Finally a poet I can relate to! Robinson Jeffers and I have both lived in California and share a similar zeal for nature. I really like that he writes poems about nature and animals. The three poems I read make me want to read more.
             The first one, Birds and Fishes, was my favorite and I enjoyed his perception of the birds. He shows the birds "wild with envy and malice, cursing and snatching" making them seem mean and almost evil. But in the last lines he contradicts this perception and calls them "the beauty of God." Jefferson understands it is not that the birds are mean but that it's just how they are; "that is their quality: not mercy, not mind, not goodness." I like the word "quality," it sums up how he really feels about the birds all in one word.
             The poem was especially enjoyable to read because I've been in Jeffers shoes and witnessed a scene like he described. The "little fish" he writes about must be the grunion of the pacific coast in California. Every year at a predictable time (usually late at night) millions of grunion squirm up onto the sand to breed. In many places it's quite popular to make a party out of the grunion run. In high school we used to go drink beer on the beach until the grunion showed up. Then we'd run barefoot into the water and dance around in the mounds of writhing fish. The night would usually end in fish fights where we'd throw fish around at each other like snowballs. By the time we got home we were covered in scales and smelled like fish.
             Jeffers' next poem, Vulture, is also brilliant. I really like the ending and the lines: "I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten by that beak and become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes." The lines show a sort of respect for the vulture and again how beautiful, friendly, and fascinating Jeffers finds nature.
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