Jelly Roll A Blues
Jelly Roll A Blues by Kevin Young is a reprint edition published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group on February 1, 2005. This collection of 208 pages features poetry that draws inspiration from the blues, presenting a unique language that is both playful and profound. Young’s work captures the essence of love and loss, reflecting a classic blues trajectory through its vivid imagery and emotional depth.
Readers will find a range of themes within this collection, including love, heartbreak, and resilience. The poems, with titles like “Stride Piano” and “Gutbucket,” echo the rhythms of music while exploring the complexities of human experience. Young’s voice combines African American idioms with traditional lyric diction, creating a rich tapestry that celebrates individualism and the bittersweet nature of triumph over adversity. This edition invites readers to engage with the intimate and dynamic interplay of joy and sorrow that defines the blues.
Official synopsis Publisher
In this jaunty and intimate collection, Kevin Young invents a language as shimmying and comic, as low-down and high-hearted, as the music from which he draws inspiration. With titles such as “Stride Piano,” “Gutbucket,” and “Can-Can,” these poems have the sharp completeness of vocalized songs and follow a classic blues trajectory: praising and professing undying devotion (“To watch you walk / cross the room in your black / corduroys is to see / civilization start”), only to end up lamenting the loss of love (“No use driving / like rain, past / where you at”). As Young conquers the sorrow left on his doorstep, the poems broaden to embrace not just the wisdom that comes with heartbreak but the bittersweet wonder of triumphing over adversity at all.
Sexy and tart, playfully blending an African American idiom with traditional lyric diction, Young’s voice is pure American: joyous in its individualism and singing of the self at its strongest.
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