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Blues Poems
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 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 blues have left an indelible mark on the work of a diverse range of 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.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 2003
9 people are currently reading
304 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Young
87 books373 followersKevin Young is an American poet heavily influenced by the poet Langston Hughes and the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young graduated from Harvard College in 1992, was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (1992-1994), and received his MFA from Brown University. While in Boston and Providence, he was part of the African-American poetry group, The Dark Room Collective.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 18, 2019
Found this little gem at the Faulkner house in New Orleans. It's in a side alley around from St. Louis Cathedral, opposite Jackson Square for those of you interested.
This is a collection of lyrics of famous Blues songs from many of the important blues' writers, like Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith and even Langston Hughes. Also some poems by W.H. Auden, Richard Wright, Ma Rainey and Muddy Waters. The last section is poems about Bessie Smith. She died too soon.
This is a collection of lyrics of famous Blues songs from many of the important blues' writers, like Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith and even Langston Hughes. Also some poems by W.H. Auden, Richard Wright, Ma Rainey and Muddy Waters. The last section is poems about Bessie Smith. She died too soon.
July 5, 2022
My poetry reading is definitely affected by the entire✨experience✨. So the middle part of this books is definitely my favorite because the vibes when I read that part was just *chefs kiss*. I was lying in my bed, feeling kinda sleeping, with some classical music playing, reading aloud (oh yeah, that’s another thing, I enjoy poetry so much more if a read it aloud. Which is nice but also means that poetry doesn’t make the best commute reads.)
I didn’t understand much of the section called Freight, since so think a lot of what was mentioned was very closely tied to certain time periods and events (that I was not alive during), instead of about universal feelings/experiences of Black people, which the earlier sections discussed more.
I didn’t understand much of the section called Freight, since so think a lot of what was mentioned was very closely tied to certain time periods and events (that I was not alive during), instead of about universal feelings/experiences of Black people, which the earlier sections discussed more.
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August 1, 2024Poems from poets I'd heard of but never read, and poets I'd never heard of, but have now come to love. This has become my favourite poetry anthology. True to its foreword, this collection of poems captures all emotions from schadenfreude to ennui under the all-encompassing blues. It took me two years to finish this collection, and I am very satisfied with how I've approached this book. I do not say this with inanity when I say this book changed me as a person. It compelled me to discuss these poems with my friends, reach out to more seasoned aficionados of poetry and go into the nitty-gritties of each poem. This book inspired me to sit in a Shakespeare literature class and change my opinion of Shakespeare. Amiri Baraka, you were the greatest of the beats. This book made beat poetry make sense to me. Amiri Baraka, Bob Kaufmann, Allen Ginsberg. They speak to me now. They speak through me now. I have been obsessed with the blues for over half a decade now but this book made me go deeper into the history and dive into the legacies of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Now I know about the communist sympathiser that Langston Hughes was. Now I have tasted the Carribean verse. Claude McKay's sonnets resonate like those of old with fresh sonority.
May 27, 2020
What a wonderful, beautiful book filled with heart-breaking, heart-aching poetry and songs!
August 31, 2011
I picked up this book in a bookstore in New Orleans a couple of years ago - I had finished the paperback I had brought with me, and I wanted a little book I could put in my pocket and read while I ate red beans and rice or gumbo in a restaurant, or had a beer in a French Quarter bar. I enjoyed it then, but had never read it through until today. It's kind of a mixed bag, but my impressions are positive, for the most part. It has poems by older African-American poets (Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen), Beat poets (Bob Kaufman, Allen Ginsberg), younger poets (Billy Collins, Natasha Tretheway), and lyrics from blues songs. Some of the poems are better than others, but that's only to expected from this kind of anthology. I found it to be quite enjoyable, for the most part.
My biggest caveat: I know that transcribing blues lyrics from old records is difficult, especially for a non-Southerner. But editor Kevin Young's ear, as well as his common sense, deserts him in his transcription of Son House's masterpiece, "Death Letter Blues." Too bad; "Death Letter Blues" is perhaps the most stunning account of the progression of grief in the English language.
