Dreams at the Au Bon Pain

by Doug Holder. 2000. 20pp. Ibbetson Street Press. 33 Ibbetson Street, Somerville, MA. 02143.

Book Review by Michael Basinski

Doug Holder. Imagine that poet, with notebook or scrap of paper capturing instantaneous instances like rare insects in the midst of a yacking socializing crowd in Harvard Square, Cambridge, writing a book of poems and you have (if your write to him) in hand Dreams at the Au Bon Pain. It is poetry netting crisp snapshots of memory between sips of strong coffee and sweet deserts and spontaneous perch watching as humanity and his drifts in and out of a crowd in and around an outside sidewalk coffee cafe. His dreams are tender and widening, reverberating circles on dark pools of felt but undefined deep emotion. All a poet, he runs Ibbetson Street Press , and edits Ibbetson Street Magazine. Write him. Send work. He is among the vertebra that holds the Boston and eastern Mass. poetry community up to snuff.