Route 77: A Poememior

by Dorian Haarhoff

Route 77 is a biography and poetic travelogue; it is wisdom; it is esoteric; it is funny. Spirituality gets Dorian's attention, as does nature, philosophy, psychology, animals, dreams. It offers a paradox of mysticism and the concrete, where eclectic material jumps around like beans in a sizzling pan (he includes a Greek recipe.) Dorian dubs this original format as a kind of Babushka with seven dolls. Imagine each doll decorated with eleven symbols and images. Holograms. This innovative approach also serves as a creative writing manual, a sequel to his The Writer's Voice (1998). Dorian's mastery of teasing-out the right words prompted one reader to say, I confess I had goose bumps - was it the writing or the red wine? How wonderful when metaphor and fruity tannins coalesce. Bios are often a once-off read. This book deserves a second, or third foray with its poems, prose and personality. We encounter Dorian's commitment to personal development through his insatiable curiosity and his love for the land he treads. The tortoise (his logo) carries him to far off the back of this land is tortoise shell, its case cast by ancient waves, its plates taken from ancestral fish. .... and led by an amphibian chin, in folk-tale steadiness, it crawls ever towards water. (Tortoise Land)

436 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2023

About the author

He is a former teacher trainer and Professor of English at the University of Namibia, and has also taught in a Canadian Creative Writing Faculty and in the Film Studies unit at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has also served as an external examiner at UCT for the MA programme in Creative Writing.

Since 1998 he has run his own business, Creative Workshops. Dorian Haarhoff has on several occasions been invited as poet and as a guest story-teller to Mauritius and to the Conference of Word Affairs in Boulder, Colorado. He has participated in Poetry Africa and an International Poetry Festival in Colombia South America.

His talks/workshops are meant for individuals, organizations and corporations who wish to explore their creativity, improve their skills and understand their relationships. He uses story-telling, writing, images and symbolic work as a means of discovering hidden potential and assessing new ways of being and seeing. He believes in the ability of people to revitalise their workplace, build their communities, participate in their healing and find their joy.

His approach is based on his book, The Writer's Voice: A Workbook for Writers in Africa (Zebra-Struik, 1998). His work is strongly influenced by mythology, whole brain theory, Jungian and Eco psychology, creation spirituality, the new physics and narrative therapy.

You can do one of his courses via the Internet. Go to http://skillstoshare.com/product/the-...