15 Years Ago, My Best Friend “The Poet” Went Missing…

Not long after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home, my best friend from college and life, disappeared. He was an incredibly talented poet and writer, who taught me to write and appreciate the beauty of language. Prior to Katrina, he had had occasional dark moods that had led to periods of silence, but he had always surfaced when the clouds parted. After the devastation of Katrina, we (his friends and I) fully had expected him to turn up again, as before. And then… he didn’t.

A decade and more later we had nearly given up all hope of seeing him again; wondering if he were no longer of this world. But then a few words from a kind stranger from New Orleans and her subsequent sleuthing changed everything. Cheryl Gerber, a local writer, and photographer in the French Quarter chatted with this solitary man for the first time - despite having seen him on and off for nearly a decade. His demeanor seemed different – he seemed to welcome contact and so mustering her courage she approached him and learned parts of his story, his name, where he grew up, that he had gone to a prestigious university and earned some significant awards for his writing and poetry. She was skeptical at first, but he was so articulate and offered so many literary references that she realized it must be true and that someone must be looking for him. She couldn’t sleep and decided to try and find out more.

Staying up all night, Cheryl searched and searched and eventually found me through perhaps the most oblique of references deep in the Google depths. A few years back, I had dedicated a talk I was giving with these words “I am paying homage to my long-lost friend . . . The Poet.” So she took a risk and messaged me. “Hi John, this is a long shot, but do you know the Poet Kevin Bennett?” My heart jumped. Immediately I assumed the worst – that he was gone for good. But then I scrolled down and felt my heart stop, and then explode as the message continued. “I live in New Orleans and just had a long talk with him. He seems like an interesting guy.”

My daughter and I flew out to New Orleans ASAP and walked 50 miles in 48 hours looking for him but with no luck - he had disappeared. But he left a trail - it turned out many locals and store owners knew "the writer" as they called him. We asked everyone to keep an eye out and two weeks later he resurfaced and I flew back to NOLA immediately. I arrived in the early evening of May 1st and found him strolling the Esplanade. “Is it really you?!” he shouted, his bearded face lighting up. “Its me!” We reached each other and wrapped each other in a huge bear hug, “I’m so happy!” he said, “I love you my friend,” he continued and I said “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you,” as my eyes teared up.

It was like old times. We sat and talked on the Esplanade for hours. He told me he had been thinking a lot about me over the years and that I was his best friend now and always. I reminded him that he had really been the one who taught me to write and that this is all I do now – that I write and speak for a living. We ended up sleeping out there on the Esplanade overnight and it was wonderful, listening to old tunes from college and reminiscing. The next day we obtained a haircut, shave, computer, phone, and an ID and he is eager re-join society. However, more than all those things what he wants most is a small place of his own to stay in near the French Quarter and that is what this page is for: to help our long-lost poet re-enter society, to have a safe place to live in the city he loves and to return writing and to his friends. He does have a small support income from the government but it is not enough to pay rent and eat both. Kevin has been living in his small apartment in the French quarter and writing insatiably for over 2 years now. I want to keep him there and writing for the rest of his life.

The Need: I’m hoping we can raise at least $49K which will cover rent and utilities for the next five years as well as miscellaneous expenses related to his care. The funds will be placed in a Trust for Kevin. 

Contributions over $60 will receive a copy of Kevin’s forthcoming coffee table book of poems.

Contributions over $100 will receive a signed copy of this same book. (I am assembling this book now from Kevin’s life’s works.)

Contributions over $200 will receive a signed copy of the full-length book (and screenplay) that Kevin and I are working on nominally titled, “A Writer on the Edge of the World.”

Please see the cover story of Stanford Magazine this month for more…

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/a-friendship-mission