Volume III, Issue 21 June 9, 2014 |
This week's zine is short and sweet, as I'm getting ready for two back-to-back trips -- first to Colorado for my husband's nephew's wedding and visits with family, and then up to
Chautauqua Institution in Western New York to teach for two weeks. So I'm sharing a poet whose work is beloved to me -- William Stafford, who has several important things to say about being ready. Here's one of them: No small order, huh? Especially if you're like me and write (and babble) to figure out what you're talking about! But William Stafford understands that, too, given these words of his: "There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough." These words always make me smile. Isn't it good to know that you don't have to have a masterpiece in
the making to be ready to write?
Read more about William Stafford below, and don't miss his beautiful poem "You Reading This, Be Ready" and the two related prompts I dreamed up just for you.
Ready or not, keep
writing!
Maureen WordPlay Writing Inspiration
Meet William Stafford The truth is, I've felt a special affinity for William Stafford every since I saw him on Bill Moyers's "The Power of the Word" series way back in 1989. How can you not love a man who writes a poem every morning before the sun comes up, just because he can? I was a beginning poet back then, and a few days later I had a dream in which William Stafford helped me transplant trees in our scraggly backyard. I've never been quite able to put into words what this meant to me, and the gratitude I felt, both in the dream and
upon awakening. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I saw that I had everything I needed right in my own backyard. That was my "ready or not" moment. At the time, I was raising four children, one of them a new baby. Clutter and mess abounded. It wasn't a very auspicious place from which to be launching a writing and teaching career, but it was where I was, and so I followed Stafford's advice and started "here." Some years later, my friend and fellow writer Vivé Griffith sent me Stafford's poem "You Reading This, Be Ready," knowing that I would love it. And I did, and I still do. And I think you will too. I strongly encourage you to read it aloud slowly, with reverence, and really take it in, so that "starting here, right in this room, when you turn around" you see the gift that life is, and the gift that your presence is! You can learn more about William Stafford here.
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
"ready." Prompt 1: Consider the first line of "You Reading This, Be Ready" -- "Starting here, what do you want to remember?" Answer this question, either for yourself, or, if you're a fiction writer, for one of your characters. You can do this in a list, or you can start with the words, "I want to remember..." and write without stopping for ten minutes. Prompt 2: Consider the word "ready" and
the myriad of ways that we can relate to that word, from "I'm ready for love" to "Ready or not, here I come" to "Are you still not ready?" and more...
Write about a time that you or someone else, real or fictional, was or was not ready for an event or a circumstance.
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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