Kim Roberts
is the author of two books of poetry, The Kimnama (Vrzhu Press, 2007), and The Wishbone Galaxy (WWPH, 1994). Individual poems have been published in such journals as Southwest Review, Ohio Review, Malahat Review, No Tell Motel, and New Letters.
Kim has also received writers’ residency grants from eleven artist colonies. She edits the online journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly and co-edits the Delaware Poetry Review.
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The Grotto of the Redemption
Built by Father Paul Dobberstein in West Bend, Iowa, 1912-1954
What patience, chipping the dark brown stones
into points, hundreds of them,
pressing the points into wet cement
then curing it with water for five days
so it set slowly enough to bear the winters
that sweep like white ghosts
along the edges of prairie farms.
These dark jaspers make a fine tree of temptation,
and green malachite stripes the trunk
and winds upward to form the snake
with its open mouth, sitting among
the feldspar and chalcedony, the sparkling geodes.
The geology of the whole world converges here:
emeralds, sapphires, rubies, jades,
a Brazilian amethyst weighing 300 pounds,
tropical corals, petrified wood from Arizona,
a huge stalagmite cut from Carlsberg Caverns.
Also broken Coke bottles,
melted with crayons, so the glass is striped
with brilliant, improbable color. Tour guides
say it’s divine providence that gave Father Paul
his abilities: alone, without blueprints,
pouring his foundation deep to bedrock,
working his hammers and nippers,
mixing concrete in small batches.
Archways, domes, caves, a mountain,
a Calvary, topped with a granite cross.
Preaching to his farmers each Sunday,
German immigrants like himself,
he always dreamed of more.
  
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