Cristo Redentor – a poem by Ken Gierke

Cristo Redentor
          jazz by Donald Byrd
 
A haunting chorale
laced with sonorous chords
leads me through winding hills
to deliver me
into the narrow valley
that holds Westphalia,
where a church spire high on a hill
rises from surrounding trees to be seen
by all who pass on the highway
below, both wayward and devout.
 
As I leave that steeple behind,
Donald Byrd’s trumpet,
slow, and almost sultry, moves in,
dances with those voices,
and Duke Pearson’s piano teases,
seems to offer a revelation.
 
Rich Fountain lies just down the road,
waits to follow suit, its church
again totally obscured above me, 
save the lines of its spire
rising above the trees.
 
When the road from there
opens to a wide valley,
I almost expect to see
Sugarloaf Mountain on the horizon
with the arms of Christ the Redeemer
opened wide, expecting me to come home.
 
Once baptized,
that boat long since capsized,
I still know all the rituals,
mouth the words at weddings
and funerals, though I know
they’ll never be uttered at mine.
 
As if knowing that ship has sailed,
trumpet, piano, and chorale
fade into the distance
as I head down the road to Belle.
 

 
Ken Gierke writes primarily in free verse and haiku. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming both in print and online in such places as Amethyst Review, As It Ought to Be Magazine, Ekphrastic Review, Poetry Breakfast, and Silver Birch Press. Glass Awash, his first collection of poetry, was published by Spartan Press in 2022. His poetry collection, Heron Spirit, was published in April 2024.  His website: https://rivrvlogr.com/