I am not a poet. I am a lyrical novelist in the African American oral tradition and a coffee house blues man, who uses poetic cadences and blues-based motifs in my wordplay. So this piece was a matter of familiarizing myself with the syllable count and then riffing blues haiku, playing with Syracuse weather, and its reputation as a blues city. A city with soul.
I was inspired by work of Ethridge Knight. He did blues haikus when he was in Memphis, my hometown. One in particular: “You get the blues in twos / when you be living like I be living / in Memphis, Tennessee.”
Syracuse toos.
these Syracuse blues
two parts snow and two parts cold
soul red hot to burn
