Bagel Bards at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival Oct 10 to 12

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

( 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

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

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

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

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

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.