Rock and Hawk

Here is the symbol in which
Many high tragic thoughts
Watch their own eyes.

This gray rock, standing tall,
On the headland, where the seawind
Lets no tree grow,

Earthquake proved, and signatured
By ages of storms: on its peak
A falcon has perched.

I think, here is your emblem,
To hang in the future sky;
Not the cross, not the hive,

But this; bright power, dark peace;
Fierce consciousness joined with final
Disinterestedness;

Life with calm death; the falcon’s
Realist eyes and act
Married to the massive

Mysticism of stone,
Which failure cannot cast down,
Nor success make proud.

-Robinson Jeffers, 1887-1961