Bill Evans on Kind of Blue by Jack. B. Bedell

Bill Evans on Kind of Blue

The melody off Evans’ keys
       grows underneath the horns
like a python in a Florida marsh,
                   the notes easy to catch,
all prey without trees to climb.
       His hands feed in the horns’
shadows. Cymbals and snare
                   scurry away as he slides
through these tunes. Reeds
       take flight any time his line
flicks near their feet. And always
                   the glow of the trumpet
rains down on everything
       in warm bursts, sometimes
a bath, sometimes a wave
                   covering miles of undergrowth
in its smooth wail, its long dawn, while
       this hunt below just glides along.

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Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. His latest collections are Elliptic (Yellow Flag Press, 2016), Revenant (Blue Horse Press, 2016), and No Brother, This Storm (Mercer University Press, fall 2018). Currently, he has been appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to serve as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.