Blues Poems

Blues Poems

Author: Kevin Young

Publisher: Everyman's Library

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0375414584

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.


Book Synopsis Blues Poems by : Kevin Young

Download or read book Blues Poems written by Kevin Young and published by Everyman's Library. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Poetry of the Blues

The Poetry of the Blues

Author: Samuel Charters

Publisher: Courier Dover Publications

Published: 2019-04-17

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 0486832953

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A signal event in the history of the music." — Ted Gioia, author of The Delta Blues Musicologist and writer Samuel Charters (1929–2015) considered blues lyrics a profound cultural expression that could connect all people who love poetry. A pioneer in the exploration of world music, Charters conducted research that brought obscure musicians of the American South and Appalachia into the mainstream. In this landmark volume, the noted blues historian and folklorist presents a rich exploration of blues songs as folk poetry, quoting lyrics by such legends as Son House and Lightnin' Hopkins at length to reveal the depth of feeling and complex literary forms at work within a unique art form. Originally published in 1963, The Poetry of the Blues raised interest in many previously unrecognized aspects of African-American music and made a significant contribution to the blues revival of the 1960s. This volume features now-vintage black-and-white photographs by Ann Charters from the original edition.


Book Synopsis The Poetry of the Blues by : Samuel Charters

Download or read book The Poetry of the Blues written by Samuel Charters and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2019-04-17 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A signal event in the history of the music." — Ted Gioia, author of The Delta Blues Musicologist and writer Samuel Charters (1929–2015) considered blues lyrics a profound cultural expression that could connect all people who love poetry. A pioneer in the exploration of world music, Charters conducted research that brought obscure musicians of the American South and Appalachia into the mainstream. In this landmark volume, the noted blues historian and folklorist presents a rich exploration of blues songs as folk poetry, quoting lyrics by such legends as Son House and Lightnin' Hopkins at length to reveal the depth of feeling and complex literary forms at work within a unique art form. Originally published in 1963, The Poetry of the Blues raised interest in many previously unrecognized aspects of African-American music and made a significant contribution to the blues revival of the 1960s. This volume features now-vintage black-and-white photographs by Ann Charters from the original edition.

Book of Blues

Book of Blues

Author: Jack Kerouac

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1995-09-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1101548800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Best known for his "Legend of Duluoz" novels, including On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In these eight extended poems, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect in Mexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment. "In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to the other, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues as in jazz, the form is determined by time, and by the musicians spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of time as it waves & waves on by in measured choruses." —Jack Kerouac


Book Synopsis Book of Blues by : Jack Kerouac

Download or read book Book of Blues written by Jack Kerouac and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1995-09-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known for his "Legend of Duluoz" novels, including On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In these eight extended poems, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect in Mexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment. "In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to the other, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues as in jazz, the form is determined by time, and by the musicians spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of time as it waves & waves on by in measured choruses." —Jack Kerouac

The Blues of Heaven

The Blues of Heaven

Author: Barbara Ras

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2021-03-09

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 0822988216

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In The Blues of Heaven, Barbara Ras delivers her characteristic subjects with new daring that both rattles and beguiles. Here are poems of grief over her brother’s death; doors to an idiosyncratic working-class childhood among Polish immigrants; laments for nature and politics out of kilter. Ras portrays the climate crisis, guns out of control, the reckless injustice and ignorance of the United States government. At the same time, her poems nimbly focus on particulars—these facts, these consequences—bringing the wreckage of unfathomable harm home with immediacy and integrity. Though her subjects may be dire, Ras also weaves her wise humor throughout, moving deftly from sardonic to whimsical to create an expansive, ardent, and memorable book. Survival Strategies To dig for quahogs, to feel their edges like smiles and pull against their suck to toss them in a bucket. To feel the wind as a friend, to feel its current as luck. To ignore Capricorn and Cancer presuming to slice the globe. To know the lie in “names can never hurt you.” To be a gull breezing the blue, eating nothing but clouds. To measure your ties to the past by the strength of cobwebs. To haunt the widow’s walk, its twelve narrow windows each the size of a child’s coffin. To watch the harbor where the Acushnet runs into Buzzards Bay before it was named a Superfund site full of PCBs. To wonder if that water you swam summer after aimless summer could get you the way something got your brother, too fast, too soon. To bury or burn the whole family you were born to and talk to them only through the smoke of letters you torch at their graves. To see a snake with a ladybug on its back and still refuse to pray.


