I learn by going where I have to go - 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.

Theodore Roethke

Original title: "The Waking"

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It is Grace taking you where you must go...
It is Grace giving you what you need...
Grace is a gift...

Papaji

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Note:  In one analysis of Roethke's poem,
it suggests another version,
changing the repetitive line:
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow", to
"I live to die, and take my living slow..."
It is ultimately a poem of life and death,
while embracing the totality of life experience
while we are here...

I rather like that interpretation...

~

photo: me on path
color digitally inverted