To an Old Square Piano by Robinson Jeffers

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 7, 2014   To an Old Square Piano   Robinson Jeffers

Whose fingers wore your ivory keys So thin—as tempest and tide-flow Some pearly shell, the castaway Of indefatigable seas On a low shingle far away— You will not tell, we cannot know. Only, we know that you are come, Full of strange ghosts melodious The old years forget the echoes of, From the ancient house into our home; And you will sing of old-world love, And of ours too, and live with us. Sweet sounds will feed you here: our woods Are vocal with the seawind’s breath; Nor want they wing-borne choristers, Nor the ocean’s organ-interludes. —Be true beneath her hands, even hers Who is more to me than life or death.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “To an Old Square Piano” was originally published in Jeffers’s second collection Californians (Macmillan, 1916).   Robinson Jeffers was born on January 10, 1887, in Pennsylvania. Jeffers’s verse, much of which is set in the Carmel/Big Sur region, celebrates the beauty of the coastal hills and ravines. He died in 1962. Poetry by Jeffers   The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers (Stanford University Press, 2002) "Green Rainbow Song" by Cedar Sigo "Sea and Rain: Lake Michigan" by Keith Taylor "Atavism" by Elinor Wylie Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038