#poetry - I reach past the limits

I reach past the limits of consciousness and become hyper aware
Of all that constitutes who and what I am
I think to myself what was that I was just thinking
As I explore the entryway into mindlessness
Sometimes this can be a full length death spell
And then there has been nothing worse
Sometimes this can be a voyage through the furnace of life
Where each moment burns with the truth of being real
A stationary living moment in time conceived space
All encompassed by the rest of the universe
A capsule like a spaceship containing all that is me
And every so often being able to leave the capsule
And drift off into the universe which includes the other side of life
And I think I can be alive no other way

The Waking by Theodore Roethke

The Waking by Theodore Roethke

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.





The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke