THE BAGEL BARDS

Bagel Bards in Poets and Writers Online

2011-07-21T07:41:00.001-07:00

A literary guide for Boston was penned by Ifeanyi Menkiti, the owner of the Grolier Poetry Bookshop and a well- respected poet. It is on the Poet and Writers Website. The Bagel Bards got a nice section of the piece. To see the full article go to:

http://www.pw.org/content/boston

7/18/2011

Boston

by Ifeanyi Menkiti

City Guides

7/18/2011

Literary Groups

Bagel Bards, a seven-year-old group cofounded by Douglas Holder of Ibbetson Street Press and Harris Gardner, is not a writing workshop—though those who come can, if they wish, bring work to share and receive feedback from other members—but rather a dedicated group of area poets and writers who meet every Saturday morning for company and support in Somerville’s Davis Square at the Au Bon Pain (18-48 Holland Street). (They even have a permanent symbolic home at the coffee shop, as management has allowed members to have a plaque in the corner where they meet behind the muffin case.) Important parts of the meetings are recorded for future reference by a designated member with the title of “Word Catcher.” There is no fee to belong or join the Bagel Bards. All that is needed is a willingness to bring oneself to Davis Square on Saturday mornings, maybe purchase a bagel or two, or a steaming cup of coffee, so as to keep the management happy. Last year poet Clayton Eshleman paid a surprise visit to the Bards while he was in town and had warm things to say about the group and its spirit. Other prize-winning authors such as Kathleen Spivack, Afaa Michael Weaver, and Gloria Mindock can be found holding court there. A Bagel Bards anthology is also published annually.

Bagel Bard Anthology 6

2011-05-02T11:22:00.001-07:00

To order Bagel Bard Anthology 6 and others go to: http://www.wildernesshousepress.com/p/bagels-with-bards.html

*****From the Introduction – Kathleen Spivack

The Bagel Bards are a loose group of local writers, many of them
poets, who meet once a week at the welcoming coffee shop Au Bon Pain in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts to share coffee and bagels.But most importantly, they share information about the writing trade. They are a networking group for writers in the area.

The brain child of at least four superb and conscientious writers,
Doug Holder, Harris Gardner, Steve Glines and Irene Koronos, the
Bagel Bards have been meeting weekly for years, providing a haven
for local writers and publishers engaged in the solitary practice of the
wordsmith profession. Writing and reading are the shared passions.
Bagel Bards range in age from 19 to 94-plus...

************ Kathleen Spivack has been a visiting professor of American Literature/Creative Writing (one semester annually) in France since 1990. She has held posts at the University of Paris VII-VIII, the University of Francoise Rabelais, Tours, the University of Versailles, and at the Ecole Superieure (Polytechnique). She was a Fulbright Senior Artist/Professor in Creative Writing in France (1993-95). Her poetry has been featured at festivals in France and in the U.S. She reads and performs in theatres, and she also works with composers. Her song cycles and longer pieces have been performed worldwide.

Three Somerville Bagel Bards Win " Must Read" in Mass. Book Award

2011-04-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

(Krikor Der Hohannesian-- GHOSTS and WHISPERS)

(Tam Lin Neville- TRIAGE)

( Ruth Kramer Baden--East of the Moon)

The Massachusetts Book Award will announce next month that three Somerville, Mass. members of the "Bagel Bards" have won "Must Read" designations: Krikor Der Hohannesian for his poetry collection " Ghosts and Whispers," (Finishing Line Press), Tam Lin Neville " Triage" (Cervena Barva Press), and Ruth Kramer Baden "East of the Moon" (Ibbetson Street Press). The Bagel Bards is a literary group founded by Doug Holder and Harris Gardner in 2004 in the basement of "Finagle a Bagel" in Harvard Square. When that eatery closed they eventually moved to the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square, Somerville. The Bards meet every Saturday at 9AM--all are welcome. Previous Bards who have won a "Must Read" have been Robert K. Johnson "From Mist to Shadow" ( Ibbetson Street Press) and Bert Stern"Steerage" (Ibbetson Street Press). An interesting note--two of the small presses that published two of these winning titles are based in Somerville, Mass: Cervena Barva Press http://cervenabarvapress.com and Ibbetson Street Press http://ibbetsonpress.com.

To learn more about the Bagel Bards go to http://bagelbards.com And look out for the new Bagel Bard anthology to be released in May 2011.

For more info. about Mass. Book Award go to http://massbook.org

A Poetic Feast with the Bagel Bards May 14, 2011-- Mass. Poetry Festival---

2011-04-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

A Poetic Feast with the Bagel Bards May 14, 2011 12 PM

Go to: masspoetry.org for more information

Speakers
Lawrence Kessenich
Doug Holder
Harris Gardner
Kim Triedman
Irene Koronas
Kathleen Spivack
12:00 - 1:30pm on Saturday, May 14 in Coven of Salem Café

Every Saturday from 9-noon for six years, The Bagel Bards, a wide-open and ever-expanding group of writers—including several award-winning poets—have met for coffee, tea, bagels, muffins, socializing, literary gossip, and networking at Cambridge and Somerville cafes. (Their current home is Au Bon Pain in Davis Square, and any writer is welcome.) This group of six poets is a representative sample of the Bagel Bards' diversity. Come have a free bagel and at the same time enjoy a feast for your ears!

Bagel Bard Tino Villanueva included in The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

2010-09-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Bagel Bard Tino Villanueva has three poems in "The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature" (2010) Congratulations!

Also I found out recently that Bagel Bard Pamela Annas' essay on Slyvia Plath was in the Norton's Introduction to Poetry (9th edition.)

Bagel Bard Philip Burnham, Jr. wins New England Poetry Club Award

2010-09-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Philip Burnham, Jr., Bagel Bard and in the current issue of Ibbetson Street has won the Gretchen Warren Award, for the best published poem by a member of the New England Poetry Club. President Diana Der-Hovanessian called this the most prestigious award granted by the Club.

Bagel Bard Anthology 5 is alive!

2010-06-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

The new Bagel Bard 5 anthology is alive! It has an introduction from Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish, as well as notes from the founders Harris Gardner and Doug Holder. Julia Carlson edited this edition, and Steve Glines designed and published it through the ISCS Press.

"The Bagel Bards are a friendly group of poets, writers and artists
who meet — or should I say, gather — each Saturday at the
Somerville, Mass. Au Bon Pain. A group writers and poets who like to drink coffee and talk to each other, they share a love of poetry and a warm,friendly word for those who want to join them and talk. No dues are required, and publication is not important. They’re not interested in awards, grants or pedigree. Most of them have been around since the early days of The Grolier Book Shop and the Plough and the Stars, when they met to drink and name-drop like young men and women fresh out
of writing programs will do. They don’t do that anymore. Now, they
are making room at the table, and the writing community they have
created is friendly and experienced. This is their latest anthology, which
is probably as varied and as surprising as they are as a group. I have not seen any of these particular poems, but I’ll say that, from having read
their previous volumes and anthologies, you can expect work without
pretension or slavish adherence to a current, fashionable school. These
are individuals, and each poet has his/her own voice, so have a cup of
coffee, step outside for a smoke, lean back and read slowly. The Bagels
Bards have a poem for you."

