Blues in the Suburbs : Poems by John James

When your picture fades
in the mess of unfinished
crumbs of morning papers,
Don't forget to call out
from the mist.

Like one of his favourite authors, Ralph Ellison, John has found solace in the blues as a genre - so in this collection of poems, he highlights a bluesy nature that feels improvised but secure. We go from the ecstatic heights of love and romance, to the depths of depression and loss. A roller coaster of frenetic proportions.

Blues in the Suburbs is John James at the crossroads. While I don't think he sold his soul to the devil like Robert Johnson, he definitely knows the devil in the nooks and crannies of suburban life in our technological age. While James is a deft observationalist of our suburban nightmare, he is also a wanderer haunted by the memories of a dead revolution. The cycle of poems that make up a central portion of Blues in the Suburbs evokes the freedoms that we need and those that were lost when the revolution and the revolutionaries died. - Sean Felix, author of Did You Even Know I Was Here?

John James (alias F.J. Page) is a Warwickshire based musician, author, poet, playwright, teacher and fashion enthusiast. His poetry has always been tinged with his love of music; in particular the blues.