A NOTE ON THE BLUES

(1-25-2008 by Carl A. Patton)

Today I thought of a note

in Black history as the Blues

told the story.

This was another mystery of our past.

These notes the Blues notes to

some were thought to be sad notes

but to me they carried,

Every measure of emotion that

the Black heart the body the

soul could stand.

The Blues spoke for us all.

I remember that they had tribal

songs along the west cost of

Africa and all through the inside,

Of the land. This Black land was

in antiquity called the land of the

Blacks, because Black people lived there.

Sadly some don’t know their name.

There is a difference in Willie

and Shaka was he Zulu?

Meanwhile the tribal songs had

a cultural fusion and confusion as

it digressed and developed alongside,

Chain-gang lines that led to chattel

pits awaiting the great sea

voyage that had a murderous,

Love affair with cotton, rum

and sugar that was an axis of

evil that jump started a culture,

Creating the Blues. Did the

Brown-skin writers gain the

greatest inspiration from the Blues?

I saw the sages there the African

story-tellers. I saw

my mother Ruby Sue,

She knew the family tree her

side my father’s side and when

all her kinsmen were born.

The elephant stopped and

wondered standing in awe.

She knew all the great ones and their names

But what stories did the Blues men

tell? Who could hear the real,

true story?

Meanwhile what came first?

The tribal warriors caught

the Blues.

The Blues gave birth to

faith songs that were Blues

songs.

And Jazz grabbed all three,

tribal songs, Blues songs

and Gospel the Spiritual songs.

So what is the Blues man?

Did they sing the Blues

in Africa?

Could a African-American

born in Africa sing the

Blues? Could a Black-American,

Born in Mississippi sing the

African tribal songs?

What does emotion and feelings

have to do with culture? Can you

learn culture?

I felt Black-American and

naturally breathed in the air

of Tennessee, Alabama and

Georgia.

I knew how they felt

I could feel it also.

My culture of Blackness gave

birth in me.

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