Sara Holbrook author/poet/educator
September 9, 2011
On Sunday Michael and I, along with 3 other Cleveland poets will be honored to read poems of our choosing at a Cleveland Orchestra Concert commemorating 9/11. The poems I chose were Jerusalem by Naomi Shihab Nye and Reality Demands by Wislawa Szymborska and a sonnet of my own. I am posting
July 3, 2011
There’s nothing poetical about getting your feet cut — voluntarily. The pain really has to be too much before you present yourself at the hospital, turn over all your worldly possessions, and naked under one of those drafty robes say just do it. My pain hit that tipping point coming out of Melbourne
June 21, 2011
Sometimes writing by assignment can bring some surprising results, This morning Michael led the teachers in his memoir activity. In my brainstorm I felt compelled to write down “prom dress.” I started to censor myself. Prom dress? Birds. Lice. Prom dress? But I just decided to go with it.
May 2, 2011
April 26, 2011
It happened again. This time a young woman. College aged. She came up to me after our recent poetry reading at Bowling Green University Firelands campus.
“Do you believe?”“Believe?”“Religion. You know, Jesus. Are a believer?”“I believe in poetry.”“That’s it?”“That’s it.”
It’s true. I’m not particularly a prayerful person in the Matthew, Mark, Luke and
April 21, 2011
The next move, Lisa suggests, will help to quiet the monkey mind.
My monkey mind immediately scratches behind my ear, looking for possible escape routes. Orlando? Technology? McCarthy era? A power point show of flashing images Hanoi, Hong Kong, Bali, the garden. Make a note of Pickway, OH. The carpet in
April 21, 2011
When librarian Joyce Miller contacted us about dishing up some poetry at the middle school in Hanoi for April Fool’s Day she was not just foolin’ around. She not only scheduled assemblies and a seamless week of workshops for both of us, she managed to convince French, Spanish and (gasp) calculus classes to try
April 21, 2011
How does the tourist cross the road? Or. Would you step into this traffic?
Hanoi!Developing.On the move.New friends.The Dragon Hotel is our home.Motorbike shops.Up with construction.Beep. Beep. Beep.Motorbikes.Open intersections of always, all ways traffic.Cross?Here?Now?Don’t stop. Don’t run. Don’t hesitate.Cross.Buses.Taxis.Zipper Street.Bucket Street.Mosaic Wall.Steaming pots of pho.Conical hats.A
April 16, 2011
If the above photo doesn’t look like an attendee at a teacher’s conference, prepare to expand your vision. EARCOS= East Asian Regional Council of Overseas Schools, and every spring they put on a teacher conference like no other. From snorkeling to blow darts to technological looks into the classrooms of today and the
March 14, 2011
All the commotion, (laundry, packing, emails, phone calls, house sitters, doggie day care and a last minute trip to buy travel sized toothpaste that won’t pose a threat to national security) settles into a darkened drone for 15 hours over the Pacific and opens into the brilliant sun of Sydney, Australia. Landing at
