Review of "En Route" by Darcie Dennigan

"En Route" by Darcie Dennigan was offered by Poets.org's Poem-A-Day on January 29, 2014.  A link to the poem, including the poet's notes, may be found here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23850?utm_source=PAD%3A+En+Route+by+Darcie+Dennigan&utm_campaign=poemaday_012914&utm_medium=email

Darcie Dennigan is an Assistant Professor in Residence at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and is a co-founder of Frequency Writers:  A Writing Community for Providence & Beyond, in Providence, Rhode Island.  She has published two books of poetry.  Additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/darcie-dennigan.

The title implies an idea of "going somewhere" or a journey.  The opening line begins with an apparent reference to the Nativity but ends by stating that the baby is a Buddhist.  Perhaps the poet means that different cultures may have different paths to God, and that the innocent baby Jesus would recognize and perhaps embrace this idea.  The poem continues, in jarringly arrhythmic free verse, to bounce back and forth between Christian customs and the Buddhist concept of reincarnation.  The poem attempts to link the resurrection and eventual second coming of Christ to reincarnation, but I am not sure it succeeds in doing so.