Quote of the Day (Roethke)

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”—Theodore Roethke, “In a Dark Time”

(The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet died on this date, age 55, alone and floating face down in a swimming pool on the Bainbridge Island, Wash., estate of a pair of friends, only minutes after having prepared three mint juleps. Given Roethke’s prior history, many immediately suspected that alcohol contributed to his death, but the coroner decided it resulted from a coronary occlusion. The couple who owned the pool had it filled with soil the next day. Subsequently, it was converted to a Zen rock garden in memory of the poet.)