HIS SOUND IS SACRED
he blows a mighty sound
lifts every roof within hearing skyward
lilts and sets every foot dancing
mourns and a sea of tears flows
raves and all rise in righteous anger
joy prayer hope despair
whispers and elicits tears
he speaks through a horn of plenty
that touches all that is human
a titan his horn defines all we
might be etches aspiration in sound
he is Big John the one and only
Trane coming down the tracks of sound
on fire high low and in between
Coltrane
John Coltrane
with a sound supreme
_____
Michael L. Newell, an expatriate English/Theatre teacher for twenty years, retired to the south-central Oregon coast in 2014. Among his published works are Traveling without Compass or Map (Bellowing Ark Press, 2006), A Long Time Traveling (Four-Sep Publications, 2004), Seeking Shelter (Four-Sep Publications, 2004), and A Stranger to the Land (Garden Street Press, 1997). He has loved jazz for over fifty years.
an absolutely terrific poem
Splendid poem, Mike. It flows and it lifts.