Category Archives: Robinson Jeffers

Fire Under Control

by kaweah

The forest fire in the Big Sur country, which has been raging since last Thursday morning, is now under control. The area devastated is approximately twenty-five square miles, including both government and private property. The property destroyed embraces a vast amount of redwood timber, the University of California Bee Farm, the telephone line from Big Sur to Soledad. Upwards of seventy-five men were engaged in fighting the flames, among them a number of regulars from the Monterey Presidio.

Carmel Pine Cone, Wednesday, August 9, 1916

“Carmel Night” at Pebble Beach Lodge

by kaweah

Tonight the residents of Carmel will gather at Pebble Beach Lodge for a general good time.

R. J. McCabe, manager of the Lodge, rejoicing that Carmel is now an incorporated city, thinks this civic event should be properly celebrated.

It is Mr. McCabe’s desire that Carmel and Pebble Beach become more intimately united both socially and commercially.

To this end this affair has been arranged. Invitations have been mailed to a large number of local residents, who are requested to bring their visiting relatives and friends.

There will be interesting games with prizes, good music and special dances.

Everone [sic] should go. A 25c. round-trip fare has been arranged for and there will be no toll-gate charge.

Busses will leave from the Pine Cone office.

Carmel Pine Cone, November 22, 1916

RJA Carmel 2016

by kaweah

The Robinson Jeffers Association (RJA) Conference for 2016 in Carmel-by-the-Sea was a great learning opportunity as usual, though participation was somewhat low. The twofold fact that I was able to (1) recite my own poetry at Tor House and (2) present on the state of Carmel in 1916 (when it was incorporated, a century ago), probably says a lot about the present state of the RJA. That is to say that the RJA ought to be able to draw more legitimate contributors so that the likes of yours truly might be kept out of the spotlight.

I do think that Robinson Jeffers as a topic, plus the important themes that his work addresses, is important, current, and vital enough to draw in researchers and artists. I suppose I need to help promote the RJA, in spite of the fact that I am nobody.

Continue reading →

RJA 2016

by kaweah

The Robinson Jeffers Association (RJA) Conference for 2016 in Carmel-by-the-Sea was a great learning opportunity as usual, though participation was somewhat low. The twofold fact that I was able to (1) recite my own poetry at Tor House and (2) present on the state of Carmel in 1916 (when it was incorporated, a century ago), probably says a lot about the present state of the RJA. That is to say that the RJA ought to be able to draw more legitimate contributors so that the likes of yours truly might be kept out of the spotlight.

I do think that Robinson Jeffers as a topic, plus the important themes that his work addresses, is important enough to draw in researchers and artists. I suppose I need to help promote the RJA, in spite of the fact that I am nobody.

I do appreciate having been provided an opportunity to recite my poetry before the Jeffers community for the first time, and as well, to have been permitted to correct some common misconceptions about Jeffers and Carmel, albeit before a reduced Sunday audience.

Sunday was the 100th anniversary of Verdun, one of the most horrible slaughters in human history (the word ‘battle’ doesn’t seem to fit), so I started the morning off with a recitation of The Second Coming, a popular poem of Una’s idol William Butler Yeats. Next, I played a short movie consisting of images of old Monterey, Pebble Beach, Carmel, San Francisco from a hundred years ago—plus images from the Great War, to the music of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, a popular anthem of the war. I really put the “Ken Burns effect” to work in the little music video. After that, I just reeled off a slue of slides to address the said misconceptions. In a nutshell, my point was that Jeffers sometimes made the Carmel Point of 1916 seem more remote,  rural, and wild than it actually had been. Jeffers was perfectly capable of “honeying his truth with lying” as he accused other poets of doing.

I hope I didn’t upset anybody too much. Nobody loves Jeffers’ poetry more than yours truly, but let’s do be honest. I can hardly imagine Jeffers himself seeing it any other way.

Falco urbanus

by kaweah

“Jeffers is my God.” — Charles Bukowski

When the blades of the falcon’s
    silhouette flash
Between the bright towers of the City
    we rub our eyes.
Pigeons squat in gutters
    on watch for shadows.
Not the ruddy-tailed buzzard
    the poet lionized;
Bagger of rodents, wounded birds,
    wayward fledglings,
Squats atop Tudor cottages and
    unicorn castles;
The brute too clumsy to thread
    a cypress hedge,
Hover above the moor, nosedive
    from infinity.

 Continue reading →

The Poet is Dead

by kaweah

On this day in 1962, Robinson Jeffers gazed out to sea from his bed, then closed his eyes and died. It had been 75 years since he was born in a snowstorm. It had been 40 years since he discovered his muse—while building his 40-foot tower. It had also been 40 years since the last snowfall on the Monterey Peninsula. Jeffers never spoke a word, so far as I am aware, of the abandoned golf course that he built his house upon, nor did he acknowledge the existence of the newer course at Pebble Beach. Jeffers, it seems, was not very fond of golf. The morning after he died, 1.5″ of snow fell, causing the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (the Crosby Clambake) to be postponed. The poet is dead. Long live his ghost!