PoemOpen House
Author / PoetTheodore Roethke
TagsHouse, Truth

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.

My truths are all foreknown,
This anguish self-revealed.
I’m naked to the bone,
With nakedness my shield.
Myself is what I wear:
I keep the spirit spare.

The anger will endure,
The deed will speak the truth
In language strict and pure.
I stop the lying mouth:
Rage warps my clearest cry
To witless agony.

Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
25 May 1908 - 1 Aug 1963
Region: North America
Period: Modernist
Movement: Confessional, Romanticism
Awards: National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

more poems by Theodore Roethke

Poem NameTopic
The Waking (1948)Field, Happy, Stream
Selections From I Am! Said The LambBlizzard, Ceiling, Chair
The PikeEye, Pool, Shadow
The Saginaw SongGlass, Plate, Stream
The VisitantCloud, Mountain, Stone
Root CellarBreath, Dark, Root
Big WindMorning, Rose, Storm
The Shape Of The FireFire, Flower, House
The VoiceBird, Heart, Tree
Journey into the InteriorInterior, Journey, Rain

all poems by Theodore Roethke

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