Poulsbohemian: poet’s paradise

Published 8:00 am Friday, June 4, 2004

Island writers flock to the coffee venue.

For Bainbridge poets, the Poulsbohemian Coffeehouse is akin to Paris’ Left Bank.

The first Saturday of each month, they drive across the bridge to read and listen in an atmosphere steeped with coffee.

“The Poulsbohemian really plays a part by providing the place for poets to meet in a really friendly atmosphere,” said Nancy Rekow, who’s written and taught on Bainbridge for about 30 years. “It’s one of the friendliest poetry venues I’ve been to.”

This Saturday, the 7:30 p.m. reading features two islanders, Van Calvez and Steve Weinberg.

Island verse dominates the Poulsbo reading series because Bainbridge has more poets than the rest of the county, said Poulsbohemian owner Marianna Mears.

The poetic tradition on Bainbridge stretches back more than 30 years, to evening workshops Bob McAllister led at the high school. Rekow was one of his early students and eventually became a co-teacher; she eventually took over the weekly workshop completely.

A dozen years ago another island poet, John Willson, began teaching weekly workshops through the park district. Now the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council roster includes about 60 poets.

“There are probably a lot more out there that just haven’t crossed our radar,” said arts council program director Kathleen Thorne.

Island poets have other venues, but only the Poulsbohemian dedicates an evening to poetry on a monthly basis.

The coffee shop perches on a cliff over Liberty Bay, with a wall of windows facing the marina and Olympic Mountains.

Recently recovered from a January storm that ripped off half the roof, the shop is freshly painted a buttery yellow, trimmed with red. Books, games and a hodge-podge of cushioned chairs give it a living room look; the relaxed feel enhances readings, said Willson, who has been the featured reader at least six times, and is scheduled to read again Oct. 2.

“I always feel as though I’m at home there and I feel as though it’s just a bunch of friends,” Willson said. “Part of it is I think that it’s very small and the closeness of it gives it an intimacy.”

While most of the readers are accomplished local writers, with awards and publications, the comfortable atmosphere makes the Poulsbohemian an easy setting for first time readers. North Kitsap High writing teacher John Davis used to bring his students to read and both Willson and Rekow consider public readings an important step for developing poets.

“Any poet learns a lot about their poetry when they read it out loud,” Rekow said, “especially in a (public) reading, even though it’s scary the first time or two.”

Jennifer Hager was one of those first-time readers a few months ago.

“I had a wonderful sense of anticipation about reading at the Poulsbohemian,” Hager said. “Many of the people who attend the series have been writers for many years and are very supportive of other people’s writing. There is a certain basis of trust and humor.”

The readings are also an accessible introduction for the non-poet; friends, family and even children of poets often come.

Poetry originated as an oral tradition of ballads around a campfire and is still best appreciated aloud, Rekow said; listening can take some concentration, but the rhythm and cadence emerge, as well as the personality of the poet.

“You hear the poet’s voice, for one thing, so you get the inflections of what they’re trying to say,” said Mears, herself a poet.

Poetry is integral to the coffee shop’s existence. Mears discovered the shop attending poetry workshops there, when it was “Leslie’s Place.” When the owner put the shop up for sale in 1992, Mears bought it to save the workshops and renamed it Poulsbohemian.

Since then at least 130 readings have been held at the coffee shop, usually featuring two poets with a ten-minute break to refill mugs and meet or make friends.

Then the microphone is opened to anyone with a few verses to read. A number of poets have organized the readings over the years, most recently Marian McDonald. Rekow inherited the task when McDonald died in December.

Most of the poets who’ve read over the years are from Bainbridge Island, but the reading series also draws poets from Poulsbo, Bremerton, Kingston, Indianola and even Port Angeles.

“I like to think of it as cross-fertilization,” Rekow said.

Poulsbo poet Carrie Gilstrap-Nettle discovered the island poetry community by attending readings at the Poulsbohemian. Now she’s the events planner for Field’s End writers’ community, based on Bainbridge.

“The poetry is really pretty darn good,” Gilstrap-Nettle said of the Poulsbohemian readings.

“There’s no doggerel, (nothing) trite, just really good solid readers and a friendly group,” she said. “They opened their arms right up to me.”

“This is kind of a wonderfully unpretentious kind of poetry community around here,” said Weinberg, a writing teacher at the Art Institute of Seattle who ran a Seattle poetry reading series for a year. “There are older people and younger people; they’re not concerned with hipness, so there’s not a lot of stuff to cut through.”

Barista Kate Ebert describes the poets as a devout and entertaining group.

“There were a few nights where it was almost like performance art,” Ebert said. “They’ll have some singing and some movement and then they’ll tone it down for a while, so it’s almost like you’re on a roller coaster.”