Volume III, Issue 44 November 27, 2014 |
Dear ,
Just wanted you to know how grateful I am for
you this Thanksgiving! It's a gift to be able to share the Word-zine with you, and I appreciate your allowing me into your inbox each week.
As a small thank you, today you'll find a bonus writing and prompt that you can savor by yourself or share with family and friends. To me, Irene Blair Honeycutt's "What sustains?" is a perfect fit with Thanksgiving. Weren't the Pilgrims, after all,
giving thanks for the fact that they had been sustained?
I hope you have a wonderful day basking in gratitude!
Love and light,
Maureen Meet Irene Blair Honeycutt
Irene Honeycutt was one of my first writing teachers, and she soon became a mentor and dear friend. I dedicated Spinning Words into Gold to her in honor of all her inspiration and writing wisdom shared! If you'd like to read about Irene's books and her professional awards, just Google her name (she doesn't "do" Facebook and doesn't have a website). However, she is working on her fourth poetry book, loves to mentor people who want help in putting together a chapbook, and is available to lead poetry workshops. She's also leading a workshop at the San Miguel Writers' Conference in Mexico this coming February!
Some of the things you won't read about her online include: her sunset camel safari into a small village in India; the time she was
touched by Pope John Paul II while she just happened to be in St. Peter's Square when he rode by in his "Pope-mobile"; her dog-sledding trip and leap into a frozen lake through a hole someone had carved into the ice; the way she felt when she sat in Bill Holms' fishing cottage in Iceland listening to him playing the piano; how she got lost in the Dolomites and found her way back to the pension in the dark, relying primarily on the sense of smell....She's contemplating writing a
memoir.
Featured Writing
What sustains?
by
Irene Blair Honeycutt
Arcata marshes, for one. Hosts of cattails. Mallards arched by brown reeds. Colonies of black-crowned night herons huddled in trees, resting red eyes for dusk. Salt grasses— brush strokes on the pond’s
surface. Leaves that willow their way back, light up like candles. Shadows playing origami on your shirt as you sit cradled in a birch, leaning away from the path, ripples of
water
carrying your thoughts to sea.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? Today, it's "sustain." Irene's list poem (which is just a simple as it sounds: a poem comprised of a list) captures a lovely moment, taking note of the
sustenance that a beautiful place provided.
But so much sustenance of all kinds surrounds us each and every moment, no matter where we are, often in ways we take completely for granted. Today's prompt is an opportunity to take note of what sustains
us.
PROMPT:
It's a simple one! Simply write your own list that answers the question "What sustains?" And then share it, and ask whomever you're with to share what sustains him or
her. You can go all the way around the Thanksgiving table.
Here are a few items from my list: the scent of coffee my husband makes each morning, my cat purring in my lap, reading "Good Night Moon" to my grandson, the
camellia's new blooms that remind me of the friend who gave it to me......and words, how words sustain, such welcome guests at my table!
Bon appetit! |
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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