— Sam Cornish-- First Boston Poet Laureate

Bagel Bard Lawrence Kessenich wins Strokestown International Poetry Award---Ireland

2010-05-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Festival 2010

I got this letter from Bagel Bard Lawrence Kessenich:

Doug,

Sorry you weren't at Bagel Bards today. You missed an array of free pastries, which I bought to celebrate (drum roll, please) my winning FIRST PRIZE at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Ireland! Yes, out of 2,400 entries, my poem "Angelus" rose to the top, and I was awarded 4,000 euros! Certainly the biggest honor--and payday--I've ever had as a writer.

I was also given a wonderful symbolic gift: an "ashplant," as they call it, a branch from one of the ash trees that grow profusely in Roscommon County, where the festival took place. In a way, that means more to me than the money (as one Irishman put it, "Money comes and goes, but you'll always have your ashplant"), because it's literally a piece of Ireland. (Of course I took the money, too--I'm not an idiot.)

The director of the festival also asked me to help publicize the festival and prizes (2nd place: 2,000 euros; 3rd place: 1,000 euros), because they'd love to get more U.S. entries. I'll put a link to the festival site below, so poets who want to enter can keep an eye out for when they start taking 2011 submissions. It's a very well-run festival in a beautiful location in west-central Ireland, and the Irish are gracious hosts. I highly recommend it (even if I hadn't won, I'd have had a wonderful time).

http://www.strokestownpoetry.org/

The Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2010
took place 30 April ~ 2 May, Bank Holiday Weekend

The Strokestown International Poetry Prize 2010

First: LAWRENCE KESSENICH, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Angelus

Second: Julian Stannard, Hampshire, England: Soup
Third: Pam Zinneman-Hope, Dorset, England: Cave
The other poets shortlisted were, in alphabetical order:
Gavin Bantock, Japan: White Russian; Heather Brett, Ireland: Bankrupt; Paul F. Cummins, California: The Simple Science of Wealth; Charles Evans, London: Emissary; ; Helena Nolan, Dublin: The Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography; Robert Stein, London: Beethoven in Camden Town, February 1911.

The Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2010
took place 30 April ~ 2 May, Bank Holiday Weekend

BIOS OF THE BOSTON AREA BAGEL BARDS

2010-03-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Li Mo,aka Li Min Mo,---- Li Mo,aka Li Min Mo,--newly published memoir, Spirit Bridges, 30 years as a storyteller, 17 years as an adjunct professor at Lesley Univ. Member of Streetfeet Women, a writing and performing group since 1982, their new anthology, The Bones We Carry. Mo is also a gardener, baker and painter. Her award-winning writing has been anthologized. Mo lives in Cambridge, MA. She holds a M.A. in Theater/Education from Goddard College, M.F.A. Creative Writing from Emerson College. Received support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cambridge Arts Council, Channel 4's "You Gotta Have Arts." and Barbara Deming's Money for Women Poetry Award. www.liminmo.com

Patricia Brodie --- Her poems have appeared in Ibbetson Street, The ComstockReview, Lyric, California Quarterly, Pedestal, Raintown Review, Phoebe andmany other journals as well as several anthologies. She has won awards inseveral poetry contests and her chapbook, The American Wives Club, waspublished by Ibbetson Street Press in 2006.

Paul Steven Stone-- Paul Steven Stone’s writings have appeared in Cricket Magazine, Point South, Wisdom Magazine and a boatload of newspapers and magazines. His comic masterpiece, "Or So It Seems", has been called “A rollicking spiritual page-turner!” His story collection, “How to Train A Rock”, was culled from 25 years of genre- and mind-bending columns. Currently Director of Advertising for W.B. Mason, Stone lives in Cambridge with his lovely wife, Amy.

Cameron Mount-- Mount served as an officer in the US Navy from 2001 to 2007 and has an MFA from Emerson College. His poems have appeared in The Somerville News, Wilderness House Literary Review, Sketchbook, Glass, and U.M.P.H.! Prose. His chapbook, Evening Watch, was published by Ibbetson Street Press in 2009.

Henry Braun-- Braun was born in 1930. His latest book, Loyalty, New and Selected Poems, was published by Off The Grid Press. Poems have appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The Massachusetts Review, and in anthologies. A video of Henry reading is at http://www.henrybraun.net. He lives in Weld, Maine.

Timothy Gager--Gager is the author of eight books of poetry and fiction. His work has appeared in Night Train, Twelve Stories, Word Riot, Dogzplot, Six Sentences, Monkeybicycle, The Binnacle, Zygote in My Coffee, Fried Chicken and Coffee,The Smoking Poet, Further Fenway Fiction, The Blood Orange Review, Hobart,GUD, Blue Print Review, Barnstorm, Poesy and Ibbetson Street . He has had over 200 works of fiction and poetry published since 2007 and of which eight have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He lives on www.timothygager.com

Doug Holder-- Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He is the arts editor of The Somerville News, and the Director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series. His poetry and prose have appeared in Rattle, Endicott Review, The Boston Globe, Main Street Rag, Word Riot, Long Island Quaretly and others. His latest poetry collection is "Poems from the Left Bank: Somerville, Mass." He currently teaches writing at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston as well as Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.

Steve Glines-- Steve Glines is the founder and Editor of the Wilderness House Literary Review. He is the author of a number of text books, a literarytravelogue and a poetry chapbook. His works have appeared in WHLReview,Ibbetson Street, and all four Bagel Bard Anthologies and many otherplaces. He is the editor-in-chief at ISCS Press, a publisher’s servicebureau.

Deborah Leipziger-- Leipziger is an author, poet and columnist. Several of her poems will be featured in Narcissus: A Literary Review to be published in June 2010. www.narcissuspublications.com. Her poems have been featured in Zinglogy and Levend Joods Geloof (Netherlands) and on the public television show, Brookline Writes. Her columns have been published in The Brookline Tab.

Molly Lynn Watt-- Watt is the author of a book of poems, Shadow People, Ibbetson Street Press, sharing journeys as a progressive educator, singer and activist. She is working on a manuscript, On the Wings of Song, set the Civil Rights Movement of 1963. She edited volumes 1-4 of Bagels with the Bards and the Kent Street Writer’s Anthology of Poems, is poetry editor for the HILR Review, and a frequent contributor to literary journals and invited featured reader. She supports voices of others as curator for the monthly Fireside Readings at Cambridge Cohousing, workshop leader for The Kent Street Writers and Poet Laureate of HILR and Chair of its Poets of the Roundtable. She received funded residencies from Soul Mountain and Lake Atitlan Writer’s Workshop. She and participates in NoCA Open Studios and the Joiner Center Writing Community.

Zvi A. Sesling-- Sesling is the author of King of the Jungle (Ibbetson St., 2010) and the forthcoming chapbook Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva). He won Third Place (2004) and First Prize (2007 in the Rueben Rose International Poetry Competition.
He edits the Muddy River Poetry Review.

Harris Gardner--- Gardner's work has appeared in the: The Harvard Review; Midstream; Cool Plums; Rosebud; Fulcrum; Chest (forthcoming), The Aurorean; Endicott Review; Ibbetson Street Journal;; Main Street Rag; Facets; Vallum (Canada); Pemmican; The New Renaissance, WHL Review; and about fifty other publication credits.Co-authored with Lainie Senechal a volume of poetry: Chalice of Eros; his next collection: Lest They Become (Ibbetson Street Press) 2003. New Collection: Among Us (Cervena Barva Press) November, 2007.

