Caravaggio, Crucifixion of St Peter, by John Claiborne Isbell

Crucifixion of St Peter, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italy) 1601

 
Caravaggio, Crucifixion of St Peter
 
A cool diagonal cuts straight across 
this eight-foot canvas, dropping from the left-
hand margin toward its foot at bottom right.
On it – St Peter, in the blazing white
a loincloth offers. He is head to toe
the sort of ivory a shaft of light
permits white skin, and upside-down. He lifts
his bearded head to gaze at where his good 
left hand has been nailed to a cross. His feet 
are also nailed, while his right hand is hid.
He’s a white-bearded patriarch; his brow
is furrowed; he is not the sort of man
one sees half-naked. At his feet – which means
erect – a bearded man in red and white 
heaves this cross into air, sinew and cloth
 
alive in paint. In a sort of embrace 
he holds the saint’s calves; and beside him stands
a man in green and olive with a cord 
in two hands – sursum corda – as he works 
to hoist this cross with his companions. And 
on all fours, a third worker puts his back
beneath the wood to lift it. He’s in gold:
white skin in linen. At his hand, a spade 
which rests on rumpled green cloth, of the sort 
one finds in the Baroque. His feet are filthy –
a mom would say to wash them – for they work
in bare dirt. All the background’s black, as if 
the light that marks this group had no commission
to reach the outside world. It may be God 
who throws the group in chiaroscuro; for 
the path of martyrdom is dark. Perhaps 
St Peter might look Heavenward. Instead,
he gazes at his left hand, with its nail.
​
John Claiborne Isbell
​
Since 2016, various MSS of John’s have placed as finalist or semifinalist for The Washington Prize (three times), The Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes (twice), the Elixir Press 19th Annual Poetry Award, The Gival Press Poetry Award, the 2020 Able Muse Book Award (twice) and the 2020 Richard Snyder Publication Prize. John published his first book of poetry, Allegro, in 2018, and has published in Poetry Durham, threecandles.org, the Jewish Post & Opinion, Snakeskin, and The Ekphrastic Review. He has published books with Oxford and with Cambridge University Press and appeared in Who’s Who in the World. He also once represented France in the European Ultimate Frisbee Championships. He retired this summer from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, where he taught French and German. His wife continues to teach languages there.