Quotes from Open House — Theodore Roethke
1908–1963 United States
← All quotes by Theodore Roethke
5 quotes
And soon a branch, part of a hidden scene,
The leafy mind, that long was tightly furled,
Will turn its private substance into green,
And young shoots spread upon our inner world.
Open House (1941)
The light comes brighter from the east; the caw
Of restive crows is sharper on the ear.
Open House (1941)
My secrets cry aloud.
I have no need for tongue.
My heart keeps open house,
My doors are widely swung.
An epic of the eyes
My love, with no disguise.
Open House (1941)
My truths are all foreknown,
This anguish self-revealed.
I’m naked to the bone,
With nakedness my shield.
Open House (1941)
He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
Open House (1941)