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Quote by Theodore Roethke

Work

Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke

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Author

Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke was an American poet known for his deep emotions and rich imagination. His poetry often explores themes of human emotion and the natural world, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

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“To be an American is to recognize the sacrifice of the widow and the orphan; it is to understand the weft of tent cities expecting caravans, and the heft of a child in a camp not meant for children, or sitting before a judge awaiting judgement. What do we say to the native whose lands we now inhabit? What do we say to our immigrant fathers who held certain truths to be self-evident? Do we now still pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor. There are no kings in America. Only gilded men we can topple again and again.”

“I want to stop smoking because I want to live, I can only love my comrades if I live, and I want to clean my room, I want to clean my room every week and make my bed and put peppermint in my hair to stop needing my inhalers and to inhale solidarity, and to eat the rich, I want to eat the rich, to cancel the rents, to know my neighbors and to know my neighbors are safe. I want to move like water, to move from unity to struggle to unity, to have no perfect world we haven’t fought for.”