Book Synopsis The Blues of Heaven by : Barbara Ras

Download or read book The Blues of Heaven written by Barbara Ras and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Blues of Heaven, Barbara Ras delivers her characteristic subjects with new daring that both rattles and beguiles. Here are poems of grief over her brother’s death; doors to an idiosyncratic working-class childhood among Polish immigrants; laments for nature and politics out of kilter. Ras portrays the climate crisis, guns out of control, the reckless injustice and ignorance of the United States government. At the same time, her poems nimbly focus on particulars—these facts, these consequences—bringing the wreckage of unfathomable harm home with immediacy and integrity. Though her subjects may be dire, Ras also weaves her wise humor throughout, moving deftly from sardonic to whimsical to create an expansive, ardent, and memorable book. Survival Strategies To dig for quahogs, to feel their edges like smiles and pull against their suck to toss them in a bucket. To feel the wind as a friend, to feel its current as luck. To ignore Capricorn and Cancer presuming to slice the globe. To know the lie in “names can never hurt you.” To be a gull breezing the blue, eating nothing but clouds. To measure your ties to the past by the strength of cobwebs. To haunt the widow’s walk, its twelve narrow windows each the size of a child’s coffin. To watch the harbor where the Acushnet runs into Buzzards Bay before it was named a Superfund site full of PCBs. To wonder if that water you swam summer after aimless summer could get you the way something got your brother, too fast, too soon. To bury or burn the whole family you were born to and talk to them only through the smoke of letters you torch at their graves. To see a snake with a ladybug on its back and still refuse to pray.

Black Music, Black Poetry

Black Music, Black Poetry

Author: Professor Gordon E Thompson

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2014-05-28

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1472430603

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Black Music, Black Poetry offers readers a fuller appreciation of the diversity of approaches to reading black American poetry. It does so by linking a diverse body of poetry to musical genres that range from the spirituals to contemporary jazz. The poetry of familiar figures such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and less well-known poets like Harryette Mullen or the lyricist to Pharaoh Sanders, Amos Leon Thomas, is scrutinized in relation to a musical tradition contemporaneous with the lifetime of each poet. Black music is considered the strongest representation of black American communal consciousness; and black poetry, by drawing upon such a musical legacy, lays claim to a powerful and enduring black aesthetic. The contributors to this volume take on issues of black cultural authenticity, of musical imitation, and of poetic performance as displayed in the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Amiri Baraka, Michael Harper, Nathaniel Mackey, Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Amos Leon Thomas. Taken together, these essays offer a rich examination of the breath of black poetry and the ties it has to the rhythms and forms of black music and the influence of black music on black poetic practice.


Book Synopsis Black Music, Black Poetry by : Professor Gordon E Thompson

Download or read book Black Music, Black Poetry written by Professor Gordon E Thompson and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-05-28 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black Music, Black Poetry offers readers a fuller appreciation of the diversity of approaches to reading black American poetry. It does so by linking a diverse body of poetry to musical genres that range from the spirituals to contemporary jazz. The poetry of familiar figures such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and less well-known poets like Harryette Mullen or the lyricist to Pharaoh Sanders, Amos Leon Thomas, is scrutinized in relation to a musical tradition contemporaneous with the lifetime of each poet. Black music is considered the strongest representation of black American communal consciousness; and black poetry, by drawing upon such a musical legacy, lays claim to a powerful and enduring black aesthetic. The contributors to this volume take on issues of black cultural authenticity, of musical imitation, and of poetic performance as displayed in the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Amiri Baraka, Michael Harper, Nathaniel Mackey, Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Amos Leon Thomas. Taken together, these essays offer a rich examination of the breath of black poetry and the ties it has to the rhythms and forms of black music and the influence of black music on black poetic practice.

