Sara Holbrook author/poet/educator
November 11, 2012
War is the Fiercest Art
The Luc
Bat poet knew
His country broke in two, therefore
He had to go to war.
His wife and child, heartsore,
waved bye.
The poet dared not cry.
He needed a clear eye to spill
Blood, strangers he must kill
October 14, 2012
I received this email from a teacher I have corresponded with in Pakistan, who is looking to create the “the longest and most colourful card in the world’s history” for injured student activist Malala Yousufzai. Will you please help her reach her goal and have students email their artwork to her by October
September 22, 2012
I began by writing poems for my kids, envisioning a single collection for all ages, to be read by families, preferably fireside.
I have no idea where this fantasy originated since as a single parent, after I was done working overtime to make ends meet, after the kids’ play practices
September 4, 2012
If you are looking for age appropriate poetry to share with your students, check out this new anthology ed. by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It contains one poem a week for 39 weeks for each grade level, K-5. Poems the kids can relate to, current, challenging, and engaging. Poems for sharing and to provoke conversation
August 23, 2012
Oh, hark! I hear the
conversation leading up to the inclusion of William Blake in the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) Appendix of recommended literature for fourth grade.
Here’s a poem about a park.
Fourth graders like to play in the park.
Not in my neighborhood, they mostly
August 7, 2012
The past three months we have all witnessed the horrible reports of the shooting at nearby Chardon High School, the shooting at the theater in Denver, and the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Young Travon Martin was just walking home with an iced tea when he was shot. Innumerable other cases wind
August 2, 2012
Here is a back to school poem for all my teacher/principal/student friends. Or anyone who ever remembers being a student and who maybe, like me, thinks January 1st is somewhat anti-climatic. The real new year begins in the fall.
Poem is from my book Zombies! Evacuate the School! delightfully illustrated
July 24, 2012
Shifting power in the middle upheaval volume of the crowd’s voice is increasing the seismic movement, changing destruction of autocracy power to the people potential of hope.
In a techno-cleaning frenzy, I set out to delete or put in folders all
March 11, 2012
How does Cleveland, OH compare with Dhaka, Bangladesh? Well, we were only gone a week on this trip, but we came home to bursts of color pushing up through last winter’s grey in the front garden.
And while Dhaka doesn’t have much of a winter at least in Northern Ohio terms, they do
January 30, 2012
When my mother was a kid, she used to proudly announce whenever her parents drove past her elementary school: “That’s my school, my toilet.” This statement makes more sense if you remember that she went to a small school in then rural Zanesville, OH, with an outhouse. Perpetuated as family stories are through telling and re-telling,