Mary Buchinger-- Her poems have been published in regional, national, and international journals and have garnered several awards. Her collection, Roomful of Sparrows, was a semi-finalist in the New Women’s Voices Series. She holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Barbara Bialick-- Bialick is a resident of Newton, Massachusetts who grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She has a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.S. from Boston University. She has published widely as a journalist and poet in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and on-line in McCall’s Magazine, Ibbetson Street, Pemmican, Lilith Magazine, Poetica, Istanbul Literary Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, The Boston Globe and The Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene, to name a few. Her chapbook TIME LEAVES was published by Ibbetson Street Press.

LO GALLUCCIO-- Galluccio is a writer of poetry and creative non-fiction, as well as a vocal artist. A Cambridge native, Lo spent 10 years on the Lower East Side of New York City becoming an artist. (Her original roots lie in acting.) She's produced two vocal CDs – Being Visited (1997) and Spell on You (2002) and has had two chapbooks and a novella length prose-poem published: Hot Rain, by Singing Bone Press (2004,) Sarasota VII, by Cervana Barva Press (2008,) and Terrible Baubles, by Propaganda Press (2009.) In addition, Lo is one of the featured writers in a collection of essays put out by Heide Hatry on Charta Books, called Heads and Tales (2008.) She's performed at many venues in NYC and the Boston area, including The Pierre Menard Gallery, St. Mark's Poetry Project, Tapestry of Voices, Squawk coffeehouse, Stone Soup,. Scullers, the Zeitgeist Gallery, The Outpost, the House of Blues and Mo' Pitkins among others. Her most recent collaboration in music has been several duets with avant-garde pianist Eric Zinman. Galluccio received her B.A. from Harvard College in 1985 in Social Studies. She also studied for several semesters as a vocal artist at the Berklee College of Music.. She reviews books for Ibbetson St. Press and was, for several years, the Poetry Editor of the Cambridge Alewife. Http://logalluccio.atspace.com

Manson Solomon-- Manson Solomon emerged from the womb with a mission to be a writer with a large trust fund. Said trust fund being inexplicably absent, he took the road more traveled, acquiring graduate degrees in Economics, Psychology and Philosophy from the London School of Economics, Columbia and Harvard, engaging in various academic, artistic and entrepreneurial pursuits -- in New York, London, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Nova Scotia, Wellesley, Cambridge -- while also taking the less traveled road, generating exquisite poetry and commenting astutely on the work of others from deep in the woods of Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Anne Ipsen-- Ipsen is a writer, speaker, and storyteller. Her website www.AnneIpsen.com features her two memoirs and two historical novels, most recently: Running before the Prairie Wind, 2009 by ibus press. She is available for workshops and talks, including: On Being an Independent Writer and The Miracles of the Danish Jews.

Jack Scully -- Scully was the co-founder with the late Mike Amado of two on going poetry venues in Plymouth, MA. He currently serves as the literary executor of his works. He has read Mike's poetry poetry as a feature reader at Greater Brockton Poetry and Arts, Boston National Poetry Month Festival, Main Street Cafe and Stone Soup Poetry. He also serves as the unofficial photographer of numerous poetry venues

Gloria Mindock is the author of La Porţile Raiului (Ars Longa Press, 2010, Romania) translated into the Romanian by Flavia Cosma, Nothing Divine Here, (U Šoku Štampa, 2010), and Blood Soaked Dresses (Ibbetson Street Press, 2007). She is editor of Červená Barva Press and the Istanbul Literary Review, an online journal based in Istanbul, Turkey. She has had numerous publications in the USA and abroad and her work has been translated and published in Spanish and Romanian. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, St. Botolph Award, and was awarded, many years ago, a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council distributed by the Somerville Arts Council.

Barbara Thomas, a Reading and English teacher in Boston for 35 years, developed an award winning writing program for high school students and is now devoted to poetry
and nature writing. She participates in NOCA, Glenbrook for nature writers and artists, Joiner Center Writing Community and Bagel Bards. Her poems have appeared in Writing Nature, Lalitamba, WHLR, Istanbul Literary Review, and others. Her chapbook, "Seduced by Sighs of Trees" was published in 2007.

Pam Rosenblatt is a poet, critic, editor, and journalist. On How to Read - THE MANUAL, her first chapbook, was published through Ibbetson Street Press in 2008. Her poems and critiques can be found online or in local small press journals. She joined the Bagel Bards in March 2005.

Louisa Clerici’s poetry and stories have been published in literary anthologies and magazines including; Shore Voices, Carolina Woman, City Lights, Off the Coast, The Boston Poet, Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken, and Tidepool Poets. Louisa is host of the popular writer’s venue; DreamSpeak at The Vine in Plymouth, Ma.

Rene Schwiesow was integral in the founding and development of an online poetry forum called Poem Train (www.poemtrain.com), which she became co-owner of in 2008. The forum offers varying levels for work shopping poetry and prose. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks. Rene is also one of the co-hosts of the Mike Amado Memorial Series, Poetry: The Art of Words in Plymouth, a member of Plymouth’s Tidepool Poets, and Director of the newly formed Plymouth County Coalition for the Arts.

2010-03-11T11:53:00.000-08:00

An artistic rendition of Bagel Bards by Bridget Galway

There's no shortage of conversation when the Bagel Bards meet.

2009-08-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

(JOHN TLUMACKI/PHOTO)

There's no shortage of conversation when the Bagel Bards meet.

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe Correspondent

It was 10:30 on a Saturday morning and cacophony filled the Davis Square Au Bon Pain. Thirty members of the “Bagel Bards” entirely occupied half the café, leaning in to carry on 11 separate conversations. Cofounder Doug Holder pushed his glasses on top of his head. 79-year-old, beret-topped Bert Stern of Somerville signed copies of his new book. Latecomers stole chairs.

Supposedly no one cares about poetry anymore. But here, every week, poets rule — feeding their muse with shop talk and cinnamon-chip scones.

And now the five-year-old group has a permanent symbolic home: management has allowed members to hang a plaque in their corner behind the muffin case.

The meeting place “kind of started with my obsession,” Holder admitted. He’d written several books inspired by the legendary Harvard Square Au Bon Pain. (He also liked that its name sounded a bit literary, being French.)

He and Harris Gardner of Boston, 62, started the group after a friend said poets outside the academy needed company and support. They met for a year in a now-defunct Harvard Finagle a Bagel before relocating to Au Bon Pain, alternating between Somerville and Central Square, Cambridge cafes before settling into Davis a year ago.

Holder’s friend was right: Bards said the meetup filled a need. “It’s such a great thing to come to,” said Elizabeth Quinlan, 63, who regularly travels from Roslindale.

“A lot of people are saying if you’re a poet you have to do things in isolation,” said Amy Tighe of Somerville, 51, a realtor, poet, and former storyteller. “This can really carry you.”

True, they typically talk of practical matters, not prosody -- “Chapbooks, poetry, publishers” -- said Irene Koronas of Cambridge, 66 -- and computer fixes, and her daughter’s strange rash. The rhinestones on her glasses sparkled.

Second-time attendee Reza Tokaloo of Somerville brought printouts of his new work. When he left, they were scattered across the table next to stacks of the poets’ own books plus classics like T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and Rilke’s "Letters to a Young Poet."

He would soon learn. “Sometimes the newcomers will try that. And we’re polite,” Koronas said.

