has won several awards for writing and music. Photo courtesy of Peter Campion
ERIKETA COST
Special to the Leader
Sarah Green’s love for poetry dates back to a high school science class assignment to draw the position of the sun every morning.
The point was to understand that the sun is always moving across the sky, even though it seems fixed in one place.
To Green, it was poetic.
It was a metaphor for life — we often think certain people or situations will always be the same, but life is ever-changing, like the position of the sun in the sky.
Green is not just an English professor at SUNY Fredonia, she’s also the author of a poetry book, “Earth Science,” leader of the Fredonia literary publishing course and for the literary magazine, The Trident. She is also a singer/songwriter for the band Heartacre.
The metaphor she fell in love with from the high school assignment was a catalyst for Green’s poetry book, “Earth Science.” The title of the poem reflects the idea of how we can view certain things in life as fixed, but we must accept that nothing is here to stay forever.
“I revisited the assignment when my parents were going through a divorce. I thought it would be a great metaphor for how you think certain things will stay in the same place, but they are always capable of changing position,” Green said.
Green also explained that you can choose to have a fixed mindset that prevents you from starting something new due to intimidation, or you can have an open mind and take a risk.
“I love the idea of growth mindset over fixed mindset,” Green said.
Green allowed herself to take the risk and open her mind to writing her own poetry in college.
“Poetry was always in the background for me. I had a lot of family members who were into poetry influencing me,” said Green. “It wasn’t until college when I started to take it seriously. I got really good feedback and praise that was encouraging from [a] professor, and I thought maybe there was something to this.”
Green went forward with a bachelor of arts in English with a concentration in creative writing from Oberlin College. She then went to work for her MFA in poetry at Purdue University and her Ph.D. in creative writing at Ohio University.
Green has also demonstrated a growth mindset by delving into songwriting. At first, she knew starting something new was scary and intimidating. “At first I thought songwriting was really intimidating when I was in college,” she said. “I thought people were just born with it . . . people always told me I should write songs since I love poetry and singing. When I first started it, I didn’t have a knack for it.”
But with an open mind, Green attended concerts of singer/ songwriters and immersed herself in good-songwriting. She felt inspired and motivated to try again.
“I started to study guitar seriously with the guitarist for Josh Ritter and other singer/songwriters. I would go to his concerts to support him, but I would also absorb and take in the lyrics and the good songwriting,” she said.
Green started growing her songwriting skills without even knowing it. It took a lot of listening, experiencing and spontaneously putting words on a page.
“I would soak up what makes a good song without analyzing it — just experiencing it and letting it wash over me. I started spontaneously writing songs to join the conversation,” she added.
Green ended up forming a singer/songwriter group with her friend, Andy Cambria, who had some bluegrass background. Together they won a grant for a club Iguana Foundation, and they both used the money to publish their very own record in 2011 called “Climb.”
Green continues to sing and play guitar today.
“Singing and playing guitar has always been a self-care thing,” she added.
Here at Fredonia, Green teaches a few poetry and writing courses and works to inspire her students.
“She is very enthusiastic about what she is teaching and very interested in the success of her students,” said sophomore Hannah Pegg.
One of her courses is Literary Publishing, which acts works to create a literary magazine, The Trident. Students work and critique each other’s writing pieces and poetry. The course has been around for many years, but Green was happy to run it this year.
Green encourages Fredonia students to head out to their latest “Lit Crawl” event, which features readings from the compilation of poems students publish in The Trident. The event will be held April 22. It will start off at Tim Horton’s at 3 p.m. and will rotate to two other locations.