Theodore Roethke's "Moss-gathering"
The Daily Poem
Goldberry Studios
4.6 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is by Theodore Huebner Roethke (/ˈrɛtki/ RET-kee;[1] May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963), an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book The Waking, and the annual National Book Award for Poetry on two occasions: in 1959 for Words for the Wind,[2] and posthumously in 1965 for The Far Field.[3][4] His work was characterized by its introspection, rhythm and natural imagery.
Roethke was praised by former U.S. Poet Laureate and author James Dickey as "in my opinion the greatest poet this country has yet produced."[5] He was also a respected poetry teacher, and taught at the University of Washington for fifteen years. His students from that period won two Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and two others were nominated for the award. "He was probably the best poetry-writing teacher ever," said poet Richard Hugo, who studied under Roethke.
—Bio via Wikipedia
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, David Kern here. I just wanted to let you know that this episode of The Daily Poem is sponsored by an exciting new book from the Circe Press. |
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| 0:21.6 | They took the most loved tales in the most beautiful language and added discussion questions to enable read-alouds or personal contemplation. |
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| 0:37.8 | Learn more about it on their website, surcey institute.org slash books, |
| 0:41.7 | or by clicking the link in the show notes. |
| 0:44.4 | And with that, here's today's episode. |
| 0:47.0 | Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. |
| 0:51.7 | I'm Heidi White, and today is Thursday, June 15th. Today's poem is by Theodore |
| 0:57.7 | Rettke, and it's called Moss Gathering. I'll read it once and offer a few comments and then read it one more |
| 1:04.1 | time. Moss Gathering. To loosen with all 10 fingers held wide and limber and lift up a patch, |
| 1:13.9 | dark green, the kind for lining cemetery baskets, thick and cushiony, like an old-fashioned |
| 1:21.2 | doormat, the crumbling small hollow sticks on the underside mixed with roots and winter green berries and leaves still |
| 1:30.1 | stuck to the top. That was moss gathering. But something always went out of me when I dug loose |
| 1:37.0 | those carpets of green or plunged to my elbow in the spongy yellowish moss of the marshes. |
| 1:43.8 | And afterwards I always felt mean, |
| 1:46.8 | jogging back over the logging road, as if I had broken the natural order of things in that |
| 1:52.1 | swamp land, disturbed some rhythm, old and of vast importance, by pulling off flesh from the living |
| 2:00.0 | planet, as if I had committed against the whole scheme of life, a desecration. |
| 2:09.5 | Theodore Rekke lived from 2008 to 1963. He was an American poet. He lived in Michigan. He was very influential in American poetry. |
| 2:21.1 | I won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and he had a profound influence on his own |
... |
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