Holder seemed to have four arms as he simultaneously joked about nominating a friend for a Pulitzer (“It costs $50,” he said. “Then he can say he was nominated”), pointed out a Bard who’d been featured on NPR, sold his new collection of interviews to Gardner, and stumped for his upcoming New York reading.

Two Bards reviewed poetry festival paperwork. Another was overheard telling a photographer that sure, there were copies on hand of “… the Bagel Bards anthology but this is MY book.”

Indeed, they’re a well-published lot -- often by each other. Holder, Somerville’s de facto poet laureate, runs Ibbetson Street Press, hosts a cable-access poetry show, and writes a column for the weekly Somerville News.

After joining the group, several others Bards started their own shoestring-budget presses, including Cervena Barva by Gloria Mindock of Somerville and Steve Glines’s Littleton-based Wilderness House.

“This group has spawned a lot of activity. A lot of presses, getting read, getting acknowledged,” said Koronas, poetry editor for Holder's and Glines’s magazines. Now, she said, “This is it for the small poetry scene.”

Still, Saturdays remain notably low-pressure and no-mystique. Some higher-profile poets like Afaa Michael Weaver frequent the group but competition isn’t even a side dish.

“It’s not particularly bragging here to say you’re a poet,” said Molly Lynn Watt of Cambridge, 71, who puts together an annual Bagel Bard anthology—a publication that is open to all regulars.

It’s “a celebration when someone comes out with a book,” Quinlan said.

Showing up doesn’t guarantee publication beyond the anthology. “Some of us are really good and some of us aren’t,” Tighe said.

There seemed to be only a few people that didn't join the party: other patrons.

“We don’t have any positive response from other customers because it’s noisy, they take a lot of space,” said associate manager Sujata Pun. Café-goers gave the boisterous Bards a wide berth. Outnumbered, most took their coffee to go.

Until the Bards' plaque claimed to their corner for good, Barbara Bialick’s poem held its place. Where the prosaic might see a quick pick-me-up, Bialick took the poets’ position:

“The circus breads of life
on display around me
are tempting me to have my own fiesta…”

The Bagel Bards take up a large corner of Au Bon Pain.

Bagel Bard Plaque to be appointed at the Au Bon Pain-Davis Square, Somerville

2009-06-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Steve Glines has designed the plaque that will be appearing at the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square, Somerville in the coming weeks. The Au Bon Pain is the official home of the literary group the "Bagel Bards"

More Bagel Bard Photos from Jack Scully

2009-06-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Somerville's Bagel Bards find an "Official" Home.

2009-05-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

Somerville's Bagel Bards find an "Official" Home.

( Somerville, Mass.)

The management of the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square in Somerville, Mass. have given the go ahead for the Bagel Bards http://www.bagelbards.com a literary group in Somerville, Mass. to commission the design of a plaque to designate the Au Bon Pain as "Home of the Bagel Bards" It will be placed in the section of the cafe where these poets and writers regularly meet. The Bards, founded by Doug Holder and Harris Gardner in March of 2004, started out in the basement of Finagle-A-Bagel in Harvard Square, and then moved to the Central Square (Cambridge) Au Bon Pain and later to its hopefully permanent home in Davis Square. Doug Holder, a poet and journalist for The Somerville News, stated: "The Au Bon Pain has been good to us. They have provided a space for our Saturday morning meetings and they have helped us
form a community of writers. It also has been an inspiration for his own poetry Holder said:"I have written two collections of poetry based on my experiences there: " No One Dies at the Au Bon Pain" ( sunnyoutside) and "Dreams at the Au Bon Pain" ( Ibbetson Street) Harris Gardner, his co-founder, said that two artists from the group will be commissioned to design the plaque.

"The Bagel Bards is an egalitarian literary group and has writers that rank from professors to paupers, to the published to the unpublished," according to Holder. Such well-known poets as Afaa Michael Weaver, Miriam Levine, Tino Villanueva, Kathleen Spivack, Clayton Eshleman, Dianna Der Hovanessian have attended the group, as well as respected local bards like: Barbara Bialick, Zvi Sesling, CD Collins, Timothy Gager, Irene Koronas,, Mary Buchinger Bodwell, Lo Galluccio, Gloria Mindock, and others. Novelist Paul Stone and Luke Salisbury are regular attendees, as well as playwrights, science writers, journalists and other disciplines. Steve Glines, and Molly Lynn Watt work to put out a yearly anthology of the Bards' work, and Glines founded the Wilderness House Literary review http://whlreview.com an online lit journal.

It was also announced that the Bards have a special shelf at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, the famed all-poetry bookstore in Harvard Square. Holder said: " This is very gratifying thing to happen. This is a great grassroots group, we all pull for each other, and I hope it goes on for years to come."

* Bagel Bard Poet Barbara Bialick has a framed displayed poem there called: "Sitting Alone at the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square"

Sitting Alone in Au Bon Pain, Davis Square

I like sitting here inside a land of bread,
cookies, square-shaped crescents,
fluorescently lit and bright
like they’re having a party.

The circus breads of life
on display around me
are tempting me to have my own fiesta:

“Just take one mammoth shortbread cookie
painted chocolate on one side…”
they urge, and I rise like cake
from my seat, mesmerized by dough—
butter, wheat, chocolate, and sugar—
the classic signs of civilization,
which fill me with fertile flavor
under my tongue,
already only a memory
begging for more.

By Barbara Bialick
of the Bagel Bards
2008

The Bagel Bards by Miriam Levine

2009-04-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

The Bagel Bards

By Miriam Levine

Any group that names itself "The Bagel Bards" can't take itself too seriously. Irreverence rules at the 9 am to 12 noon, weekly Saturday morning meetings in Davis Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, at Au Bon Pain--I'd call it Au Mal Pain, though one Bard praises the frosted cinnamon rolls.

Last Saturday morning, I asked this informal group of poets to jot down what they liked about the Bards. "Being with The Bards is better than water boarding," Irene Koronas wrote. "Saturday at the bards allows me to go unmedicated for the morning," another Bard commented. And another, "Love it--love it. It's the only place I can come and not be mugged."

Her most recent book is The Dark Opens, winner of the 2007 Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is the author of In Paterson, a novel, Devotion: A Memoir, three poetry collections, and A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Her work has appeared in Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, and Ploughshares, among many other places.

A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts writing fellowship and grants from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, she was a fellow at Yaddo, Hawthornden Castle, Le Château de Lavigny, Villa Montalvo, Fundación Valparaíso, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.

She is Professor Emerita at Framingham State College, where she chaired the English Department and was Coordinator of the Arts and Humanities Program.

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Miriam Levine now divides her time between Florida and Massachusetts. Currently she is at work on a new novel and a poetry collection.

Athena Pappas wrote a poem on the spot: "that moody cepheid/ clears the window/ for the bagel bards/unaware of my pulse." For those of you, like me, who didn't know: a cepheid is a star that has used up its main supply of hydrogen fuel, is unstable and pulsates.

Sometimes a poet will read a finished poem--we are not a workshop--or bring his or her recently published book, but mostly we talk and laugh.

