Birds and Fishes

It describes a yearly feeding frenzy in October, when fishes drawn to the shore attract large numbers of seabirds.

The poet concludes that ideas of justice and mercy are concerns for neither animals nor God, and that life is characterized by hunger, terror and torment.

[4] Robert Zaller writes that "in the first part of 'Birds and Fishes', Jeffers almost presents a satiric account of what nature would look like if seen in terms of human behavior".

The same year it also appeared in Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems from Random House and Poetry in Crystal from Steuben Glass Works.

[7][8] The collection was unveiled on April 18, 1963 at Steuben's gallery on Fifth Avenue in New York City, after which all the poems were published in a book with full-page photogravure images of the sculptures.