My biggest caveat: I know that transcribing blues lyrics from old records is difficult, especially for a non-Southerner. But editor Kevin Young's ear, as well as his common sense, deserts him in his transcription of Son House's masterpiece, "Death Letter Blues." Too bad; "Death Letter Blues" is perhaps the most stunning account of the progression of grief in the English language.
July 7, 2018
I'm not a fan of the musical genre The Blues, but the poems in this collection are stunning. They are evocative of time, place, social position and brilliant artistry. Perfect for poetry, music, and/or Blues lovers. So glad I read this!
October 7, 2024
A banger collection.
Kevin Young really did justice to the art form—both the Blues and Poetry.
This collection is arranged in seven (7) sections. The first (“Standards”) “contains blues poems written before or around World War II.” Next, (“Some Songs”) are “selection(s) of blues lyrics by the singers and songwriters who popularised and perfected this folk form.” The following sections are “Form”, “Facing Off”, “Figures”, “Freight”, and “Finale” of which “gathers some of the best poems that take the blues as a starting point, whether in terms of form, or spirit, or the figures that made the music possible…. The pomes here are as personal and public, pointed and powerful, as the blues themselves.”
My favourite part of this anthology is “Freight”.
Here are my favourite poems from this anthology:
Langston Hughes - Beale Street Love; Song for a Dark Girl; Midwinter Blues; Too Blue; Note on a Commercial Theatre
Fenton Johnson - Tired
Melvin B. Tolson - Sootie Joe
W.H. Auden - Blues; Funeral Blues
Leopold Senghor - Ndéssé, or “Blues”
Owen Dodson - Guitar
Richard Wright and Langston Hughes - Red Clay Blues
Waring Cuney - Carry Me Back; Let Me Tell You Blues Singers Something
Gwendolyn Brooks - Queen of the Blues
Richard M. Jones - Trouble in Mind
Jayne Cortez - You Know
Amiri Baraka - Look for You Yesterday, Here You Come Today
Sonia Sanchez - Blues Haiku
Margaret Walker - Inflation Blues
Quincy Troupe - Woke Up Crying the Blues
A. Van Jordan - Cheating Woman Blues Haiku
Etheridge Knight - Feeling Fucked/Up
Kenneth Rexroth - Married Blues
Gustavo Pérez Firmat - Bilingual Blues
Marilyn Chin - Blues on Yellow
Calvin Forbes - Some Pieces
Darrell Burton - Broom Song
Sandra McPherson - Bad Mother Blues
Cornelius Eady - I’m a Fool to Love You
Willie Perdomo - Song for Langston
Alfred Encarnacion - Bulosan Listens to a Recording of Robert Johnson
Al Young - The Blues Don’t Change
G.E. Patterson - Cinderella
Yusef Komunyakaa- For You, Sweetheart, I’ll Sell Plutonium Reactors; Woman, I Got the Blues
Catherine Bowman - Hard-Luck Resume
Thomas McGrath - Gone Away Blues
Joseph Brodsky - Blues
Raymond R. Patterson - Special Pain Blues
Toi Derricotte - Blackbottom
John Yau - Domestic Bliss
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
Jackie Kay - Twelve Bar Bessie
Waring Cuney - Bessie Smith
Kevin Young really did justice to the art form—both the Blues and Poetry.
This collection is arranged in seven (7) sections. The first (“Standards”) “contains blues poems written before or around World War II.” Next, (“Some Songs”) are “selection(s) of blues lyrics by the singers and songwriters who popularised and perfected this folk form.” The following sections are “Form”, “Facing Off”, “Figures”, “Freight”, and “Finale” of which “gathers some of the best poems that take the blues as a starting point, whether in terms of form, or spirit, or the figures that made the music possible…. The pomes here are as personal and public, pointed and powerful, as the blues themselves.”
My favourite part of this anthology is “Freight”.