Doug Holder, who with Harris Gardner founded the group in 2004, remembers past meetings: "I know we had the noted Clayton Eshleman visit us. His pants . . . looked for all the world like resplendent pajama bottoms." He also heard Hugh Fox hold forth on his "theories of Mayan Culture and Kaballah." Recently the poet and artist Irene Koronas told me about her 'course of study.' She reads the books that come to her by chance. Lately chance brought her a discarded carton of books by the Greek philosophers--did she pick them up out of the trash? She's reading Plato, and when done with a book, blocks out certain words with colors. I should have asked her, What colors, Irene? And how do you decide what words get the color treatment? Gloria Mindock will soon be traveling to Europe to read from her new collection of poems. She'll be spending time in Romania. Why Romania, Gloria?

Here's to unstable, pulsating stars clearing the windows for this democratic group! Anyone can join.

About Bagel Bard Miriam Levine.....

Her most recent book is The Dark Opens, winner of the 2007 Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is the author of In Paterson, a novel, Devotion: A Memoir, three poetry collections, and A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Her work has appeared in Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, and Ploughshares, among many other places.

A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts writing fellowship and grants from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, she was a fellow at Yaddo, Hawthornden Castle, Le Château de Lavigny, Villa Montalvo, Fundación Valparaíso, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.

She is Professor Emerita at Framingham State College, where she chaired the English Department and was Coordinator of the Arts and Humanities Program.

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Miriam Levine now divides her time between Florida and Massachusetts. Currently she is at work on a new novel and a poetry collection.

http://miriamlevine.blogspot.com

Photo Study of Bards by Melissa Shook and Zvi Sesling

2009-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

ZVI SESLING ( Photos 1 to 3) Melissa Shook ( 4 and beyond...)

( Click on Pictures To Enlarge)

Upon Hearing of Your Death in Your 34th Year.... (For Mike Amado)

2009-03-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

( Mike Amado second from right)

Upon Hearing of Your Death in Your 34th Year

For Mike Amado

I fear losing your brightness to shades of memory,
the way you lean forward when you are being kind,
which is all the time,
the way you build your poetry in spades
and it comes out in hearts,
The way the drum beats our hearts beat the words beat.

Within the hour,
I dig into my box of childhood treasures, so insignificant now,
for two polished Winged Victories for your eyelids,
to pay Chiron’s fee and then dredge up three
lint-covered Valiums for Cerberus,
who like a good dog will eat Anything.
I am worrying that if you can’t translate
into three languages on a good day
you might end up excluded from
The Elysian Fields Anthology.

Nobody’s fault you grew up grappling
with a pain shaking you by the balls
over a cliff, each breath reminding you
when the pain stopped you would be dead,
a promise it kept (like a heartless sundial ever
burnishing the Spoken Warrior’s words).

There is a question poetry asks of common sense:
Is it our language that leaves us incredulous
of any reality that doesn’t measure itself
by a beginning and an end?
Is Plath’s Ariel simply a nightlight
in a black, chaotic universe?
Ah, there’s the rub.
Who was it exactly named the stars?
The constellations? and would that be enough?
To live on in that way? When art crosses the line
becoming myth you might oh so quickly
forget the name of this young poet.
But I would be happy to remember this line
of poetry on any battlefield life takes me,
in any last breath if there were time,
“There is a river I call Sky.”

--------- Linda Larson is a Bagel Bard and former editor of "Spare Change News."

Harris Gardner , Doug Holder and the Bagel Bards to read at the Somerville Library Central Branch 6:30 to 8:30PM April 27, 2009

2009-02-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

Bagel Bard Poetry reading at the Somerville Central Library

The Central Library, located at 79 Highland Avenue

Monday April 27 @ 6:30-8:30 pm

Special readings by founders: Doug Holder and Harris Gardner as well as the other Bards.

According to Regie O’Hare Gibson, a Bagel Bard is “a poet that is glazed and ring-shaped whose poetry has a tough, chewy texture usually made of leavened words and images dropped briefly into nearly boiling conversations on Saturday mornings -- often baked into a golden brown.” The Bards featured in this reading represent part of the 51 poet members who come together as writers over breakfast every Saturday morning at the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square. Every poet -- famous, unknown, or somewhere in between -- is welcome to share breakfast with the Bagel Bards while baking up some tasty treats.

Bagel Bard Gloria Mindock will tour Romania in Spring 2009 for her new poetry collection: "At the Heaven's Gates"

2009-02-05T15:25:00.001-08:00

Gloria Mindock’s book, “At the Heaven’s Gates” will be published by Cogito Press in Oradea, Romania. with translation by Flavia Cosma.

The editor/publisher, Mr. Ioan Tepelea will write the introduction in her book. Mr. Tepelea has published Gloria’s poetry before in an anthology called “Murmur of Voices” and in the magazine he publishes called, UNU: REVISTA DE CULTURA.

Gloria and her translator are planning a book tour with her publisher in Romania in May of this year.

Harris Gardner makes a home for Bagels and Bards at the Au Bon Pain Cafe in Davis Square, Somerville

2009-01-29T06:49:00.001-08:00

(Gardner at the Au Bon Pain cafe in Davis Sq.,
Somerville home of the Bagel Bards)

Article about Harris Gardner ( co-founder of Bagel Bards) in the Northeastern Alumni Magazine

The People's Poet

“It brings community together—a common ground, you might say,” says poet-about-town Harris Gardner, LA’69, reflecting on the unifying power of verse.

Gardner expresses his enthusiasm for his craft by writing prolifically—a collection of his poems, Among Us, was published last year. He also hosts regular poetry events around the Greater Boston area.

He recalls being introduced to poetry at age fifteen by his tenth-grade teacher: “She gave us an assignment to write a poem. And I said, ‘This is fine; I’ll try another one.’ Just because I wanted to, not because anyone told me I had to.”

To share the vitality he’s found in poetry, Gardner, who lives in Boston, organizes the city’s National Poetry Month Festival, featuring both established and emerging poets. The eighth annual fest was held this April at the Boston Public Library. Writers read from their works in a six-hour marathon.

Three years ago, with friend and fellow poetry enthusiast Doug Holder, Gardner founded a weekly poets group called Breaking Bagels with the Bards. The name came from the group’s original meeting place, the Finagle a Bagel in Harvard Square. When that eatery closed, the Bards switched to alternating meetings at the Au Bon Pain outposts in Davis Square and Central Square. High school graduates to PhDs, the Bards run a wide socioeconomic gamut. Anthologies of members’ poems attract applause outside the café walls.

When he’s not schmoozing with the Bards, Gardner can be found at Borders Books in Downtown Crossing, where another organization he emcees, Tapestry of Voices, invites poets to read each month.

This busy artist, who also finds the time to run his own real estate business, believes the literary arts fill a basic need. “Poetry is very learnable,” he says. “At the community level, people can learn to appreciate poetry, to enjoy poetry, to indulge in poetry, and even to write poetry.

“Even if they’ve never done it before.”

— Nancy Rabinowitz, MA’90

"I Want" by Ingerid White

2009-01-24T12:34:00.001-08:00

Ingerid White is a new Bagel Bard and she sent me this poem in response to an article she read about the late Mike Amado in The Somerville News.

I WANT

I want to feel

that life isn't a black sky

I want to know in the marrow of my bones

that there really is a place called home

I want to fly

in my mind

like I did in my dreams as a child

I want this bitterness to leave me

I want to smile

again

I want to feel the grass under my feet

soft and pliant against my skin

I want to gaze at the white-streaked-blue afternoon sky

and feel content

I want you and I to know what we mean

when we say what we do

I simply want

me and you

_________________________

About Ingerid White:

I am a 1972 graduate of The Ohio State University, where I earned a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism, with the concentration being in News/Editorial.

