At the Bonehouse

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 workers 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 hes plannedfor a Current Affair. His long, curly hairand sparkly eyes glowed when hes sharehis witness with the congregation. Hed shoutand swoon and lash his tongue while rows fell outrolling in ecstasy around his raisedpulpit. It pleased the deacons when the crazed,fainting crowdsfilled their baskets with money,but no one wondered whenhis eyes rolled a funnywhite back into his head as if he were reading fromcards inside his skull, or if the Spirit would comeand improvise the whole show for himwhile his mouth spewed syllables like phlegm.