27 April 2026
Feeling a little Denis Johnson.
Feeling a little Bruce Springsteen.
Feeling a little other-wordly in a world between worlds.
Poetry about music. Or inspired by.
That’s what it feels like to read Devin Kelly’s book of poems called Blood on Blood.
To quote Bianca Stone on the back cover, Kelly’s book is a “striking vision of Springsteen’s iconic Nebraska…”
It’s art about art. It’s ekphrastic (to use a highfalutin literary word from my college days).
It’s also, to put it simply, pretty damn cool.
The title of the book — Blood on Blood — takes its name from track #5 on Nebraska.
“Highway Patrolman”
Yeah me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’, nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’ like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family, well he just ain’t no good
Nebraska gives us a handful of Bruce’s iconic songs:
- “Atlantic City”
- “Reason to Believe”
- “Nebraska”
…to name a few.
But “Highway Patrolman” just might be the heart of the album. (It is for me, at least.)
It’s about the bond between brothers, laughing, drinking, causing trouble, growing up, and then saying goodbye in one of the most uniquely saddest ways possible.
Joe Roberts, the highway patrolman, the older brother, loves his brother so much he lets Franky evade the law and all the trouble he’s in.
He catches him when he’s strayin’ “like any brother would,” but he won’t turn his back on his family fully, meaning their “blood on blood” bond is stronger than his role as patrolman.
At the close of the song, Joe pulls over to the side of the road, giving up the chase, to watch his brother disappear into Canada, letting him go free.
And just like that, Franky’s gone.
It’s a haunting moment.
Kelly’s book expands upon it: the world Springsteen creates. That tragic, tough-as-nails world of love and violence, family, and friends that Bruce is famous for.
Kelly adds to it. He deduces and expands.
He also makes it personal, using Bruce’s stories and characters to reflect on his own life, his family, his own brother.
To me, the best art does this. It inspires this as well.
As Bianca Stone says about Kelly’s book:
It’s art that communicates “so deeply with another work of art that a whole new work and world springs forth.”
It’s art about art. It’s ekphrastic.
What more can you ask for out of a song, a poem, a book, an album?
Writing from Here 