Day 616 of the daily poems, and we are exploring our new theme of The Music. Our poet Derek Adams takes us to the mystic American South and “the dark iridescence of the Mississippi nightfall … Robert Johnson, bidding a solemn farewell to town and civility, with a $10 guitar strapped to his back, looking for a tune” (Tom Taylor, Far Out, January 2021). What a tale …
Robert Johnson at the crossroads
How long a journey?
Walking hard, dust blown roads,
on soles stuffed with cardboard.
Brine soaked fingers bleed,
picking cotton or strings
for a bellyful of grits.
At a moonless midnight junction,
just you, your guitar and a voice that asks
“How much do you want it, boy?”
Derek Adams