The Blues Comes With Good News

The Blues Comes With Good News

Author: Sonny Hall

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2019-09-05

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1529383986

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Soul searching poetry for a new generation. Inspired by Diane di Prima, Rene Ricard, Henry Miller and others 'who tell it like it is', The Blues Comes with Good News is a collection of poems by prolific writer, Sonny Hall. The collection ranges from articulating addiction, self-destruction and identity, to romantic relationships, his journey to recovery and his unapologetic depiction of truth, through life and its happenings. At 18 years old Sonny entered a treatment centre for alcohol and drug addiction, after losing his biological mother - who he remained close to despite being adopted aged 4 - to a heroin overdose. Three months into his treatment, Hall started writing poems as a way of ordering 'all the madness' in his head. He has since written hundreds of poems, which all portray his newfound intimacy with life, figuring it out as he goes on, never failing to write sincerely about the sting of life, through a rare candour, explicit and seedy within the realms of his own indulgence. Illustrations by JACK LAVER


Book Synopsis The Blues Comes With Good News by : Sonny Hall

Download or read book The Blues Comes With Good News written by Sonny Hall and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soul searching poetry for a new generation. Inspired by Diane di Prima, Rene Ricard, Henry Miller and others 'who tell it like it is', The Blues Comes with Good News is a collection of poems by prolific writer, Sonny Hall. The collection ranges from articulating addiction, self-destruction and identity, to romantic relationships, his journey to recovery and his unapologetic depiction of truth, through life and its happenings. At 18 years old Sonny entered a treatment centre for alcohol and drug addiction, after losing his biological mother - who he remained close to despite being adopted aged 4 - to a heroin overdose. Three months into his treatment, Hall started writing poems as a way of ordering 'all the madness' in his head. He has since written hundreds of poems, which all portray his newfound intimacy with life, figuring it out as he goes on, never failing to write sincerely about the sting of life, through a rare candour, explicit and seedy within the realms of his own indulgence. Illustrations by JACK LAVER

Poetry to Heal Your Blues

Poetry to Heal Your Blues

Author: Marilyn Hacker

Publisher: Spruce

Published: 2005-09-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781840726688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It can be hard to share your pain with others when the words for such raw emotions seem impossible to express. When you're deep into the blues, and your world feels dark, find a quiet place, open the pages of this beautiful book, and let the healing power of poetry pour into your soul. What you will discover in this wonderful collection are 100 poems that will take your blues away. They have been chosen with care and thought from the abundant resources of American and international writing. Favorite poets of the past such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Wallace Stevens stand alongside the newer voices of Robert Bly, Louise Glück, W.S. Merwin, Pablo Neruda, Galway Kinnell, Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall, Marilyn Hacker, Dorianne Laux, James Wright, and others. Though they all speak with different voices, these poets find their own, miraculous words to expose pain and through this exposure, heal it.


Book Synopsis Poetry to Heal Your Blues by : Marilyn Hacker

Download or read book Poetry to Heal Your Blues written by Marilyn Hacker and published by Spruce. This book was released on 2005-09-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It can be hard to share your pain with others when the words for such raw emotions seem impossible to express. When you're deep into the blues, and your world feels dark, find a quiet place, open the pages of this beautiful book, and let the healing power of poetry pour into your soul. What you will discover in this wonderful collection are 100 poems that will take your blues away. They have been chosen with care and thought from the abundant resources of American and international writing. Favorite poets of the past such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Wallace Stevens stand alongside the newer voices of Robert Bly, Louise Glück, W.S. Merwin, Pablo Neruda, Galway Kinnell, Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall, Marilyn Hacker, Dorianne Laux, James Wright, and others. Though they all speak with different voices, these poets find their own, miraculous words to expose pain and through this exposure, heal it.