After graduating from college, I worked for a summer as a tour guide in my home town of Tampa for Busch Gardens, and then traveled to Tokyo to see if I wanted to marry my fiance - a Japanese exchange student I'd met my sophomore year. I started off teaching American Conversation at a language school, and segued into editing the house organ for Canon, Inc. for the remainder of my two-year stay in Japan.

I returned to the 'States late in 1974, moving soon after to NYC where I worked in advertising and publishing primarily for seven years.

I divide my time currently between Norway and the Boston area, where my son lives. I am currently looking for work here in order to be able to stay. At the moment I am representing a Norwegian author who has recently published a translation of his latest book into English and is marketing it here.

Bagel Bard Pam Rosenblatt's "On How to Read The Manual" Reviewed

2009-01-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

ON HOW TO READ THE MANUAL
By Pam Rosenblatt
2009; 26pp; Pa; Ibbetson Street Press,
25 School Street, Somerville, MA 02143
$7.
http://ibbetsonpress.com
to order http://lulu.com/ibbetsonpress

What we have is a poeticized study of how to existentialistically understand reality: paintings, books, friends, lovers, TV, even sandwiches, cats, dogs and, by extension, anything and everything that surrounds us. And ironically, for all its non-poetic-game-playing simplicity, the poetry itself is a real psychic-door opener: “Harris, you asked, How do you read a painting?..../ Look wide-eyed at the work./Close your eyes and open them,/And hope what you see and derive/Are what the artist wants our mind’s eye/To see and derive Let the images/Abstract, realistic, surrealistic/Take meaning in your eyes....//A smile between you and the canvus,/As though you’re best friends,/Understanding each other, /Understanding that the artist/Allowed this to happen....” (“On How to Read a Painting,” pp. 10-11).
Rosenblatt is a veritable reality-transformer, taking the ambiguous and difficult, the almost-impossible, and giving you some rule-games to play to turn everything into acceptably understandable.
The core-secret is passivity, getting rid of all the usual babblings and scrabblings of the psyche that interfere with direct perception, and allowing The Real is stream in on your inner psyche: “View view stars stars stars/In the night’s sky sky/Sky and imagine the amount/ Of time time time it takes/For you to view that star/That may have exploded/Years years years before.../Time/is time...until time is gone/Is gone like youth like seasons/Like nature...” (“On How to Read Time,” pp.3-4.).

THE HOLY FOOL (for Mike Amado, 1975 - 2009)

2009-01-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

Beloved Bagel Bard Mike Amado passed away...here is a poem from his friend poet Carolyn Gregory:

THE HOLY FOOL (for Mike Amado, 1975 - 2009)

Tapping congas in a red shirt,
he brought music to all of us
from ordinary life
where magic does not rule.

Non-listeners did not challenge him
when he uttered his poems
directly from an open heart.
He was wiser than his years.

A transplant failed
and years in dialysis taught him
how to blur out time
when needed,
how to fly like an eagle
above his body.

He brought me back to youth
when animals and gypsies caught fire
and those who witnessed
became Holy Fools.

He was one, too,
turning ruin to beauty,
his mortal pain soaring
on careful wings.

--Carolyn Gregory, 1/3/09

Bagel Bard Bert Stern in the Jan/Feb/ 2009 Issue of the American Poetry Review

2008-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Bert Stern's two page poem "Wait" is in the current issue of the prestigious American Poetry Review. Bert Stern's work has appeared in the Bagel Bard anthologies, and in "Ibbetson Street," the Somerville, Mass. based literary journal. The Ibbetson Street Press will be releasing a poetry collection of Stern's in 2009. Bert Stern and his wife (pictured above) are the founders of "Off the Grid Press" a Somerville, Mass. press that publishes people over 60--- hey, another perk for the "Golden Years!"

Bagel Bard Robert K. Johnson's poetry collection "From Mist to Shadow" a MASSBOOK of the Year

2008-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

MASSBOOKS OF THE YEAR/POETRY
Recommended Reading from the 8th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards

From Mist to Shadow:Poems By Robert K. Johnson ( Ibbetson Street Press 2007)

Here is a review from the Midwest Book Review:

From Mist to Shadow:
Poems by Robert K. Johnson

ISBN 978-0-9795313-0-9
80 pages at 12.00 paperback
Ibbetson Street Press http://www.ibbetsonpress.com
25 School Street
Somerville MA 02143

Review by Laurel Johnson

Robert K. Johnson is a poet, writer, retired English professor, and student of life. Between 1975 and 2007, he’s had six collections of poetry and two non-fiction books published, plus been featured in two poetry anthologies. In this latest book, Johnson tenderly transforms the small memories, wonders and sorrows of everyday life into moments brightened and sharpened through his words.

The commonplace turns quietly sinister as Johnson remembers the unexpected suicide of a friend. “Jimmy” recalls the class clown, the day he put his head in the oven after school, and the numbing effect on the poet:

And suddenly all the bushes, trees
and flowers I stared at in our yard
looked different, strange,
as if -- year after year --
they had been hiding something from me.

“Anguish” is a simply stunning poem about a mother lost to dementia, unable to separate reality from hallucination, and the son forced to witness her decline. I cannot do this fine poem justice with an excerpt; it must be read in its entirety.

“Brother of the Prodigal Son” is a long poem that remains true to the biblical version but extracts a bitter truth unspoken in the parable. This poem, also, cannot be adequately honored with an excerpt.

“The Truth About the Past” is another powerful recollection about the father who shared memories of his own revered father’s many talents. A long-lost great aunt shatters those memories with a harsh truth:

…she described my father’s childhood,
starting when he was two
-- the year his father abandoned
his wife and son.

Life is often unpredictable. This excerpt from “On F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ’Babylon Revisited’” shows how forgotten words and acts unexpectedly return to us like bad karma:

-- all can silently arc
over our heads for days,
for blithe or busy years
until the moment they curve
back into our lives as swiftly
as a hawk’s swooping claws
puncture a rabbit’s skin.

Regardless of age, a poet is always a poet. Age settles over us all, but Johnson still sees poetry in the world around him:

…subjects for poems,
like frightened children
seeking shelter,
tug at my mind…

One critic describes Robert K. Johnson as “the poet/laureate of the ordinary moment in time.” He is that and much more. His poetry is quietly powerful and poignant. This collection lives, breathes, and transforms the ordinary through the thoughts and memories of a skilled wordsmith. From Mist to Shadow is a book you’ll want to keep and reread.

-- Laurel Johnson is a reviewer for the Midwest Book Review and other magazines.

Joining the community : A poem by Kim Triedman

2008-11-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Joining the community : A poem by Kim Triedman

The poet and the promoter went to Au Bon Pain on Saturday morning

disguised as the same person. It was a weekly gathering of poets, and

no one knew either of them, so it was impossible to tell who was who.

The poet wore black, as poets will, and the promoter wore an open smile

suggesting much more confidence than the poet had ever had the

good fortune to know. They drank coffee, which only the promoter could

really tolerate, and fidgeted, which only made the poet self-conscious.

At the end of the hour, the promoter had two new readings booked for

the winter and a half-dozen email addresses scribbled in her planner.

