There’s no Bizness like Po-bizness.

“It’s dangerous writing a poem.”  So said Nick, at Sharon Elementary school.

The last two months have seen quite the whirlwind of activity here in the Salinger / Holbrook household. Trips to Morocco and Abu Dhabi followed by teacher workshops in Tempe Arizona at ASU after which Sara headed to Seattle and I came back to the Erie shores to visit some schools here in the Highland District of Medina (pronounced Me – Dye – Na as opposed to the Arabic Ma –Dee- Na) Hinckley and Sharon.

Next up we get on a plane at the rooster insulting hour of 6am – which means being at the airport @4am – to head to South Korea and then Shanghai, China to round out our overseas adventure for this winter.

In Tempe we keynoted at the 40th annual Language and Literacy Conference at Arizona State University. We had lunch with our good friend, ex wrestler, current professor and cowboy poet, Dr. Jim Blasingame at a joint called Mucho Gusto. There I partook in the Big Ass Burrito (actual menu item – Sara had the Half Ass portion) along with some of the best guacamole I have ever consumed! The teachers at the conference were receptive and enthusiastic - much more eager than I was to get up before 5am to catch a plane back to the frozen north coast the next morning.

Back in Ohio I flirted with snow days while completing a three day residency in the Highland Local Schools. Each morning I checked the scrolling lists of closed schools and each day – much to the chagrin of students and teachers alike - the school I was headed to was open. We spent three days writing definition poems which was a whole lot of fun and I was glad to get the sessions in sans any weather delays.

In the midst of all this I also drove to Ann Arbor Michigan twice, to drop off and then pick up our foo foo dog Suzi Creamcheese to get her freak on – hopefully resulting in some puppies this April.

So – writing poetry is some pretty dangerous business – who knows what will happen once you start? You might end up on a plane to Shanghai, driving a dog to Michigan, staring at a plate of kim chi or eating a burrito as big as your head. I’ll tell ya this, It sure beats working for a living!