaching career at the University of Washington in Seattle. His poem The Waking was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1954; Roethke died in 1963.