"Night Journey" by Theodore Roethke (poetry reading)

The Locomotive is Fort Wayne's Nickel Plate Road 765. Did Roethke ride this train? I don't know, but he might have done. He was from Saginaw, Michigan. Here's a quotation from their site

"This is the historic steam locomotive no. 765: a high-stepping, fourteen wheeled magnificent machine that stands 15 feet tall, weighs 404 tons, and goes over 60 miles an hour; restored to the way it looked and sounded when it was built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1944.

Celebrated for pulling passenger excursions throughout the country as a goodwill ambassador, the 765 is the pride of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and one of only a handful of steam locomotives that still operates in the United States."
http://www.fortwaynerailroad.org/nickelplate765/introduction.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Night
• Journey
• Roethke
• Train

[paulpellicci]

nice....experimenting on the flow?

[SpokenVerse]

@paulpellicci It should sound like riding a train...

[hellomotley]

I don't really like poetry so will kick your ass If I saw you reading it but I really like this one

[kats727]

The pace gets slightly faster and the voice stronger. The rhythm is insistent, comforting, hypnotic. Truly enjoyed this reading.

[paulpellicci]

@SpokenVerse ...a train, with all the hints to0....thanks

[vudu8ball]

Thanks for this. Roethke taught at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He drank at the Blue Moon Saloon that still has a picture of him in full professorial splendor on the wall.

[marmas58ink]

Roethke.. your pronunciation is right. Before I checked out an old lp of poets reading their poems from my local college library in the early/mid 1980s I was never sure... How I tended to pronounce was different... if uncertain: 2 syllables or 3? ...long 'e' at the end or 'k-uh'? He was one of my favorites for several years.

[mercop14]

What a wonderful poem!