Many of the pieces in Decatur poet Kevin Young's new collection of work "Blue Laws" — out this month – reflect his love of music and food.
Named after a sorrowful hit song written by The Smiths, “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” is compilation of song titles from the 1980s: Don’t You Want Me, The Human League; Every Breath You Take, The Police; Thriller, Michael Jackson; Let’s Dance, David Bowie; and Let’s Go Crazy, Prince.
"I feel music is another kind of literature," the Emory University professor said over lunch recently at Victory Sandwich Bar in Decatur, where he lives with his wife, Kate Tuttle, a book columnist for The Boston Globe, and their 9-year-old son, Mack.
“It is another way of talking about pain and love. Great music — say jazz — has that inventive, improvisational quality that tells us something about life. I think it is Ralph Ellison who said life is jazz-shaped. And that kind of idea — that jazz really mirrors the way we live — is important to me.”
Another one of the poems in "Blue Laws" – fittingly entitled "Ode to Grits" — lovingly personifies the coarsely ground corn kernels. See video of Young reading that poem and read the rest of this story here on myajc.com
