
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.
"Blues Doula is fully in and of the spirit, moving through time's garden, revealing the flowers, weeds and mammoth trees of our humanity."
-- Pamela Plummer, PhD, MSW, MPH
"When I read Meta's art/work I time travel. I hear music. I see people and places in a new light. The fact that she speaks poetic truth in times like these is reason to rejoice. Unwrap these gift sslowly and discover the poetic grace that she has prepared for us. Feel yourself shout in recognition on the inside while being nourished all the way to the core of your soul."
-- Elesa Commerse, Touching Earth Mindfulness Learning Center, Evanston, IL