The poet had a nervous stomach from all the coffee and the beginnings

of a poem. They left the café together, all smiles and black, and

everyone thought what a pleasant young woman they had just met.

*Kim Triedman is a new member of the Bards, and the winner of the 2008 Main St. Rag Chapbook Competition

Afaa Michael Weaver to be awarded Ibbetson Street Lifetime Acheivement Award Nov, 22, 2008

2008-11-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Afaa Michael Weaver, winner of this year's PUSHCART PRIZE for POETRY will be awarded the Ibbetson Street Press Lifetime Acheivement Award Nov 22, 2008, at The Somerville News Writers Festival.

BAGEL BARDS IN THE SMALL PRESS REVIEW

2008-11-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Bagel Bards: Lawrence Kessenich, Mignon Ariel King, and Pam Rosenblatt are in the current issue of the Small Press Review

Larry Kessenich reviews "Beloit Poetry Journal"

Pam Rosenblatt reviews the "Willow Review"

Mignon Ariel King reviews "Boston Review"

The Small Press Review is carried at major libraries across the country. Founded by Len Fulton, it is considered the "bible" of the small press. To order go to

http://dustbooks.com

Bagel Bard Ellen Steinbaum Releases New Poetry Collection!

2008-10-31T16:33:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

I am at that exciting point where my new book, Container Gardening, is now a physical reality right there on my shelf. On my web site, www.ellensteinbaum.com, you can see a list of readings I'll be doing in the coming months. But I wanted to let you know about one I'll be doing next Friday night at Temple Israel in Boston in honor of Jewish Book Month.
The reading begins at 6:30, immediately after Shabbat services which start at 5:45. I'll be reading with my friend and fellow poet Edie Mueller, who also has a new book out. You can find more information, including directions, at http://tisrael.org/study/library.php?page=17935. It would be fun to see you there!
And meanwhile, here is a little more about Container Gardening.
With good wishes to you all,

Ellen Steinbaum

Bagel Bard Martha Boss releases "I AM AN OLD WOMAN"

2008-10-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

(Painting by Martha Boss)

Martha Boss, well-regarded member of the Bagel Bards, and the very woman who painted the "Bagel Bard" mural, will be featured in the Oct 29, 2008 Lyrical Somerville column in The Somerville News, edited by Doug Holder. There will be a selection from her collection "I AM AN OLD WOMAN" Here is a selection from her book:

cartoons

i am an old woman
watching cartoons.

the older i get
the funnier they are.

i am an old woman
in my second childhood,
more fun & funnier
than the first one

there's Clifford
the big red dog.
there's George,
curous George, the monkey.
there are
the revolting Teletubbies.
there are the Simpsons.
oh my,
they do keep me up
on current events.

as funny as cartoons,
are the poets
known as the Bagelbards.
they win
in all categories.

original,
animated,
no two alike,
hysterical,
they can't possibly be serious

i love being
an old bard
watching them
every Saturday morning.

Bagel Bard Miriam Levine to appear on NPR'S Writer's Almanac

2008-10-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

( Miriam Levine)

Hello, Doug:

"Ocean Drive," from my book, The Dark Opens," will be featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, 8:55 AM, Wednesday, October 22. WGBH, 89.7
The program is also available on the web.

Yours for Bagel Bards,
Miriam

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/stations/list.php

Bagel Bard Philip Burnham Jr. was also on Writer's Almanac in April, 2008.

Bagel Bards at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival Oct 10 to 12

2008-10-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

Pictures by Mike Amado

( Mike Amado--far right/ other featured poets)

Revered Bard Timothy Gager at work

Tam Lin Neville and Bert Stern of Off the Grid Press

left (Michael Sullivan -Willaim Joiner Institute) Doug Holder-- cofounder of Bagel Bards.

Bagel Bards at the Mass. Poetry Festival, Lowell, Mass. Oct 11

2008-10-13T12:44:00.001-07:00

( Photo by January O'Neil)

"Poet Mom"

Bagel Bards ( Left to Right) Jack Scully, Doug Holder, Mike Amado, and Gloria Mindock at the Small Press Fair at the Mass. Poetry Festival. Mindock's Cervena Barva Press and Holder's "Ibbetson Street Press" were represented at the fair.

The Bagel Bards: The Movie/ Directed by Chad Parenteau

2008-07-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Featured bards: Doug Holder, Harris Gardner, Mike Amado

Scene: Au Bon Pain Davis Square Somerville July, 2008

Photographic Study of Bagel Bards by Zvi Sesling

2008-06-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

1-- Patricia Brodie / Steve Glines)

2 -- Irene Koronas

3 -- Sam Cornish--right ( Luke Salisbury Left

4-- Doug Holder ( Hat) Sam Cornish ( Back) Barbara Thomas ( Front)

5-- Deborah Priestly

6-- Barbara Bialick (right)

Review of Bagels with the Bards 3

2008-06-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

Bagels With the Bards #3
Edited by Molly Lynn Watt
ISBN 978-0-6152-0762-9
88 pages at 15.95 paperback
Ibbetson Street Press
25 School Street
Somerville MA 02143

According to the Introduction by Regie O’Hare Gibson, a Bagel Bard is “a poet that is glazed and ring-shaped whose poetry has a tough, chewy texture usually made of leavened words and images dropped briefly into nearly boiling conversations on Saturday mornings -- often baked into a golden brown.” The Bards featured in this anthology of 55 poems by 51 poets come together as writers over breakfast every Saturday morning. Every poet -- famous, unknown, or somewhere in between -- is welcome to share breakfast with the Bagel Bards while baking up some tasty treats.

I’ve chosen not to quote from any particular poem in this review. The work here is as individual and unique as each contributing Bard. Delighted readers will find a variety of styles and forms, including ekphrasia, prose poems, villanelle, and free form poetry. Between these covers can be found little day-to-day deaths, dreams, and wounds, lost causes and dead ends presented in playful, whimsical, and experimental ways.

If you haven’t discovered the Bagel Bards yet, start with their latest anthology. Short of having breakfast with them at the Au Bon Pain, reading the results of their Saturday mornings is the next best thing.

Review by Laurel Johnson

Poems and Poets in Bagel Bards Three

2008-04-05T04:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a listing of poets and poems in the Bagel Bard Anthology 3 due to be released sometime in April.....

