Blues poem: A form of poetry that draws its structure, mood, and thematic content from the African American oral tradition and the musical genre of the blues. The blues poem often explores themes of hardship, resilience, love, loss, and social struggle, reflecting the experiences of the African American community. It frequently incorporates the call-and-response pattern, repetition, and a focus on personal testimony that are characteristic of the blues. The form often utilizes a specific rhyme scheme, such as the AAB pattern common in blues lyrics, where the first two lines state a proposition and the third line provides a resolution or commentary. The blues poem is a vital part of the African American literary tradition, stemming from the same roots as jazz and the spirituals. It represents a fusion of musical and poetic forms, demonstrating how poetry can absorb the rhythms and themes of vernacular music to create a powerful and distinct literary voice. Gwendolyn Brooks is a renowned twentieth-century practitioner of this form.

Blues poem adapts the structure and themes of blues music—AAB rhyme, call-and-response, suffering, resilience—into verse; Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown pioneered this form in African American poetry.