Babarian Snippet - Bruce Isaacson

While I was reading a poem by Bruce Isaacson (Lost My Job & Wrote This Poem) this line jumped up and hit me between the eyes: "I have strip mined love for poetry."

What a great idea. Strip mining causes a large mess, but is very efficient in exposing the substance being mined.

How many poems have been written about love since time immemorial? Countless numbers but I suspect only a handful were strip mined.

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.