Here are my favourite poems from this anthology:
Langston Hughes - Beale Street Love; Song for a Dark Girl; Midwinter Blues; Too Blue; Note on a Commercial Theatre
Fenton Johnson - Tired
Melvin B. Tolson - Sootie Joe
W.H. Auden - Blues; Funeral Blues
Leopold Senghor - Ndéssé, or “Blues”
Owen Dodson - Guitar
Richard Wright and Langston Hughes - Red Clay Blues
Waring Cuney - Carry Me Back; Let Me Tell You Blues Singers Something
Gwendolyn Brooks - Queen of the Blues
Richard M. Jones - Trouble in Mind
Jayne Cortez - You Know
Amiri Baraka - Look for You Yesterday, Here You Come Today
Sonia Sanchez - Blues Haiku
Margaret Walker - Inflation Blues
Quincy Troupe - Woke Up Crying the Blues
A. Van Jordan - Cheating Woman Blues Haiku
Etheridge Knight - Feeling Fucked/Up
Kenneth Rexroth - Married Blues
Gustavo Pérez Firmat - Bilingual Blues
Marilyn Chin - Blues on Yellow
Calvin Forbes - Some Pieces
Darrell Burton - Broom Song
Sandra McPherson - Bad Mother Blues
Cornelius Eady - I’m a Fool to Love You
Willie Perdomo - Song for Langston
Alfred Encarnacion - Bulosan Listens to a Recording of Robert Johnson
Al Young - The Blues Don’t Change
G.E. Patterson - Cinderella
Yusef Komunyakaa- For You, Sweetheart, I’ll Sell Plutonium Reactors; Woman, I Got the Blues
Catherine Bowman - Hard-Luck Resume
Thomas McGrath - Gone Away Blues
Joseph Brodsky - Blues
Raymond R. Patterson - Special Pain Blues
Toi Derricotte - Blackbottom
John Yau - Domestic Bliss
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
Jackie Kay - Twelve Bar Bessie
Waring Cuney - Bessie Smith
May 11, 2025
I'm continuing my poetry kick this month with three more poetry anthologies from the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets collection, starting with Blues Poems edited and selected by Kevin Young. Since watching Sinners (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler, I have been thinking about this tiny book that I owned a long time ago, that I couldn't seem to find. I finally decided to just order this book again, just to have it in my possession.
So anyway, Blues Poems is an anthology of songs from blues artists, poetry about blues, dedicated to the blues, or reflective of the blues spirit. I highly enjoyed these. While I thought some were better than the others, the overall spirit of this collection was heartwarming and impactful. I was moved to tears by a few of these poems, and I felt so connected to the blues heyday in the first half of the 20th century. While I know there was a blues revival at some point in the 60s (as evidenced by some of the "later" poets in this collection), I felt close to the classic blues era.
As a writer myself, I like to find inspiration from different sources. This is a highly musical book and not just in the name. The way that these poems roll off the tongue is so lyrical that I found myself swaying as I read them aloud in my room—something that I like to do when I read poetry books. I'm happy that I bought this book again because I annotated so many of these poems and songs. This is a must-read for those of us with a blues spirit. These poems were sensual, emotionally moving, and evocative, tight, and nostalgic. As someone who can experience the bad side of "the blues" quite often, I found kindred spirits here.
Ultimately, I was impressed by how timely these poems are. While many of these were written over half a century ago (many over a century ago), they still feel relevant to life in 2025.
So anyway, Blues Poems is an anthology of songs from blues artists, poetry about blues, dedicated to the blues, or reflective of the blues spirit. I highly enjoyed these. While I thought some were better than the others, the overall spirit of this collection was heartwarming and impactful. I was moved to tears by a few of these poems, and I felt so connected to the blues heyday in the first half of the 20th century. While I know there was a blues revival at some point in the 60s (as evidenced by some of the "later" poets in this collection), I felt close to the classic blues era.
As a writer myself, I like to find inspiration from different sources. This is a highly musical book and not just in the name. The way that these poems roll off the tongue is so lyrical that I found myself swaying as I read them aloud in my room—something that I like to do when I read poetry books. I'm happy that I bought this book again because I annotated so many of these poems and songs. This is a must-read for those of us with a blues spirit. These poems were sensual, emotionally moving, and evocative, tight, and nostalgic. As someone who can experience the bad side of "the blues" quite often, I found kindred spirits here.
