The Waking
- Sylvie
- Sep 8, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: May 13
Today, I stumbled upon a gift.
While writing a music review, I came across the poem "The Waking" — a piece that feels as if it was plucked straight from the soul’s deepest garden.
The artist, Kate Magdalena, had woven this timeless poem by Theodore Roethke into song.
As her angelic voice floated over delicate acoustic guitar picking and a gliding, ethereal flute, I felt myself pause... and then fall completely in love with the words.
There was something about the simplicity, the tenderness, the quiet wisdom carried by her voice — and by the poem itself — that wrapped itself around me like a soft morning light.
Some moments feel like a meeting with something greater than yourself. Finding "The Waking" today was one of those moments.
A reminder that life is not always about striving and pushing forward. Sometimes it is about waking slowly, moving gently, trusting the unseen hands that guide us, and loving what is — exactly as it is. Waking BY 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. 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.
In this poem, it appears that all things are are dependent upon the recognition of their antithesis which makes the poem circular. And, the awakened state seems to be a form of enlightenment where we experience life fully in the present. One of the most interesting lines is "I learn by going where I have to go." Sometimes, the greatest lessons are not learned by following our own desires, but by going where we have to go, spiritually.
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