http:\/\/fngcdn.appspot.com\/audio\/words.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n1<\/p>\n
Love, love, a lily’s my care,
\nShe’s sweeter than a tree.
\nLoving, I use the air
\nMost lovingly: I breathe;
\nMad in the wind I wear
\nMyself as I should be,
\nAll’s even with the odd,
\nMy brother the vine is glad.<\/p>\n
Are flower and seed the same?
\nWhat do the great dead say?
\nSweet Phoebe, she’s my theme:
\nShe sways whenever I sway.
\n“O love me while I am,
\nYou green thing in my way!”
\nI cried, and the birds came down
\nAnd made my song their own.<\/p>\n
Motion can keep me still:
\nShe kissed me out of thought
\nAs a lovely substance will;
\nShe wandered; I did not:
\nI stayed, and light fell
\nAcross her pulsing throat;
\nI stared, and a garden stone
\nSlowly became the moon.<\/p>\n
The shallow stream runs slack;
\nThe wind creaks slowly by;
\nOut of a nestling’s beak
\nComes a tremulous cry
\nI cannot answer back;
\nA shape from deep in the eye–
\nThat woman I saw in a stone–
\nKeeps pace when I walk alone.<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
The sun declares the earth;
\nThe stones leap in the stream;
\nOn a wide plain, beyond
\nThe far stretch of a dream,
\nA field breaks like the sea;
\nThe wind’s white with her name,
\nAnd I walk with the wind.<\/p>\n
The dove’s my will today.
\nShe sways, half in the sun:
\nRose, easy on a stem,
\nOne with the sighing vine,
\nOne to be merry with,
\nAnd pleased to meet the moon.
\nShe likes wherever I am.<\/p>\n
Passion’s enough to give
\nShape to a random joy:
\nI cry delight: I know
\nThe root, the core of a cry.
\nSwan-heart, arbutus-calm,
\nShe moves when time is shy:
\nLove has a thing to do.<\/p>\n
A fair thing grows more fair;
\nThe green, the springing green
\nMakes an intenser day
\nUnder the rising moon;
\nI smile, no mineral man;
\nI bear, but not alone,
\nThe burden of this joy.<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
Under a southern wind,
\nThe birds and fishes move
\nNorth, in a single stream;
\nThe sharp stars swing around;
\nI get a step beyond
\nThe wind, and there I am,
\nI’m odd and full of love.<\/p>\n
Wisdom, where is it found?–
\nThose who embrace, believe.
\nWhatever was, still is,
\nSays a song tied to a tree.
\nBelow, on the ferny ground,
\nIn rivery air, at ease,
\nI walk with my true love.<\/p>\n
What time’s my heart? I care.
\nI cherish what I have
\nHad of the temporal:
\nI am no longer young
\nBut the winds and waters are;
\nWhat falls away will fall;
\nAll things bring me to love.<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
The breath of a long root,
\nThe shy perimeter
\nOf the unfolding rose,
\nThe green, the altered leaf,
\nThe oyster’s weeping foot,
\nAnd the incipient star–
\nAre part of what she is.
\nShe wakes the ends of life.<\/p>\n
Being myself, I sing
\nThe soul’s immediate joy.
\nLight, light, where’s my repose?
\nA wind wreathes round a tree.
\nA thing is done: a thing
\nBody and spirit know
\nWhen I do what she does:
\nCreaturely creature, she!–<\/p>\n
I kiss her moving mouth,
\nHer swart hilarious skin;
\nShe breaks my breath in half;
\nShe frolicks like a beast;
\nAnd I dance round and round,
\nA fond and foolish man,
\nAnd see and suffer myself
\nIn another being, at last.<\/p>\n
Theodore Roethke<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reading of my favorite love poem for Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}