Jack B. Bedell – författare

Storytelling is integral to the culture of south Louisiana, particularly the Atchafalaya Basin, where Jack Bedell grew up. Raised, however, with a generation of south Louisianans taught to act Middle American rather than Acadian, Bedell attempts in his poetry to recapture a culture. The poems in At the Bonehouse record the successes and failures of his search to discover what shaped him.Through his narrative poetry, Bedell provides an accurate representation of the landscape of the region and makes sense of its culture and people. His poems reflect the images and experiences common to Acadiana-saltwater marshes and cypress swamps; cleaning redfish, hunting teal, listening to the broken tones in an old oil-field worker's voice-making the region and its inhabitants accessible to a wider audience and at the same time bringing him closer to understanding himself and his heritage.For the Boy in Bayou BlueWho Spoke in TonguesWhen he was twelve, he made the national newsto his parents' delight and filled the pewsof the Living Word with gaggles of girls andtourists eager to hear the sermon he's plannedfor a Current Affair. His long, curly hairand sparkly eyes glowed when he's sharehis witness with the congregation. He'd shoutand swoon and lash his tongue while rows fell outrolling in ecstasy around his raised pulpit. It pleased the deacons when the crazed,fainting crowds filled their baskets with money,but no one wondered when his eyes rolled a funny white back into his head as if he were reading fromcards inside his skull, or if the Spirit would come and improvise the whole show for himwhile his mouth spewed syllables like phlegm.

The poems in "Call and Response" are the record of a friendship, conversations in verse with topics as varied and diverse as fine art and the traditions of southern Louisiana. The poems created here are a drawing out of the love and respect they have for each other and for the things they share with the world. It is an exchange in the tradition of artists like Homer and Lady Murasaki, as well as in the common traditions of work songs sung by field workers throughout.