Blues Doula: Poems by Meta Commerse (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780578587691)

This collection of 26 poems is organized in three sections: Homage, Emote, Home. The intention of the writing is healing.

From Foreword: Blues Doulal invites you into Meta Commerse's life. If you accept the invitation, you agree to enter a Black woman's herstory; poems about everyday acts and thoughts that witness what make Black life and living painful and joyful...everywhere that Black women live. Most of all, these poems are Meta's witnessing, documenting the transformation and healing of herself through individual and historical traumas, and the struggles to acknowledge how and why they are connected and continual. -- Maria Hamilton Abegunde

From Introduction: My great grandmother introduced me to poetry while doing my hair and feeding me. My elder Chicago Black poets, including my mother, expounded/built upon that foundation. Encouraging teachers and mentors helped me write until I learnd to extract a personal medicine from my words, in the way of my ancestors. Writing offered me voice in the day of Black Girl silencing. Poetry writing became spiritual practice and self-love, a kind of music I regularly stop to enjoy. -- M.C.