Poetic Song Verse

Poetic Song Verse

Author: Mike Mattison

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1496837290

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Music and Poetry invokes and critiques the relationship between blues-based popular music and poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume is anchored in music from the 1960s, when a concentration of artists transformed modes of popular music from entertainment to art-that-entertains. Musician Mike Mattison and literary historian Ernest Suarez synthesize a wide range of writing about blues and rock—biographies, histories, articles in popular magazines, personal reminiscences, and a selective smattering of academic studies—to examine the development of a relatively new literary genre dubbed by the authors as “poetic song verse.” They argue that poetic song verse was nurtured in the fifties and early sixties by the blues and in Beat coffee houses, and matured in the mid-to-late sixties in the art of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gil Scott-Heron, Van Morrison, and others who used voice, instrumentation, arrangement, and production to foreground semantically textured, often allusive, and evocative lyrics that resembled and engaged poetry. Among the questions asked in Poetic Song Verse are: What, exactly, is this new genre? What were its origins? And how has it developed? How do we study and assess it? To answer these questions, Mattison and Suarez engage in an extended discussion of the roots of the relationship between blues-based music and poetry and address how it developed into a distinct literary genre. Unlocking the combination of richly textured lyrics wedded to recorded music reveals a dynamism at the core of poetic song verse that can often go unrealized in what often has been considered merely popular entertainment. This volume balances historical details and analysis of particular songs with accessibility to create a lively, intelligent, and cohesive narrative that provides scholars, teachers, students, music influencers, and devoted fans with an overarching perspective on the poetic power and blues roots of this new literary genre.


Book Synopsis Poetic Song Verse by : Mike Mattison

Download or read book Poetic Song Verse written by Mike Mattison and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Music and Poetry invokes and critiques the relationship between blues-based popular music and poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume is anchored in music from the 1960s, when a concentration of artists transformed modes of popular music from entertainment to art-that-entertains. Musician Mike Mattison and literary historian Ernest Suarez synthesize a wide range of writing about blues and rock—biographies, histories, articles in popular magazines, personal reminiscences, and a selective smattering of academic studies—to examine the development of a relatively new literary genre dubbed by the authors as “poetic song verse.” They argue that poetic song verse was nurtured in the fifties and early sixties by the blues and in Beat coffee houses, and matured in the mid-to-late sixties in the art of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gil Scott-Heron, Van Morrison, and others who used voice, instrumentation, arrangement, and production to foreground semantically textured, often allusive, and evocative lyrics that resembled and engaged poetry. Among the questions asked in Poetic Song Verse are: What, exactly, is this new genre? What were its origins? And how has it developed? How do we study and assess it? To answer these questions, Mattison and Suarez engage in an extended discussion of the roots of the relationship between blues-based music and poetry and address how it developed into a distinct literary genre. Unlocking the combination of richly textured lyrics wedded to recorded music reveals a dynamism at the core of poetic song verse that can often go unrealized in what often has been considered merely popular entertainment. This volume balances historical details and analysis of particular songs with accessibility to create a lively, intelligent, and cohesive narrative that provides scholars, teachers, students, music influencers, and devoted fans with an overarching perspective on the poetic power and blues roots of this new literary genre.

Something About the Blues

Something About the Blues

Author: Al Young

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1402249381

DOWNLOAD EBOOK


Book Synopsis Something About the Blues by : Al Young

Download or read book Something About the Blues written by Al Young and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Weary Blues

The Weary Blues

Author: Langston Hughes

Publisher: Courier Dover Publications

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 0486850560

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Immediately celebrated as a tour de force upon its release, Langston Hughes's first published collection of poems still offers a powerful reflection of the Black experience. From "The Weary Blues" to "Dream Variation," Hughes writes clearly and colorfully, and his words remain prophetic.


Book Synopsis The Weary Blues by : Langston Hughes

Download or read book The Weary Blues written by Langston Hughes and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immediately celebrated as a tour de force upon its release, Langston Hughes's first published collection of poems still offers a powerful reflection of the Black experience. From "The Weary Blues" to "Dream Variation," Hughes writes clearly and colorfully, and his words remain prophetic.