Theodore Roethke.  The Waking.

Theodore Roethke. The Waking.

Author: The Ceylon Press September 28, 2025 Duration: 2:05

The 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.


ENJOY MORE
The Ceylon Press publishes a range of podcasts including The History Of Sri Lanka; the off-grid Jungle Diaries podcast; Island Stories, the podcast that explores what makes Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan; the Wild Isle Podcast: Stories from Sri Lanka’s Nature; a range of complete Audio Books about Sri Lanka; as well as Poetry from The Jungle.  All these, along with eBooks, dictionaries, guides and companions can be found at www.theceylonpress.com, based at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel in the jungle northwest of Kandy: www.flametreeestate.com.  

The copyright of this podcast recording is David Swarbrick @The Ceylon Press 2025. 

POETRY FROM THE JUNGLE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE COPYRIGHT CREDIT: 
Copyright Credit: Theodore Roethke, "The Waking" from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright 1953 by Theodore Roethke.


There’s a particular sound to the jungle-a layered quiet of leaves, birds, and distant water. It’s from within that atmosphere that The Sri Lanka Podcast: Poetry From The Jungle finds its voice. Produced by The Ceylon Press, each episode is recorded at the Flame Tree Estate & Hotel, nestled in the wilds northwest of Kandy. This isn’t a standard literary analysis show; it’s an experience of resonance. Here, timeless poems by renowned authors are read aloud, allowing their rhythms and meanings to intertwine with the ambient sounds of a Sri Lankan forest. The setting does more than provide backdrop-it actively shapes how you hear each word, offering a fresh and quietly profound perspective on verses you thought you knew. This podcast invites a slower kind of listening, where a classic sonnet might be punctuated by a monsoon shower or the call of a hornbill. It’s for anyone who believes place matters, that the environment where a story is told becomes part of the story itself. Tune in for a unique fusion of the literary and the natural, a deliberate retreat into the world of spoken art framed by one of the planet’s most vibrant soundscapes.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 89

The Sri Lanka Podcast: Poetry From The Jungle
Podcast Episodes
Anna Akhmatova.  Poem Without a Hero. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:02
I have lit my treasured candles, one by one, to hallow this night. With you, who do not come, I wait the birth of the year. Dear God! the flame has drowned in crystal, and the wine, like poison, burns Old malice bites th…
Alun Lewis.  All Day It Has Rained. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:57
All day it has rained, and we on the edge of the moors Have sprawled in our bell-tents, moody and dull as boors, Groundsheets and blankets spread on the muddy ground And from the first grey wakening we have found No refu…
Allen Ginsberg.  My Sad Self. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:56
Sometimes when my eyes are red I go up on top of the RCA Building and gaze at my world, Manhattan— my buildings, streets I’ve done feats in, lofts, beds, coldwater flats —on Fifth Ave below which I also bear in mind, its…
Abu Nuwas.  In The Bath-House. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:26
In the bath-house, the mysteries hidden by trousersAre revealed to you.All becomes radiantly manifest.Feast your eyes without restraint!You see handsome buttocks, shapely trim torsos,You hear the guys whispering pious fo…
Catullus.  Poem 5. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:35
Let us live, my Lesbia, and love,and the rumors of rather stern old menlet us value all at just one penny!Suns may set and rise again;for us, when once the brief light has set,an eternal night must be slept.Give me a tho…
Andrew Marvell.  To His Coy Mistress. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:14
Had we but world enough and time,This coyness, lady, were no crime.We would sit down, and think which wayTo walk, and pass our long love’s day.Thou by the Indian Ganges’ sideShouldst rubies find; I by the tideOf Humber w…
Breyten Breytenbach.  A Footnote Under The Night Of History. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:59
in the night when everything was blackburnt to a cross of ashon the blind glassand the dog’s bark a dark kiteblowing away in darkness to where the moontears like the keel of a sinking boatI dreamt my languagethe title pa…
Alun Lewis.  The Jungle. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:56
The Ceylon Press publishes a range of podcasts including The History Of Sri Lanka; the off-grid Jungle Diaries podcast; Island Stories, the podcast that explores what makes Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan; the Wild Isle Podcast: S…