Volume III, Issue 20 June 2, 2014 |
Did you know that humming is good for your health? Check out this article from Psychology
Today. Fascinating, huh? This week's featured writing, by WordPlayer Cheryl Boyer, contains not one, but two hummers. I couldn't resist it. Not only do I love Cheryl and her writing, but I'm a hummer myself, and so is my son Dan. It seems like Dan was born humming, in fact. The sound made me so happy that, in a poem I wrote when he was not yet two called "Add My Necessities to Your List," I included "children who hum when they build block roadways," along with, among other things, "streams, so we will know/how peace sounds."
Sounds, like smells, have the ability to immediately whisk us away to
other times and places, don't you think? Sounds can also lull us to sleep, entertain us, energize us. And when we love a sound, the very word can make us smile. Like hum and stream do me. This week's prompt will give you a chance to WordPlay with favorite sounds. And on the way down, you'll have the opportunity to meet Cheryl. She's front and center of this photo of one of my recent Under
Construction classes, in the red shirt and white sweater. It's been a joy to share in her journey over the past ten years, and I am so grateful for this warm community of writers who support each other as they tackle their writing dreams and challenges together. The camaraderie that develops is a beautiful thing! Cheryl mentions moving through grief in her WordPlay story below. Before you scroll on down to read it, I want you to know, if you are grieving a loss of any kind, whether it's recent or from long ago, you're invited to a FREE workshop, "The Healing Power of Words," that I'm leading at the Scaleybark Regional Library on Tuesday, June 3. (That's tomorrow!) More below, along with several other WordPlay opportunities this week.
Happy humming!
Maureen Upcoming
WordPlay
THE HEALING POWER OF WORDS (Writing As a Healing Process) What benefits can writing provide - physically, mentally, spiritually? Are some ways of writing more healing than others? And can we create quality literary work as we heal? In this workshop
that incorporates Dr. James Pennebaker's ground-breaking ideas, we'll discuss and implement ways to use writing as a transformational tool. And, if you're looking, you'll find the genesis of new poetry, creative non-fiction, and/or fiction. Warning: Laughter likely. Inspiration guaranteed. This workshop is offered FREE! WHERE: Scaleybark
Regional Library, 101 Scaleybark Road, Charlotte, NC 28209
WHEN: Tuesday, June 3, 6:00 to 7:45 pm
TO REGISTER: Call (704) 416-6400 or register online here.
FINDING THE POETRY IN YOUR LIFE (Poetry Knowledge, Tools and Techniques) Do you ever wonder what makes a poem a poem? Or wish you had a better way to put your thoughts and feelings into words? Then this poetry workshop is for you. Expect opportunities to put words onto paper in new ways, encounters with poems that run the gamut from serious to seriously playful, and tools to help you find the poetry in your own life.This workshop is offered FREE!
WHERE: Morrison Regional Library, 7015 Morrison Boulevard,
Charlotte, NC 28211
WHEN: Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 from 6 - 7:30 pm
TO REGISTER: Register online here
THE GIFT OF MEMOIR: WRITING PERSONAL AND FAMILY STORIES
(Preserving
Family History; Writing for and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir) Our life stories are a precious legacy. Putting them in writing is a gift to all who know and love us-they can be treasured and enjoyed
for generations to come. It is also a gift to ourselves. As best-selling author Rachel Naomi Remen says in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, facts bring us to knowledge, but stories bring us to wisdom. If you are interested in writing family and/or personal life stories-those significant tales of adventure, transition, love, loss, and triumph, as
well as lovely everyday moments from times past or the present, come learn specific tools and techniques to retrieve and record them. To suit your busy schedule, the summer sessions of The Gift of Memoir may be taken individually or as a series. $97 for 3 sessions; $35 each for individual sessions WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204. Click here for map. WHEN: Thursday mornings. June 5; July 24; August 14. 10 am to noon.
TO REGISTER: Click here to register online. Or click here for a printable, mail-in form.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION (Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing) This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You'll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You'll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write, whatever your preferred genre. Each week,
writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you'll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process. $229 for 7 classes. WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, 28204 WHEN: Thursday
evenings on the following dates: June 5 & 19; July 10, 24, & 31; August 7 & 14, 7 to 9 pm
TO REGISTER: Click here to register online. Or click here for a printable, mail-in form. Note: If you're interested in an Under Construction class that meets on Wednesday mornings in South Charlotte, please email Maureen here or call 704-494-9961. There are just a few spots left! WordPlay Success Story
"[Maureen] nudged me and encouraged me until I transformed from a scared and timid writer into someone who just might admit that I am a writer (among other things) if you ask me what I do."
Meet Cheryl Boyer Cheryl Boyer recently launched her first blog, www.myferriswheel.com, and finds the thought of friends and family reading it more daunting than the thought of strangers doing so. She has written a novel that still wears its training wheels, and several of her poems have found a home in Iodine Poetry Journal, The Main Street Rag, and Kakalak. WHAT CHERYL SAYS ABOUT WordPlay A decade ago, in the midst of the grief infertility brings and no children appearing on my horizon, I took a leap and finally signed up for a writing class. That class, "Writing Ourselves Whole," became part therapy, part fulfillment of a long-held dream to be a writer. I've been taking classes with Maureen ever since. Maureen provided a safe place to process my grief out loud. She nudged me and encouraged me
until I transformed from a scared and timid writer into someone who just might admit that I am a writer (among other things) if you ask me what I do. My writing path has traveled down the roads of personal essay, poetry, and fiction, much of it delving into families, how they come to be, and the relationships involved. Maureen opened the doorway into poetry and showed me that it can be a vessel that holds some of my deepest hopes and griefs and dreams. In the last decade I've had a handful of
poems published and it's still where I turn when there's something scratching away at my subconscious, something that needs to breathe.
Elizabeth
(My Father's
Mother) by Cheryl Boyer
Separated from me by
a generation,
a culture,
distance,
my grandmother
never scrubbed her pots and pans
until they shone
but cleaned them
with efficiency,
moved on to the next thing to be done
Her Kitchenaid, Imperial Gray,
(the color I insisted on
when I bought mine)
mixed chocolate,
fudge,
batter
for sheet
after sheet
of cookies for
market
I hear her hum this morning
in my memory
this stranger
who was flesh and blood,
her voice etched
by decade
after decade of use
What would she think
of my dark-eyed daughter,
not born of me,
who hums her way through each day
like the great-grandmother
she will never know
~ Cheryl Boyer
First appeared in Kakalak 2014
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's
"hum." Each person, real or fictional, has sounds that s/he loves to hear. And many, if not all of these sounds, can be linked to meaningful and/or happy experiences. Make a list of 10 sounds that you, a character, or anyone else you'd like to write about loves to hear. Then pick one and write a scene, story, essay, or poem, incorporating this
sound into it in some way, like Cheryl did in her poem.
I'd love to see what you come up with! Email it to me at info@wordplaynow.com -- you could be featured in a future Word-zine. |
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of poetry,
This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn -- and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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