.
Seagull at PointJoe: photo by deb1edeb, 17 August 2009
PointJoe has teeth and has torn ships; it has fierce and solitary beauty;
Walk there all day you shall see nothing that will not make part of a poem.
Walk there all day you shall see nothing that will not make part of a poem.
The restless sea: rock formations at PointJoe, central California coast: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
I saw the spars and planks of shipwreck on the rocks, and beyond the desolate
Sea-meadows rose the warped wind-bitten van of the pines, a fog-bank vaulted
Forest and all, the flat sea-meadows at that time of year were plated
Golden with the low flower called footsteps of the spring, millions of flowerets,
Golden with the low flower called footsteps of the spring, millions of flowerets,
Whose light suffused upward into the fog flooded its vault, we wandered
Through a weird country where the light beat up from earthward, and was golden.
Through a weird country where the light beat up from earthward, and was golden.
One other moved there, an old Chinaman gathering seaweed from the sea-rocks,
He brought it in his basket and spread it flat to dry on the edge of the meadow.
China Rock, Monterey peninsula #4: a landmark named in honour of the Chinese who settled in the nearby fishing villages in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
Permanent things are what is needful in a poem, things temporally
Of great dimension, things continually renewed or always present.
Hazy day, Monterey peninsula: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
Grass that is made each year equals the mountains in her past and future;
Fashionable and momentary things we need not see nor speak of.
The restless sea: underwater rocks create crashing waves at vista point: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
Man gleaning food between the solemn presences of land and ocean,
On shores where better men have shipwrecked, under fog and among flowers,
Equals the mountains in his past and future; that glow from the earth was only
A trick of nature's, one must forgive nature a thousand graceful subtleties.
A trick of nature's, one must forgive nature a thousand graceful subtleties.
RobinsonJeffers (1887-1962): PointJoe, from Tamar and Other Poems (1924)
Cypress, at the coast, Monterey peninsula: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
China Rock, Monterey peninsula #3. Here and at PointJoe, Chinese fishermen built lean-tos against the rocks in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
China Rock #2: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009
The restless sea: powerful waves breaking on the rocks at PointJoe, central California coast: photo by California Dreamin' 77, 23 June 2009