10,000,000 Elvis Impersonators Can’t Be Sane --Mike Amado

A Good Day, Maybe --Harris Gardner

A Union Soldier Has His Picture Taken --Luke Salisbury
A Second Chance --Deborah M. Priestly

As Good As Dead --Zvi A. Sesling

At The Café: Death By Cliché --Doug Holder

At The Framers Market --Ann Carhart

BETWEEN SNOW AND LEAF --Pamela Annas

Candle --Jane Chakravarthy

Dalat, Vietnam --Elizabeth Doran

daylight savings time -- pam rosenblatt

ELENA (from the psych unit) -- Lo Galluccio

Exhausted --Mignon Ariel King

Field Trip --Barbara Thomas

Homeless --Jessica Harman

I DROP IN AT DOWNTOWN WINE AND LIQUORS, SEEKING ADVICE ABOUT A DECENT WHITE WINE TO ACCOMPANY A NICE PIECE OF SALMON…
-- John J. Hildebidle

I Love --Alyson Lie

Jack Powers At Home --Chad Parenteau
January in Paris --Anne Brudevold

Lament --Shannon O’Connor

Leaving Wishes --Ellen Steinbaum

Limits --Linda Larson

LISTENING TO JANE HIRSHFIELD --Patricia Brodie

Love letter to a sanitation worker --Varsha Kukafka

Lower than the Grass --Marc D. Goldfinger

Maria --Gloria Mindock

Mirage --Matt Rosenthal

Nemo of the Rails --Ian Thal

Nine Clicks --Dale Patterson

NOW THAT I’M IN SPAIN --Tino Villanueva

Old Reverie, New Prayer --Tomas O’Leary

On Cambridge Common --Molly Lynn Watt

On Moody Street-- Michael Todd Steffen

Pale imitation of a poem --Steve Glines
RAIN DROP BLUES --Nat Mayes

river chat --Martha Boss

Romare and August --Lolita Paiewonsky

Rosa Parks Died Today --Elizabeth Leonard

Sketch #14 -- Lainie Senechal

Spring in Rome -- Julia Carlson

"Sweet cold, Chicago" -- Timothy Gager

The After-Birth of Tragedy –Regie o’Hare Gibson

The Alter Sun --Beatriz Alba del Rio

THE BOY JESUS -- Llyn Clague

The Daring Dance of Fall --Barbara Bialick

(The) Moon Goddess --Walter Howard

the race for one sentence --Irene Koronas

To Emily Dickinson --Tom Daley

Victory Garden --Philip E. Burnham, Jr.

Virginia Spring --Abbott Ikeler

Weigh --Afaa M. Weaver

Wordcatcher Poem ONE -- Irene Koronas

Wordcatcher Poem TWO --Irene Koronas

Wordcatcher Poem THREE -- Micael Amado

Wordcatcher Poem FOUR --Micael Amado

THE BAGEL BARDS :AN INTRODUCTION

2008-03-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

Breaking Bagels with the Bards

The scene. A lone man or woman. Perhaps a poet. A writer. A romantic notion, no? In the end, every writer and human is profoundly alone. Writers definitely need time alone. But like all warm-blooded mammals; we also need a sense of community. So when I got a letter from Cambridge poet Douglas Worth, about his experiences with the cliquishness of the poetry community, and his feelings of isolation; I decided to speak to my good friend and poetry powerbroker Harris Gardner. We had been meeting for breakfast for awhile at the “Au Bon Pain” in Harvard Square. I called Harris with my idea for a group titled: “Breaking Bagels with the Bards,” and like a moth on a cheap suit he was on the bandwagon. We decided to form a casual group of writers and poets that would meet in the basement of a Harvard Square bagel joint “Finagle-a-Bagel.” Harris supplied a steady stream of emails, and both of us spread the word with our colleagues and friends. It was slow going at first. But over the months the group started to grow. One member, Irene Koronas, an experimental poet who has a healthy obsession with words, became an official scribe, and sent her “Word catcher,” email newsletter out to all members. Steve Glines, a writer, and a computer whiz, was instrumental in creating our online magazine “The Wilderness House Literary Review” http://www.whlreview.com , and our first “Bagel Bard” anthology. The group became populated with folks like Simmons College professor Afaa Michael Weaver, Boston University professor Tino Villanueva, MIT professor John Hildebidle, not to mention poets Tomas O’Leary, Molly Lynn Watt, Ann Cahart, Julia Carlson, Deborah M. Priestly, Linda Haviland Conte, Pam Rosenblatt, Matt Rosenthal, Mike Adamo, Marc Goldfinger, Richard Wihelm, Chad Parenteau, Pat Brodie, Philip Burnham, Tom Daley, Reggie Gibson, David Slavitt, Richard Wollman, to name just a few. Ellen Steinbaum, a Boston Globe columnist, and a member of our group wrote a column about us, and there were articles about the group in the “Cambridge Chronicle,” and “The Somerville News.” Several publishers joined our organization: Gloria Mindock of the “Cervena Barva press,” Jasen Sousa of “J-Rock Publishing,” and Shirley Gerald ware of “Fresh,” magazine.

Eventually “Finagle-A-Bagel,’ closed, and we moved our group to the “Au Bon Pain” in Davis Square, Somerville. By this time the group was large and animated. Martha Boss, our resident artist, painted a group portrait of a number of the Bards, and the painting was on exhibit at the “Fort Point Channel Open Studios” in Boston. (Until I bought it of course!)

Since founding the group many of our members have gone on to publish through people they met in the group and more than a few have gotten reading gigs. A number of the “Bards” read at the grand reopening of the “Grolier Poetry Book Shop,” a grand day indeed!

Harris Gardner and I are quite pleased with the results of all this. We think this is a fine example of how grassroots efforts can create community, and bonds among writers and fellow human beings. ----Doug Holder

“Bagel Bards” meets every Saturday at the “Au Bon Pain” in Davis Square, Somerville. All invited.

Bagel Bards Anthology 2

2008-02-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

Bagels with the Bards 2- an anthology of poetry by Boston-area breakfast poets
Introduction by Afaa Michael Weaver
Edited by Molly Lynn Watt
Designed by Steve Glines

"Bagel Bards" founded by Doug Holder and Harris Gardner

"An anthology of poetry by a diverse, and iconoclastic group of poets who have met for breakfast at Au Bon Pains in the Boston area for the past two years..."

To order: http://www.lulu.com/content/729666

From the introduction...

It all came to fruition the day we made our first bagel, after a few energetic drafts of the thing. It got up from the table, shook its rolling shoulders, yawned from the hollow core mouth of itself, and began to dance. At that precise moment, the miracle came as sure as the Matrix Oracle would have predicted from over her pan of cookies. Sunlight hit the bagel, and it became lines on the floor, long lines that would have been perfect for any chorus line, but instead filled themselveswith words, words that made promises to all of us. These words spoke the premise. The poet is a baker although he may never have the dough. We looked at each other and knew this was our creation myth, this dance of language on some piece of paper, or in our hearts, or in the burrowed brow of the manager trying to wrap his head around the idea that poets gather in the corner of his place on Saturdays and spend a few hours living, living, living. O bard, a bagel has become a poem.

-- Affa Michael Weaver

Poets included:

Lo Galluccio
Regie Gibson
Gary Hicks
Ian Thal
Barbara Thomas
Mike Amado
Tom Daley
Gloria Mindock
Matt Rosenthal
J.C. Foritano
Ellen Steinbaum
Irene Koronas
Ricardo Fitter
Doug Holder
Steve Glines
Harris Gardner
Tino Villanueva
Beatriz Alba Del-Rio
Mia Champion
Henry Braun
Pam Rosenblatt
Ann Brudevold
Ann Cahart
Elizabeth Leonard
Marc Goldfinger
Patricia Brodie
Martha Boss
Barbara Bialick
Varsha Kufaka
Barbara Thomas
Deborah M. Priestly
Julia Carlson
Nataniel Mayes
Mignon Ariel King
John Hildebidle
Walter Howard
Elizabeth Doran
Tim Gager
Lainie Senechal
Martha Boss
Robert K. Johnson
Eytan Fichman
Abbot Ikeler
Afaa Michael Weaver
Tomas O'Leary
Molly Lynn Watt
Chad Parenteau
Mary Buchinger
Richard Wilhelm
Henry Braun
Llyn Clague
Mike Amado
Elizabeth Tom
Harris Gardner
Doug Holder