Meet the Poet

Sara Marie Dooley is a late twenty-something, Midwestern girl who grew up in rural central Wisconsin on a horse farm. When she was 20, she packed up what would fit in her car and drove 1,000 miles south to Oklahoma City, where she soaked up the sunshine and developed a slight southern twang. Moving out of her comfort zone has shaped the way she thinks and writes. She credits this big life change with her open-minded, yet realistic style of writing.

She is a full-time student majoring in Graphic Communications and recently obtained a certificate in Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Institute in New Mexico.  With a strong appreciation for the earth and passion for living a sustainable lifestyle, her dream is to get her degree and work as a sustainable designer. Her fascination with nature often inspires her writing, as you will read in the poem, Autumn. Sometimes words don't do the great outdoors justice, in which case she captures the beauty with her camera. All the photographs found in this collection were taken with a click of the poet's right index finger. Using a combination of InDesign and Photoshop, she also created the banner, which features the title and subtitle.

a recent painting, completed 12/11

 Sara is a reader, a writer, and a painter. She’s an artistic soul, who is constantly searching for a perfect arrangement of words and paint to express the symphony in her soul. Words that begin with the letter i intrigue her and she spends much of her spare time with a paintbrush in her hands that are often covered with various shades of acrylic paint. Poetry and poetic lyrics are often inspiration for her paintings. She keeps a pen and something to write on close by at all time because you never know when inspiration will strike. This is true for her poem, the little things, which was originally scribbled on a napkin.

 She finds that words seem to flow when she is barefoot, laying in the grass, and seeking objects hidden within the clouds. She believes smiles are worth more than anything money could buy and collects used books, as well as memories, which make wonderful poetic inspiration. Sara is a daydream believer; a hopeful and aspiring optimist, who always tries to take the time to look again.