I am so pleased to have followed Tim Miller’s blog. Today he has posted eleven Robinson Jeffers poems, leading me to wonder why I’ve neglected Jeffers for so long. It’s time to return.
Remember when poets made the cover of Time magazine? For probably intersecting reasons, poetry and the public have both failed each other, so that the reputations of people like Robinson Jeffers have pretty much disappeared. But read any of the following poems aloud, and see if you don’t hear something brutal, beautiful, and essential.
Because he spent most of his life in Carmel, California (and built his home, Tor House, on the coast), Jeffers is usually called a “California poet” or an “environmental poet,” but both labels do his universal vision a grave injustice. More at home with Greek and Latin than many of his “Modernist” peers who tried the same pose, he showed it was possible to write seriously, and powerfully, about the difficulties of history and modern life without resorting to the impenetrable difficulty of other poets then and since (no matter how eloquently…
View original post 2,423 more words
O at the Edges 
Yes – great writing
LikeLiked by 2 people
I plan on spending some time with RJ’s poetry. It’s been so long he seems like a new poet to me. Such rich language and depth!
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are so right! Thanks for share – exquisite.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Who else have I neglected? It makes me wonder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
i never heard of him until i read Tim’s To the House of the Sun & he puts Jeffers to good use there. Tim’s writing on history & religion is very thoughtful too, always impartial, & delivered confidently but without any vitiating over tones, which would be easy for him to justify based on the depth of his sources.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve always liked his rich language, but somehow he fell off my radar. Glad he’s back on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Stone Mason of Tor House. A great biography!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for the recommendation, Salvatore. I’ll be sure to pick up a copy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this! I haven’t read RJ in a long time and I appreciate all these poems.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A wonderful selection!
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing this! I thoroughly enjoyed these beautiful poems…the powerful imagery…I can hear the ocean in his words.
LikeLiked by 1 person
His world, his place, is so evident in his writing. Glad you enjoyed these.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing. I’m eager to read his work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am grateful to Tim Miller for reintroducing his work to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great stuff. I have never read his work before, Thanks for opening up my world even further!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was good to be reintroduced to him. Am grateful for Tim Miller’s blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I need to go to school on poetry and poets now that I am tentatively wandering into the “pool” myself. Thanks for helping!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s so much out there. You will enjoy the journey.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is nerve-racking and doubt inducing. So many people say so much, so much better than I, why spoil a great thing by speaking up? But then again… I also feel that maybe staying silent and not speaking for the profundities/characters that have made themselves known to me would do them injustice?
I will persist in letting the Muse do her own work…
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re all in the same boat, Daniel. Your voice will better us all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope so…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It will! I have no doubts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing this, I’m new to Jeffers and it’s been ages since I read a new poet, it was lovely to find one so compelling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He is compelling, isn’t he?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing this collection of poem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s powerful stuff!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeffers is magic. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! Glad you found him.
LikeLiked by 1 person