.
.
Azwari Nugraha (duabelas), CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Hubert Laws, 2010
.
___
.
.
“Amazing Grace” Played by Hubert Laws
The flute floats a legato stream of notes,
blood from the heart pouring in a lucent stream,
brilliant as a harvest moon filling the sky
with radiance such as the flutist releases
into the concert hall, notes carried on breath
prayerful and ecstatic, marrying a history
of wished for freedom and salvation
to the musician’s passionate merger
with his time where freedom is partial,
still in question, where he celebrates
beauty’s delicacy, while mourning life’s
imperfections that have lasted for oh so
many generations; the flute sails above
all that is imperfect, tracing musical lines
that are ineffably sublime, and all who listen
are carried through time, from slave ships
to the concert hall where Mr. Laws defines
beauty, loss, hope, and what might be, what
does not yet exist, but must exist; the flute’s
breath sails across concert hall and out into
night sky, steadily lifting toward harvest moon,
an elegant metaphor for beauty, for what could
be, what must be; as flute embraces silence,
listeners are enwrapped in poignant reverie.
.
.
___
.
.
Michael L. Newell lives on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. His most recent book of poems is Passage of a Heart.
.
.
Listen to the 1972 recording of Hubert Laws performing “Amazing Grace” [Masterworks Jazz]
.
.
___
.
.
Click here to read The Sunday Poem
Click here to read “A Collection of Jazz Poetry – Spring/Summer, 2024 Edition”
Click here to read “Ballad,” Lúcia Leão’s winning story in the 65th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
Click here for information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
Click here to subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter
Click here to help support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
.
___
.
.
Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced (and AI-free) since 1999
.
.
.