Ultimately, I was impressed by how timely these poems are. While many of these were written over half a century ago (many over a century ago), they still feel relevant to life in 2025.
July 28, 2024
But if you was to ask me
How de blues they come to be,
Says if you was to ask me
How de blues they come to be -
You wouldn't need to ask me:
Just look at me and see!
--- Langston Hughes
Majority of this collection is entirely heartbreaking. Even when there is joy and liveliness in the poems, the underlying tensions of the time period.
But its the hope that catches me off guard, the purposeful intent of finding solace in what's in hand - young love, old relationships, and a future. Its gorgeous and lovely and dramatic and hurts your strongest bone and caresses in comfort.
A lovely collection that's home for some great and wonderful blues.
September 15, 2024
I really enjoyed this book of poetry. Knowing they were blues poems, I could feel the cadence and rhythm of each line.
Some poems were better than others, but most were pretty beautiful.
10/10 recommend for poetry or music lovers.
Some poems were better than others, but most were pretty beautiful.
10/10 recommend for poetry or music lovers.
November 18, 2017
A goodly collection of Blues poems through the years .
March 5, 2020
Blues aren’t me but if you, a solid book of blues poems!
November 1, 2023
read for cwr201. probably wouldn’t have read otherwise but now i’d like to read more poems in this vein
January 12, 2019
I do think this is a very nice anthology of blues poems but this style of poetry is just not my favorite.
These poems pack so much meaning and emotion. This is definitely not the type of poetry you should pick if you want just some light reading. There is much to ponder and dwell on with these poems.
These poems pack so much meaning and emotion. This is definitely not the type of poetry you should pick if you want just some light reading. There is much to ponder and dwell on with these poems.
November 28, 2011
Nothing I can say puts it more eloquently than the quote from Ralph Ellison in the introduction: "The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and then transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically." Pulling both from blues songs themselves and poets inspired by the form, Everyman gives us yet another marvelous little gem, and perhaps the most resonant of their collections.
June 15, 2016
As with most books of poetry, I've been dipping in and out of the blues here for a number of months.
Another in the "Pocket Poet" series put out by Knopf, editor Kevin Young has balanced the traditional with the contemporary, encompassing many wildly different expressions of the feeling we call the blues. From Langston Hughes to W H Auden, Robert Johnson to Amiri Baraka, Albert Murray to Bessie Smith...we've all felt these feelings and can sing along.
Another in the "Pocket Poet" series put out by Knopf, editor Kevin Young has balanced the traditional with the contemporary, encompassing many wildly different expressions of the feeling we call the blues. From Langston Hughes to W H Auden, Robert Johnson to Amiri Baraka, Albert Murray to Bessie Smith...we've all felt these feelings and can sing along.
February 25, 2013
Definitely inspirational and a must read for any poet or musician looking to expand their mind and knowledge of music-history-poetry. A great read for beginners getting acquainted to the genre, also great for blues aficionados.
June 8, 2008
This is an excellent anthology. It gathers blues lyrics as well as modern and contemporary poems inspired by the blues.
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July 29, 2011Inspirational.
October 19, 2012
looking back at my twenties, I think what I'd always considered "gallows humor", was more accurately, the blues.
August 24, 2014
the blue light was my blues/and the red light was my mind
August 25, 2015
3 1/2 Stars. Overall, the collection did a good job of evoking the feelings woven into Blues music, but individually, many of the poems didn't resonate that deeply with me.
November 28, 2016
Very diverse set of blues lyrics and blues style poetry that really showcases the lyrical emotion of the genre.
November 12, 2024
4/5 ⭐️’s
A truly musical collection of #bluespoems 🎶💙 I love that you can feel this poetry - there’s a rhythm to it 🫶
This might be my favorite collection of #poetry by @everymanslibrary to date 🖤
A truly musical collection of #bluespoems 🎶💙 I love that you can feel this poetry - there’s a rhythm to it 🫶
This might be my favorite collection of #poetry by @everymanslibrary to date 🖤
December 2, 2025
I just love the blues.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews