Monday, August 29, 2005

Monday Blues

I have to admit that I am just now discovering the art form that is the Blues. Listening to Leadbelly, Nina Simone, Robert Johnson, Corey Harris while reading poetry inspired by what Maxwell Bodenheim calls “the long-nailed blues” gives me a better appreciation of my day to day hurdles. We fight our little wars. Sometimes we are defeated, other times we triumph.

So, I wanted to share this wonderful short poem by G.E. Patterson. It is part of an anthology of blues poems edited by Kevin Young. I particularly like the lines "some people got to go to school to feel/what I feel every morning every night." I know it's not a very uplifting poem to start off the week but sometimes there's beauty in the struggle and it’s good to remind oneself of this.

Cinderella


Seems like some people never get the blues
without Billie Holiday turned up loud
quart of Chivas at their feet—maybe Dewars
cigar cigarette smoke catpiss dark rooms
their man two or three years late coming home
their woman packed up out of town two days
rotten job no job either way no money
Some people got to go school to feel
what I feel every morning every night
I wake up wondering what new shit’s coming
to make me wish I had yesterday back
I go to bed wondering how long I’ll sleep
before something wakes me—siren, bad dream
I hear them singing to themselves all night
their lives just turning bad mine been that way

© G.E. Patterson, published in Tug

1 comment:

the amplified bard said...

thanks. i encourage you to check out more of his poems. Tug is a dope book.