While Bernard lives in Oakland and teaches at the College of San Mateo, there's no truth to the rumor that he's spent ten years of his life on the San Mateo Bridge. He has published three books of poetry, Between Ice Ages and Connected to the Thighbone from The Heyek Press, and The Neighborhood from Taurean Horn. At sometime in the last century he was Assistant Director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State and Statewide Director of California Poets in the Schools.