“Ahmad Jamal’s Piano Comes Home” – a poem by Robert Gibb

July 11th, 2025

photo by Brian McMillen/CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Ahmad Jamal’s Piano Comes Home

“It took four strong men from Maroadi Transfer
and Storage to carry a piece of Ahmad Jamal’s
legacy into the Afro American Music Institute”
—The Homepage

Some assembly required,
It might have said on that
Half-ton worth of furniture
Dollied from the back

Of the moving van,
The legs and pedals
To be malleted into place,
The bench bellied up

To the keyboard,
Before anyone can take
An inaugural run
At “Poinciana” (what else?),

Welcoming the piano
To Homewood—
A Steinway Model D,
9 feet long, its gleaming

Mahogony crammed with
Strings and hammers.
Amazing, the space
He made among the notes.

You can hear it,
Live at the Pershing,
The patrons quiet, ambient,
Or present as applause.

In concert his instrument
Was his audience,
One critic wrote,
Just like it is now.

___

Robert Gibb is the author of 14 books including The Origins of Evening (National Poetry Series, 1997). Other books include Pittsburghese (Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize, 2023), Sightlines (Prize Americana in Poetry, 2019), Among Ruins (Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, 2017), After (Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, 2016), and The Burning World (Miller Williams Poetry Prize, 2004). He has also been awarded a Pushcart Prize, an appearance in Best American Poetry, and Prairie Schooner’s Glenna Luschei Award (2012) and Strousse Award (2011).

Watch a 2014 film of Ahamd Jamal performing his composition “Poinciana,” with Reginal Veal (bass); Manolo Badrena (percussion); and Herman Riley (drums). [Zycropolis TV]