This Morning with Robinson Jeffers
I want to share my morning sketch at poet Robinson Jeffers' Tor House, which he built for his beloved Una out of local rocks hauled up from the beach. When we first moved to Carmel, we lived a mere three blocks away, so it was natural for me to have started reading Jeffers in the early 70s. I was at Tor House to accompany a friend for a tour, but the caressing breeze was like pussycat's fur and the sea birds' incessant piping convinced me to stay in the garden abloom with gladioli. This is the result. The sardines are running again in Monterey Bay; myriad seabirds revolved like newspapers in the wind a few yards off shore.
Haig, one of the many English bulldogs the Jeffers loved, is buried among the gladioli. As I stood drawing, one of the docents came by and read me the poem, "The House Dog's Grave." I must have stood in the same spot for three quarters of an hour, and all the while, I sensed Robinson Jeffer's gray eyes gazing down at me from atop of Hawk Tower.
Hawk Tower and garden gate around 1:15 PM on July 26, 2008 taken by Belle
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Belle's Youtube video of her graphic novel-in-progress.
Youtube videio of "Always Come Home to Me," 2008 CALA Best Children's Book
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Darlene Arden says:
Sheer Poetry...
Your words paint as beautiful a portrait as you've drawn. I could feel myself there, especially with their dog among the gladioli. Thank you so much for sharing part of your day, dear Belle.
~ Darlene
Belle Yang says:
The poem about Haig the bulldog is really beautiful, Darlene
It's too long for me to type now as I am half way into the land of nod. But I wanted to set down the feelings of this day before midnight. I'll type up the poem soon and share it with you.
Darlene Arden says:
Thank you, Belle
As always, you are so thoughtful and caring.
Ericka Lutz says:
I remember visiting the Tor
I remember visiting the Tor house when I was a child -- lovely to see your drawing and these photos... beautiful.
Belle Yang says:
I care less for the subject
than the meditative state I enter when I make those squiggles and curlicues. I am told those who work in traditional meter feel the same about their poetry. More interested in the metrical play than the subject matter.
sonshi (not verified) says:
Awesome
What an awesome drawing you did; I especially liked the Haig marker with the H hidden by the foliage. Nice touch.
Belle Yang says:
I would like
an all white English bulldog one day.
Jessica Barksdale Inclan says:
I want
to transport into the photos and the drawing.
Lovely.
J
Jessica Barksdale Inclan www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.comto tra
Belle Yang says:
J--You
come visit the Tor House on a weekend.
Eric Nichols says:
I keep threatening to build
I keep threatening to build something like that in my back yard, but my wife will hear nothing of it. :(
But, it looks like I won't have the time to do it right now, anyway. I have a new writing project. Actually, it's a ghost writing project. I'm doing the story of this sourdough who just earned a place in the Guinness Book of world records for having survived the lowest core body temperature of any human being (other than in a hospital setting)....79.1 degrees F. 79.1 is actually my working title.
It's going to be a thrilling story of survival....but the feller has given me permission to marinate it in my own warped/macabre sense of humor. Which I will.
Stay tuned!
Eric
Susan Browne says:
Hi Belle
You capture the spirit of the place here in words and photos and drawing. I just returned from Carmel and visiting Tor House. The tour director could see me salivating on the grounds for Jeffers, my hero, so he asked me to read a few poems to the tour group on Una's Tower. It was spectacular to read them there.
Belle Yang says:
Susan, I'm glad you
love Jeffers as much as I do.
He is making a small come back. He sound perfectly relevant today as when he wrote decades ago about environmental destruction.