The blues poem is something that fascinates me. Being a poet myself, and having music be one of my biggest influences, I feel drawn to this form in a big way. The idea of writing a formed poem is not one that I particularly enjoyable, bit it is a challenge that I welcomed for this poem. I have tried to do an imitation/ response poem of “Bad Man” by Langston Hughes to see where this form would take me. Ti may be cheesy but I thought it was worth a shot.
I Try
I try my best to be a good man
That’s what I’m supposed to do.
I try my best to be a good man
That’s what I’m supposed to do.
It’s hard, that way things are around here
When nobody is true.
When Friday comes all bets are off
When Friday comes I am a fool.
Friday comes all bets are off
Friday I’m a fool.
Slowly going insane
Form the stress of life and school.
I try so hard
But the night takes a hold of me.
I try so damn hard
But the night takes a hold of me.
My vision gets hazy, my eyes turn red
And I can hardly see.