I have a friend who tells me about great blues tunes, but I’ve never heard him mention blues poem.
Cornelius Eady wrote a good one. His mother would tell him about his father. She chose him
After choosing a man
Who was, as we sing it,
Of no account.
And so a second choice — an opportunity for a better choice — was influenced by the perspective of a bad choice already made.
Compared to this,
My father seems, briefly,
To be a fire escape.
This is the way the blues works
Its sorry wonders.
Makes trouble look like
A feather bed.
Makes the wrong man’s kisses
A healing.
Eady and Toi Derricotte founded Cave Canem, an organization for African American poets.
• Source: Cornelius Eady’s “I’m a Fool to Love You” is available of the Academy of American Poets site:
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