Category Archives: Robinson Jeffers

The Big Merge

by kaweah

In the interest of simplifying my life, I have begun to merge my three websites into one.

In the process, some of the content of my old Bahá’í site Idol Chatter will be abandoned, but what I consider worthwhile has been retained, however Bahá’í content is not linked as prominently as it was before.

As it is, this site includes ninety posts on the Bahá’í Faith. The ancient FBI (Forum for Bahá’í Investigations) site will be available indefinitely, however, I don’t intend to link it to a menu.

The other site that I am merging into kaweah.com is my proof-of-concept Robinson Jeffers site, the Inhumanist. I plan to spend more time enhancing and cleaning up this content, but I don’t have time to manage a separate site indefinitely.

I apologize for all the inconvenience of broken links, lost content, and broken image links. I’ve already cleaned up much of the mess, and I plan to do more in the future.

I expect the two old sites to be available until the end of 2023.

Hurt Hawks

by kaweah

A brutally honest and boldly naive tribute to wounded hawks, inspired by a hawk that Robinson Jeffers and sons fed for weeks before the poet was finally compelled by sympathy to turn a gun on the bird.

© 1928 Robinson Jeffers
Jeffers Literary Properties
Stanford University Press

Reading © 2017 Kaweah

Whitewashing the Point

by kaweah

Robinson Jeffers’ depiction of the Central California Coast as a place populated by Anglo-American ranchers and a Hispanic underclass (some if not all indigenous Californians) seems probable enough, but Jeffers’ human landscape lacks the Asiatic tone of some of the key people of the coast. Tamar is a conspicuous example of this issue.

Continue reading →

Vulture, by Robinson Jeffers

by kaweah

In Igneous Range, the vulture is the firebird, a symbol of ancient Iran, and a symbol of transcendence.

To be eaten by that beak and become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes …

Published posthumously in 1963.
Jeffers Literary Properties
Stanford University Press
Reading © 2017 Kaweah

For more discussion on this and other Jeffers poems, see Robinson Jeffers: Fire from Stone.

©2017 Kaweah (Dan Jensen)

A Prayer for Peace

by kaweah

I am of the general opinion that each of us has a religion. Each of us holds something to be sacred, though not all of us choose to follow self-proclaimed infallible guides. Not all of us involve prayer as part of our religion, but for those of us who do, prayer can take the form of a poem. For Bahá’ís, sunlight is a favorite metaphor for right guidance from God, but not everyone thinks that light is necessarily the best guide. For Robinson Jeffers, a prayer to a Goddess of darkness is more appropriate than a prayer to a God of light.

 

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The Summit Redwood, by Robinson Jeffers

by kaweah

There is an outlaw thread in Igneous Range, so one of the Robinson Jeffers poems that it reminds me of is the Summit Redwood:

First published in 1928
Reading by Kaweah

A companion lyric to Cawdor and a splendid fire-poem in its own right, The Summit Redwood has never been selected for any anthology, possibly because it appears to put “people of color” in a bad light, or perhaps because its style appears to be inconsistent. I happen to see it as a marvelous portrait of kindred defiants: a red tree and a red man.
Redwoods don’t often grow on summits, particularly on the coast, but often enough for the purposes of this poem. They are shaken by lightning commonly enough. Continue reading →

To the Story-Tellers, by Robinson Jeffers

by kaweah

I wrote most of Igneous Range before I had any idea I was writing a Jeffers novel, thematically anyway: violence, vultures, redwoods, defiance, and above all fire. A repeating theme is the dominance of the subconscious, and there is also a sense of insanity.

Oh, and there’s genocide as well.

Toward the end of the story, Armen encounters a crazy old man in a cave who preaches the insanity of man. He does not mean that man is evil; only that man is not rational:

There are lots of intelligent animals, but there is only one mad animal.