Come Rain, Come Shine

“High-spirited and unafraid, full of Louisiana Cajun zest, quick to anger and quick to forvice, and quick to offer unabashed praise for his world, Jack Bedell’s new pomes take us through lived experiences, come rain or come shine. He tells his story and fixes his place in these remarkably examining lyrics that grab hold and won’t let go.”
—Heather Ross Miller
 
“Deeply rooted in Bedell’s native Louisiana, these poems preserve his Cajun heritage and customs to form the complex texture of this impressive collection. Family life is always at the center of his work, and it is a source of deep joy for Bedell whether he’s detailing a pretend sword fight with his son or watching his wife take a bath. These poems are infused with a deep understanding of what it is to be human because Bedell has cored them from the heart. In Come Rain, Come Shine, Jack Bedell has the vision to realize where a significant story is, and in telling it, he leads his reader to such wisdom.”
—Vivian Shipley
 
“Jack Bedell is a prince amongst poets, a kindred spirit in this magnificent landscape of Cajuns and Southern Louisiana, where his best poems render amazing texture to a place filthy rich in culture, sugar cane fields, Mardi Gras, and a world where any child would be blessed to live his/her childhood. The poems in Come Rain, Come Shine, simply and memorably, are as delicious and nourishing as etouffée and jambalaya. They also reveal a man coming to terms with his own history, family, and religion. His is a mature voice, graceful and eloquent, that brings to life more than the memory of the place and its people. I’ve been a longtime admirer of Mr. Bedell’s poetic gifts, and I highly recommend this new book of his for it is amongst some of the best poetry I’ve read in a while.”
—Virgin Suárez
 
“Come Rain, Come Shine dazzles with a quiet brilliance all its own, a luster born of simple things, with stirring poems of desire, familial love and fatherhood, and with real life places and encounters, at once exotic and familiar. These lyric poems are rich with a sense of place and narrative and evoke both family story and Louisiana in all  their rain and shine.”
—Diane Thiel