A little too abstract, a little too wise, It is time for us to kiss the earth again, It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies, Let the rich life run to the roots again.
Keep your own flame, not to rival the heavens, but to ensure that when darkness comes you are not numbered among those who mistook the fire for the light.
Jeffers is one of my favorites. But I confess that his repeated seeming obsession with the likes of deflowered virgins, incest, etc can detract a bit from my admiration, as too many women I know have found him off-putting, even creepy……. Nobody’s perfect?
Thank you for including my house god in your writings. Edward Abbey had this to say about him:
”Jeffers, in fact, was more than a great poet; he was a great prophet. Everything he wrote about the corruption of empire, the death of democracy, the destruction of our planet, and the absurd self-centered vanity of the human animal has come true tenfold since his time.”
One can choose to be a hero or villain
But the masses
The masses
Allowed to be led by one
Are always the villain
Jeffers always brings a sharp stab of truth through the fog of mundane lies.
To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
Not only "The Answer" but the antidote to despair, anger, frustration. Beautiful words, much needed and appreciated today. Thanks for posting!
A little too abstract, a little too wise, It is time for us to kiss the earth again, It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies, Let the rich life run to the roots again.
=^.^= ~ Robinson Jeffers
Keep your own flame, not to rival the heavens, but to ensure that when darkness comes you are not numbered among those who mistook the fire for the light.
omg!! What a wallop on a Sunday morning! Moved me to become a paid subscriber.
Jeffers is one of my favorites. But I confess that his repeated seeming obsession with the likes of deflowered virgins, incest, etc can detract a bit from my admiration, as too many women I know have found him off-putting, even creepy……. Nobody’s perfect?
this piece will live forever. thanks for sharing.
Jeffers feels more urgent every year. Glad this keeps finding new readers.
Not Man Apart!
A response to Jeffers
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uvPYHpjf-J47DRPBNo7EsN97TPVoACAI/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=105965051505673444047&rtpof=true&sd=true
Thank you for including my house god in your writings. Edward Abbey had this to say about him:
”Jeffers, in fact, was more than a great poet; he was a great prophet. Everything he wrote about the corruption of empire, the death of democracy, the destruction of our planet, and the absurd self-centered vanity of the human animal has come true tenfold since his time.”
Amen to that.
Shine, Perishing Republic
While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire,
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,
Erik, have you read Charles Simic’s “The Life of Images”? And his “Selected Poems”?
Jeffers saw the machine eating the world and just kept writing into the dark. These poems hit different right now.
Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs
Get Lostinaustinbook.substack.com
Dream Californiadreams.substack.com
Let there be a way back from theirs.
That's the exact quote I use on my Buy Me a Coffee profile! LOL.
#goodstuff