Singer Of Blues...Writer Of Prose Poem by David Whalen

A good poet can be likened
to an old blues singer
You’ve got to have experienced life
in all it’s rainbow variations

You’ve got to have the scars
From life’s long, hard winter
You’ve got to show the lines…
The creases and striations

Songs torn from life
With gut-wrenching intensity
Words expressed on small black keyboard
Marine band harmonica expressing emotions

A plaintive E-chord…long ebony fingers
Sorrow…sadness…smallness…immensity
Memories addressed, then electronically stored
While back porch steps record…only evanescent devotions

Singer of blues…purveyor of prose
Both rent ragged, both experience-rich
Both life -haggard, …with hopes and woes
Blues singer, prose writer…same niche