I Wake To Sleep

Here's one of my all-time favorite poems, or rather a few verses from it. Years ago one of my teachers, Howard McConeghey, an art therapist, read it in class and I was very moved. I asked if he had another copy, and he handed me his. I was about 21 or 22 at the time.

Years later I ran into him at, of all places, my husband's cousin's house. Turns out Howard's nephew and he were friends, and the nephew brought Howard over for Thanksgiving, or Easter, or some type of holiday. He's a lovely man. He wrote a wonderful little book called Art and Soul.

Anyway, I ran across the poem again recently, and remembered all that it means to me. . .

The Waking
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.