"If I Were a Poem": Sarah Holbrook Promises Powerful Experiences

National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. For the rest of April, each day we will publish a poem: your favorite poem--one of your own or one by a published author.

Send your poem to janeEstahl@comcast.net with a sentence or two about yourself as the author or why the poem is among your favorites. And stay tuned for announcements of local poetry readings in the area that you may wish to attend to celebrate the integral role poets play in our culture.

by Jane Stahl

In May 2010, Studio B hosted an evening with performance poet Sarah Holbrook. Sarah had taken my breath away years before when she "performed" her poetry during a Janet Allen professional development workshop that I attended at Twin Valley High School over four days in the summer dedicated to literacy--enhancing techniques to develop students' reading and writing skills. (I was not yet retired from teaching.)

I have never forgotten her performance. One moment she had me laughing...just one moment later, I was next to tears. I have never experienced anything as compelling as her performance with words alone. Her poetry flows seamlessly into her conversation and takes you quite by surprise. She's written many books of poetry largely for young people. I suggest visiting her website--www.saraholbrook.com.

At the time, I'd requested she speak to the joys and travails we all experience in our communication with one another and the necessity of being kind to one another and tolerant of our many differences—certainly relevant today!

I have never forgotten her performance nor the poem below. The following poem whipped my heart around, like a kite on a windy day, to the edges of opposing emotions…in just a few words, almost magically. 

If I Were a Poem
~Sara Holbrook

If I were a poem,
I would grab you by the ankles
and rustle you up to your every leaf.
I would gather your branches
in the power of my winds and pull you skyward,
if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,
I would walk you down beside the rushing stream,
swollen with spring, put thunder in your heart,
then lay you down, a new lamb, to sing you to softly sleep,
if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,
I wouldn’t just talk to you of politics, society and change,
I would be a raging bonfire to strip you of your outer wrap,
and then I would reach within and with one touch
ignite the song in your own soul.

If I were a poem,
I would hold my lips one breath away from yours
and inflate you with such desire as can exist
only just out of reach, and then I would move
the breadth of one bee closer, not to sting
but to brush you with my wings as I retreat
to leave you holding nothing but a hungry, solitary sigh,
if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,
my thoughts would finally be put to words
through your own poetry, I would push you that far,
if I were a poem.

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To learn more about Sara Holbrook, click here.

To learn more about Studio B, visit www.studiobbb.org

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