Gary Copeland Lilley writes sonnets and he writes scat, applying traditional forms to untraditional subjects, achieving great grace and insight via "high" and "low" cultural fusions. He examines the D.C. ghetto and an assortment of its players through the lenses of both a sonnet's crucial turn and the jazz riff's apparent, adamant stream-of-consciousness. E. Ethelbert Miller writes of The Subsequent Blues, "Gary Copeland Lilley writes like a man who owns a Stetson hat. Is he Stagolee? The Subsequent Blues is a book filled with a sinner's honesty. Lilley captures life with all its blue tones and shades. From cigarette smoke, to drinks and drugs, a few of the poems are as seductive as a woman's thighs. Lilley has seen enough bad times and death that each poem he writes has that flicker of light we once called soul. Put this book in your mojo bag."