Bagel Bards

 20th Anniversary this Jan 2004!

Bagel Bard 10th Anniv. Reading at the Cambridge, Mass. Public Library Oct 22, 2014

The Bagel Bard Anthologies are now housed in the Cambridge, and Somerville Public Library  historical collections...

The Bagel Bards, a literary group founded by Doug Holder and Harris Gardner in 2004 is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. It meets every Saturday morning at the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square.  Here is the introduction to our 9th Bagel Bard anthology due out in June 2014.

— Picture by Bridget Galway

The Bagel Bards.

The scene.
7:45 a.m.
Au Bon Pain.
Davis Square.
Somerville.
The lone figure
of Dennis Daly,
at a table
seemingly praying
over a poetry book.

8 a.m.
Doug Holder
shoulder bag
flush with The Somerville Times
and books
begging for a review
an audience,
a pat
on their
entitled spines.

8:30 a.m.
Michael Todd Steffen
wanders in
deep in thought
propped on
the meaning
of meaning
talks of his
French translations
and the day job
his endless pitches
for funds
his hands
tensed on the phone
his mouth
to some distant
ear.

9 a.m.
Steve Glines
resplendent bald head
Hemmingway white beard
laughing like
a jovial
mayor of the town.
A newly published
edition of a man,
more news
from his daughter
in South Korea.

9:15 a.m.
Irene Koronas
rides in
on the morning breeze
a Greek gypsy
carrying handcrafted books,
a well-earned
mane of
“don’t fuck with me”
white hair.


9:30a.m.
Gloria Mindock
A savior of Eastern European Poets
a girlish
high-pitched laugh
outrage at “a-holes”
and the atrocities
that we inflict
on each other.

This is how Saturday morning breaks for the Bagel Bards. By 10 AM there is a cacophony. 90-something Joe Cohen, on his wheelchair, bites into his cheese danish, drinks his black coffee, and shows us his latest photographs. Krikor arrives, tall and regal, looking for all the world like a refugee from a Russian novel. And Harris Gardner, a shock of white hair, an Einstein with a bag of books from Salvation Army bins–offers all of us a share of his pastry. And so it goes with Luke and Zvi and Lawrence and Paul–and all the others. We are regulars. We are kibitzers-old, middle-aged, rarely young. Stumblebums, friends, writers , poets. We cross our stage-give our soliloquies, our Sermon on the Mount, the stunningly bad jokes, the salient points. Then…we call it a day… and drift away….

Ibbetson Street Press Artist Bridget Galway to have an Exhibit at the Somerville Public Library

                  

                 

                                    

  Time  Colors

                 Painting Exhibition

                                  By

             Artist/Poet Bridget Galway

                   February 1^st-28^th

                    Somerville Library

                          79 Highland Ave

                               Somerville Ma.

                                617.623.5000

                         Opening Reception

February 8th 12:30-2:30pm

 Poetry Reading

 

                              1:20-2:30pm

                         Featuring

                        Bridget Galway

                        Harris Gardner

                        Dennis Daley

                        Alice Weiss

                        Chris Warner

                        Heather Cambell

                        David Miller

                        Debra Wiess

                        Rosie Rosenzweig

                        Molly Watt

                        Ruth Smullin

                        Joe Cohen

                        Tomas O’Leary

                      

                      

" a piece of the morning " by Bridget Galway

Bridget Galway's Portrait of the Bagel Bards  " a fine piece of the morning" Click on picture to enlarge.

Bridget writes:

It is Krikor, and Dennis has the cup in his hand. Later in the morning I ended up in a long discussion with the man in the drawing who is in profile behind Krikor. 

He usually wears a canvas brimmed hat, and carries a colorful woven bag.

Our discussion was inspired by Baudelaire. I am blanking on his name. He sometimes comes in with his wife, her name is Rachael. It was good to get to know him, names often times come secondary.

The figure behind Dennis is Harris's blazer, The man with the glasses at the table in the background, and the peak of the face of a woman, is the couple that just recently moved from New York City to Boston, and I think are new Bard members.

This inclination to capture my social milieu while in it, is few and far between, and it comes unexpected, rendered by intuition, and therefore full of life.  

Bridget

Bagel Bards in Poets and Writers Online

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

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

(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---

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

An artistic rendition of Bagel Bards by Bridget Galway

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

(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

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

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

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