Tougaloo Blues.

by Kelly Norman Ellis Third World Press, April 2003 $10.00, ISBN 0-883-78246-4

Kelly Norman Ellis' first collection contains evocative blues and narrative poems that paint vivid memories of tradition and childhood. An abundance of images reach beyond the sepia photographs of her ancestors and travel through the Mississippi of her roots, to Farish Street where her grandfather recalls the "sashay to a new negro pharmacy/where ginger ale is the drink preferred/by copper girls/in bobby socks/who butter the soda fountain air/with laughing flirtations to brown skinned boys." The plentiful presence of southern cuisine provides insight into the human connection to food. Meals--more than sustenance prepared by women--are consumed as ritual, healing and welcome. In "Offerings," chicken is "baptized in cast iron fire/and the child is initiated/into the ancient woman art of sacrifice and offering."

Song excerpts, from Bessie Smith to Marvin Gaye, enhance the blues texture, but their infusion into stanzas detracts from the originality of voice. A few of the poems written in reverence seem obligatory. The voice, though brave in "Jenny Leigh," when savoring common ground with an untamed woman, becomes sentimental when speaking of a lover in "He Touches." But Ellis shows strength with the sonnet "Kitchen Witches" and the aubade "Space." Her decision to weave in poems that touch upon broader experiences helps the collection feel complete.

--Haitian-born poet, Phebus Etienne is completing her first collection of poetry.