Blues Poems

Jacket Description/Flap: Born in African American work songs, field hollers, and the powerful legacy of the spirituals, the blues traveled the country from the Mississippi delta to "Sweet Home Chicago," forming the backbone of American music. In this anthology--the first devoted exclusively to blues poems--a wide array of poets pay tribute to the form and offer testimony to its lasting power. The blues has left an indelible mark on the work of a diverse range of poets: from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes and "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden, to "Blues on Yellow" by Marilyn Chin and "Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie. Here are blues-influenced and blues--inflected poems from, among others, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Cornelius Eady. And here, too, are classic song lyrics--poems in their own right--from Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters. The rich emotional palette of the blues is fully represented here in verse that pays tribute to the heart and humor of the music, and in poems that swing with its history and hard-bitten hope. Table of Contents: "Foreword" "STANDARDS (Blues Poems before World War II)"""LANGSTON HUGHES The Weary Blues LANGSTON HUGHES Morning After LANGSTON HUGHES Beale Street Love LANGSTON HUGHES Song for a Dark Girl LANGSTON HUGHES Midwinter Blues LANGSTON HUGHES Too Blue LANGSTON HUGHES Note on Commercial Theatre 26FENTON JOHNSON Tired CLAUDE MCKAY The Harlem DancerNANCY CUNARD Memory Blues COUNTEE CULLEN Colored Blues Singer STERLING BROWN Ma Rainey STERLING BROWN Choices NICOLAS GUILLEN High Brown MELVIN B. TOLSON Sootie JoeMAXWELL BODENHEIM Street-level JazzW. H. AUDEN Blues W. H. AUDEN Funeral Blues MURIEL RUKEYSER George Robinson: BluesLEOPOLD SENGHOR Ndesse, or ""Blues" "OWEN DODSON Guitar CHARLES EDWARD SMITH Blues StanzasRICHARD WRIGHT AND LANGSTON HUGHES Red Clay BluesRICHARD WRIGHT The FB Eye Blues VINCENT MCHUGH Dicty Blues WARING CUNEY Down-home Boy WARING CUNEY Carry Me BackWARING CUNEY Let Me Tell You Blues Singers Something GWENDOLYN BROOKS Queen of the Blues "SOME SONGS"""W. C. HANDY St. Louis BluesMAMIE SMITH Crazy Blues MA RAINEY See See Rider BluesBESSIE SMITH Empty Bed BluesBESSIE SMITH Backwater Blues BESSIE SMITH Gimme a PigfootIDA COX Wild Women Don't Have the Blues RICHARD M. JONES Trouble in MindBLIND WILLIE JOHNSON Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed SON HOUSE Death Letter Blues ROBERT JOHNSON Kindhearted Woman Blues ROBERT JOHNSON Hellhound on My Trail ROBERT JOHNSON Love in Vain JIMMY RUSHING Sent for You Yesterday LEADBELLY Good Morning Blues MUDDY WATERS Hoochie Coochie ManBIG MAMA THORNTON Hound Dog "FORM"""JAYNE CORTEZ You Know AMIRI BARAKA Look for You Yesterday, Here You Come TodaySONIA SANCHEZ Blues SONIA SANCHEZ Blues Haikus SONIA SANCHEZ Set. No. 2 NIKKI GIOVANNI Master Charge Blues MARGARET WALKER Inflation Blues QUINCY TROUPE Woke Up Crying the Blues ELIZABETH ALEXANDER Letter: Blues A. VAN JORDAN Cheating Woman Blues Haiku ETHERIDGE KNIGHT Feeling Fucked/Up "FACING OFF"""JAMES C. MORRIS The Blues KENNETH REXROTH Married Blues KENNETH PATCHEN Lonesome Boy Blues HENRY DUMAS Concentration Camp Blues HENRY DUMAS Outer Space Blues DEREK WALCOTT Blues SHERMAN ALEXIE Reservation BluesGUSTAVO PEREZ FIRMAT Bilingual BluesMARILYN CHIN Blues on YellowCARL PHILLIPS Blue GAYL JONES Deep Song CALVIN FORBES Soledad CALVIN FORBES Some PiecesDARRELL BURTON Broom Song ALLEN GINSBERG Sickness BluesSANDRA MCPHERSON Bad Mother BluesAFAA M. WEAVER Rambling JUNE JORDAN Uncle Bull-boy TRACIE MORRIS Get Away 1928SEAN HILL Joe Chappel's Foot Log Bottom Blues 1952 ALAN DUGAN Swing Shift BluesBILLY COLLINS The Blues "FIGURES"""SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS Any Woman's Blues CORNELIUS EADY I'm a Fool to Love You CORNELIUS EADY Muddy Waters & the Chicago Blues CORNELIUS EADY Leadbelly KEVIN YOUNG Langston Hughes WILLIE PERDOMO Song for Langston STERLING PLUMPP Muddy Waters HONOREE FANONNE JEFFERS Big Mama Thornton CHARLES WRIGHT Poem Almost Wholly in My Own Manner JOHN BERRYMAN Dream Song [no. 40]DAVID WOJAHN John Berryman Listening to Robert Johnson's "King of the Delta Blues," January 1972 FORREST HAMER ArrivalDAVID RIVARD Not Guilty ALFRED ENCARNACION Bulosan Listens to a Recording of Robert Johnson "FREIGHT"""AL YOUNG The Blues Don't Change G. E. PATTERSON Cinderella YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Annabelle YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA For You, Sweetheart, I'll Sell Plutonium Reactors YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Woman, I Got the Blues CATHERINE BOWMAN Hard-Luck Resume THOMAS MCGRATH Gone Away Blues ROBERT CREELEY Broken Back Blues JOSEPH BRODSKY Blues WILLIAM MATTHEWS Narcissus Blues RAYMOND R. PATTERSON Special Pain BluesTOI DERRICOTTE Blackbottom MAJOR JACKSON How to Listen JANE COOPER Wanda's BluesALBERT MURRAY "From "Aubades NATASHA TRETHEWEY At the Station JEFF FALLIS Nosferatu BluesCHARLES SIMIC Bed Music JOHN YAU Domestic Bliss BOB KAUFMAN Blues for Hal Waters BOB KAUFMAN Heavy Water Blues WANDA COLEMAN Heavy Daughter Blues TERRANCE HAYES The Things-No-One-Knows Blues ANTHONY WALTON The Encyclopedia of Rhythm and Blues "FINALE (For Bessie Smith)"""ALVIN AUBERT BessieROBERT HAYDEN Homage to the Empress of the BluesJACKIE KAY Twelve Bar Bessie MYRON O'HIGGINS Blues for Bessie WARING CUNEY Bessie Smith COLLEEN J. MCELROY Mae West Chats It Up with Bessie Smith MICHAEL S. HARPER Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song "List of Authors ""Acknowledgments"Publisher Marketing: Born in African American work songs, field hollers, and the powerful legacy of the spirituals, the blues traveled the country from the Mississippi delta to "Sweet Home Chicago," forming the backbone of American music. In this anthology-the first devoted exclusively to blues poems-a wide array of poets pay tribute to the form and offer testimony to its lasting power. The blues have left an indelible mark on the work of a diverse range of poets: from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes and "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden, to "Blues on Yellow" by Marilyn Chin and "Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie. Here are blues-influenced and blues-inflected poems from, among others, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Cornelius Eady. And here, too, are classic song lyrics-poems in their own right-from Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters. The rich emotional palette of the blues is fully represented here in verse that pays tribute to the heart and humor of the music, and in poems that swing with its history and hard-bitten hope. Review Citations:

Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 796 (EAN 9780375414589, Hardcover)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 958 (EAN 9780375414589, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Young, Kevin Kevin Young is the author of five previous collections of poetry. His book "Jelly Roll "was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and won the Paterson Poetry Prize. His most recent collection, "For the Confederate Dead," won the 2007 Quill Award for poetry. He has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, and is currently the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing and curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.