Sara Holbrook author/poet/educator
Poetry takes you places...
Poetry takes you places you can’t ever say you’ve never been before again.
Reading and writing poetry helps me understand my life, the world, and the people I care about. Whether I am writing funny or serious poems, writing poetry helps me see what's true.
Poetry is “the labeling of sighs”
How to Write a Love Poem
“Niceness is worth defending with ferocity.”
The Enemy
“Let your poetry out!”
Wham! It’s a Poetry Jam
“Those other girls aren’t me. I’m not your property.”
More Than Friends (with co-author Alan Wolf)
Love. “When I give a piece away, it always comes back home.”
By Definition, Poems of Feelings
New Book!
The Enemy
Set in 1954, this compelling historical novel tells the story of a young girl’s struggles and triumphs in the aftermath of World War II. The war is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father’s unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother’s stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older “brother,” the teenager her family took in after his veteran father’s death. When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie’s class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere—at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are. Includes an author’s note and bibliography.
More InfoDecember 21, 2018
I don’t have time for this. This prompt is stupid, besides no way am I going there. I have way too much to do. The business of writing becoming once again my excuse not to write. For today’s prompt, write a ten poem. The poem could have ten lines, ten syllables, and/or have ten syllables
December 7, 2018
The story behind the poem:
In 1991 I was hired by the local housing authority (CMHA) as their public information officer. My job was to be a white face to face off with a white media, a fact made clear in my interview. It was my first opportunity to work in place where I was
August 5, 2017
New faces, new names, new voices, new dreams. It’s getting-to-know-you time again, the beginning of a new school year.
Here is a little quick write pattern for creating a cheeky introduction. Fun to write, fun to share. I’m thinking upper elementary, but you be the judge. Here is my model, My Official List. Sorry that it’s
July 14, 2017
The pictures are a little grainy with strange stuff in the background. The characters wear old-fashioned clothes and talk funny. Their stories require understanding of situations that readers have never encountered before.
It isn’t that kids don’t like historical fiction; it’s just that sometimes they have trouble seeing themselves in the picture. The pictures
April 15, 2017
Why I Would Never Tell a Student What a Poem Means. (reprinted from the Washington Post, April 13, 2017)
Seems fitting that April is poetry month, a season brimming with blossoming possibilities and longer days. Like jolly jonquils, in April poets are released from our winter hibernation, we shed our black attire
