Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Babarian Poetry - thoughts of David Lerner

I am going to write a small series of posts about Babarian Poetry as described by David Lerner.

The term Babarian is not related to the Greek word barbaros which the Greeks used to describe non Greek speakers. The Greeks thought the foreigners sounded as though they were saying bar, bar, bar meaningless words.

The name actually comes from a poetry hangout in the Mission district of San Francisco called Cafe Babar. As Lerner says, "Poetry is committed there every Thursday night." Hence Babar-ian poetry.

The club draws from a very eclectic mix of clients: hookers, street people, college professors, kids with Mohawks and as Lerner so aptly describes them, "elderly gentlemen, alcoholic poets in twenty old year old suits.

More to follow.

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