“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
Why read the poems of Robinson Jeffers?
What sets Robinson Jeffers as a poet apart for me, especially when placed beside other great poetic figures of the 20th century, is his lucid, yet down-to-earth vision.
While so many poets of his time turned inward, analyzing and scrutinizing the self, the psyche, or the fractured modern mind, Jeffers turned outward toward the cliffs, the Pacific, the circling hawk, the ancient rock. And he stayed there his whole life.
Reading Jeffers is a life-affirming experience, despite his sometimes pessimistic diagnosis of modernity. His poems remind us that we humans are not the axis on which the world turns. And in a self-obsessed time like ours, with the noise of constant “love yourself” affirmations—that’s not an easy digestible thing to be told.