IN A DARK TIME

[@crocodilemama]

I adore Roethke. His essence encourages me to keep writing, keep searching, keep learning .

[@enossified]

On top of everything else, the quality of the film is beautiful - what a great find!

[@JeffRebornNow]

This video has been here for a decade, and you can see how few times it's been visited, and how much fewer times people have commented on it. This is indicative of the unpopularity of poetry in today's world. If, as Roethke says here, "Poetry is language at its most memorable, at its best," then most people miss out on the capabilities and wonderments of language. But a few of us survive and carry the torch to the next generation, though the relay has fewer and fewer runners and the cheering crowd has turned away.

[@amylemmon9728]

Unbelievable. A treasure. Thank you for uploading this!

[@greghh2223]

I can only repeat what's already been said here. Roethke is a great poet. He has many styles and they're all successful and wonderful to experience.

[@williamspeed8472]

Something about this video keeps bringing me back. Something about hearing poems from the poets mouth. Adding a second layer of meaning maybe.

[@tinabell97405]

what fun to see roethke rise from the grave and sing and dance...

[@Semimetafora]

This is great, thanks so much! adore his way to move!

[@colet1096]

Arguably the greatest of the modern American poets.

[@lamerebill]

What a treasure! Thank you.

[@velgerth536]

I only began to really hear poetry when I first heard Roethke with his language that takes me into where he is or has been .

[@diviner2012]

Roethke is one of the greats!

[@sophiakathariou8048]

a true treasure indeed. Thank you!

[@sattarabus]

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. --- Roethke--- from his poem OPEN HOUSE

[@JosephDuvernay]

here too, the Poet is all Heart, all True - seeking at least

[@noicedesign]

"The best modern poet is best characterized by a terrible honesty of the imagination"

[@MBHFilms]

22:00

[@thaliapanacea964]

"In a Dark Time" is a poem that always finds me in a dark time. I find most poets pretentious, and Roethke here is very honest and pretentious at the same time. I understand the hero-worship of Blake, as we all have heroes, but at the same time clinging to God and clinging to a personal hero is infantilism. I can't say his other opinions are wrong. It may be a personal distrust of poets turned professor-priests; the comfort of institutionalism, religion, and economic stability divorces a poet from desperation, which is reality. However, if offered, I'd choose that life over the one I chose in youth, before I became old and ill. Finding this video is a treasure, the poet reading his own work. I would be, will be, fortunate to have such a thread where people rip my poems apart because I appear comfortable while reading a poem about the contemplation of ceasing to exist while surrounded by life one can't participate in. "In a Dark Time" is a suicide note by someone who has already decided against it.

[@MBHFilms]

22:00