Jeffers’ poetry is as hard as bone, His windswept lyrics fed by his dark side. At Carmel, he built a tower of stone. Wind, sea and storm fostered his rugged pride. On nature’s fiery force, his skills he honed. His message bleak, from which he could not hide, Foretold an elemental strife alone. He wrangled roan stallions only few could ride. His wide-winged hawks over the waves would moan. He joined their wildness with soul open wide. His poems made me yearn for his coastal home. Nothing human-made would pull the tide. His poetics read: Etch your heart in stone. A Zen he practiced till the day he died.