Meet Lyn Hopper
Lyn Hopper retired recently from a long career in
the public library field. She lives in the mountains near Dahlonega, Georgia, with her husband of 37 years and a spirited cat. Her poems have been published in Summerfield Journal, Georgia Journal, Habersham Review, Poetry of the Golden Generation, The Reach of Song, The Stonepile Writers' Anthology, and other works. She is an active member of the Georgia Poetry Society and two writing groups.
You can read
more of Lyn's poems here:
http://zenpoems.wordpress.com
And, in Lyn's words, "Over many years, I have collected, and continue to
collect, quotations that speak to me. I began this blog in August of 2007 to share them and also to have a writing (and feeling and thinking and spiritual) practice":
http://quotesqueen.wordpress.com
WHAT LYN SAYS ABOUT WordPlay
All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail.
~ Dorothea Brande
"Everything you do is perfect," insisted Maureen Ryan Griffin, my
writing teacher at John C. Campbell Folk School last September. And isn't that true for all of us? We are perfect just as we are, and we must strive to be better. Holding these two thoughts simultaneously has always been difficult for me. But I'm getting there! And the writing
workshop moved me closer. What a warm circle writers create when they work together under the right conditions. And Maureen created just the right atmosphere.
During the week, we learned to "Sprint," to "Gather," to "Sprawl," to write dialogue, to ask questions, to list, to "Leapfrog" off another's work, and much more. If you haven't seen Maureen's excellent book Spinning Words into Gold, check it out. It's full of great writing advice and exercises.
Thanks to Maureen and the other participants for making the folk school class so special for me. I am going now to plan my writing practice schedule for the weeks ahead. I'm sure it will be
perfect.
Adapted from a blog post September 24, 2013 from the blog "Only Moment: Mindfulness in Everyday Life" (http://quotesqueen.wordpress.com).
Featured Writing
by
Lyn Hooper
Easter
The dogwood shines in the early light,
practiced from a night of bright
moon.
The yellow-breasted chat is back,
repeating its repertoire.
To the east a pale orange glow
lies across the hills like a promise.
While some make last-minute trips for eggs,
you will think of "the old man," twenty-six,
flying over Poland that Easter, 1944,
the day that twisted his future into a new shape,
that made him the father you knew:
wounded, sober, uncomplaining.
He is falling, unconscious, thousands of feet
to a Danish beach,
ribs and ankle broken, and waking
to the mercy of strangers,
the offer of boxed chocolates
to make up for his missing arm.
Somehow he rises through all that dark
to find the stone rolled away,
an ordinary life awaiting.
Patient and peaceful, he abides
until his soul is freed, a calling
shrike,
circling in the blue sky.
[Published in Poetry of the Golden Generation, vol. IV, Kennesaw State University, 2008]