nUkiEmOLe poetics/ 01 Dec 2019 poetRy of Others #3: the Condor by Robinson Jeffers

nUkiEmOLe poems by otheRs #41/  01  Dec 2019

The Condor,    by Robinson Jeffers

 

note: Poem written by Robinson Jeffers, while attending at age sixteen, Occidental College, Pasadena CA was published in the June 1904 in The Youth’s Companion.  He received $12 for his poem…

 

The Condor[1]

My head is bald with cleaving heaven,

And rough my feathers with the grip

Of clashing winds and clouds wind-driven.

But what of that?  My winds can dare

All loneliest hanging heights of air;

Above the jagged mountain-lip

Their solemn slant and downward dip

Greet the red sun each morn and even.

The storm knows well their broad expanse,

For they can breast its pulsing power

When even the steadfast planets dance

Dizzily thro’ the riotous rack

Of ruined, tattered clouds that scour

O’er heaven.  On the tempest’s back

I clasp my wings, and like a horse

I rein it, mastering its force.

Then, tiring of the sport, I stretch

Upward above its region, far

As if I strove to climb and fetch

The utmost little silver star.

Then I lean low with a flat wing

Upon the lucid air, and swing

Amid the regions of pure peace.

I reck not of the earth below,

But swing, and soar, and never cease,

In circles large and full and slow,

With such a movement, such a grace

That I forget my ugliness.

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[1] “Robinson Jeffers – The Early Years” May 15, 2013 written in ‘Adventures of a Home Town Tourist’  https://carmelbytheseaca.blogspot.com/2013/05/robinson-jeffers-early-years.html