Welcome to this week’s Poetically Yours. This segment features poetry from northern Illinois poets. Today’s segment features Estacious Charles White.

White is a poet and an educator. His work experience encompasses managing schools and teaching a variety of subjects. White found his passion for writing poetry, short fiction, playwriting and non-fiction over 25 years ago. He won one of six prizes in the Rockford New Play Festival with West Side Show Room for his play “Incarcerated Christmas.” He is married with three children. He's also a New Orleans native. Here’s his poem “I am a Blues Poet.”

With the blood of ancestors

I am a blues poet

Guitar rifts sprinkle my soul

In every phrase I roll

Red dirt roads and cotton fields

Every syllable in my minds eye

Gives rise to field Hollas

I am a blues poet

Guitar rifts sprinkle my soul

In every phrase I roll

As I walk words over decades

A wolf howls in the distance

As I Back Door Man my way

I am a blues poet

Guitar rifts sprinkle my soul

In every phrase I roll