Tuesday, August 25, 2009

"I hate my verses, every line, every word.
Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try
One grass-blade's curve, or the throat of one bird
That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky.
Oh cracked and twilight mirrors ever to catch
One color, one glintingflash, of the splendor of things.
Unlucky hunter, Oh bullets of wax,
The lion beauty, the wild-swan wings, the storm of the wings."
--This wild swan of a world is no hunter's game.
Better bullets than yours would miss the white breast
Better mirrors than yours would crack in the flame.
Does it matter whether you hate your . . . self?
At least Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can
Hear the music, the thunder of the wings.
Love the wild swan.

6 comments:

Tess Kincaid said...

This Jeffers piece pairs nicely with "Wild Swans" by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Is this who you were trying to remember?

marc aurel said...

Yes, but I can't find the poem I wanted. I heard a recording of it about thirty years ago and copied it onto a piece of paper, which I can't find, (we still haven't fully unpacked from moving house). It is, for me, a near perfect description of the kind of bliss that I felt I had experienced when I was a young man.

AphotoAday said...

That is SO beautiful... A lot of poetry just goes over my head, but I always have time to admire a bit of Robinson Jeffers...

It was slightly before my time, but he made his home in Carmel, California, not far from my old hometown of Pacific Grove... When our family would go for a drive around "the point" in Carmel we would always marvel at his "Tor House" fashioned from rounded stones he collected on the beach.

He was great friends with a photographer I idolized -- Edward Weston, and Weston has some really wonderful portraits of him, including a very famous one of the Tor Hose...

Thnks for the poem... I think I'll get out my old coffee-table book today -- Not Man Apart -- by Ansel Adams, which is full of Jeffers poetry...

marc aurel said...

And a happy Saturday to you with many happy returns of the day

Tess Kincaid said...

You might be able to find it by Googling, if you remember, a word or phrase in quotes along with Jeffers.

marc aurel said...

Yes, but I can't. Remember that is. Evidently he was interested in capturing in words what could not usually be expressed.