Volume V, Issue 16 April 18, 2016 Dear ,
Do you have a photo of your parents (or one of them) that you especially cherish? This is
one taken shortly after my parents moved to a managed care apartment, when my mother's Lewy Body Dementia made independent living too challenging. Their love for each other shines out, don't you think?
One thing we did to ease the transition was to use as many objects from their home as we
could as we settled them into their new apartment. A number of my mother's treasured objects line the shelves behind them, and the wing chair she's sitting in was one she'd recovered that had been a part of our living room for many years. I've always been interested in the story behind people's belongings, and I learned new details about a number of my parents' possessions during this time, some of which have found a place in my
writing.
I was honored when the Director of Chautauqua’s “Literary Arts Friends” organization said about the poems in Ten Thousand Cicadas Can’t Be Wrong: “You're very good at finding a concrete, even ordinary, focus for complex emotions.”
That concrete, even ordinary focus is almost always an object. Take this week’s
featured writing, a poem of mine called “Forty-eight Years after Their Wedding” in which I lay out the moment in which I learned the sweet, illuminating history of a very ordinary object of my mom and dad’s I had handled for forty-plus years without knowing.
Sweeter still that my grandson Rhys and I are now putting silverware away together as he stands on a step stool that belonged to my
dad, his great-grandfather—another very ordinary object being layered with history right now. Check out this week's prompt for a chance to write your own history of an object.
Love and light, Maureen
P.S. Rhys's baby brother, Harrison Richard Kirkman, was born this morning about 5:30 a.m., and everyone involved, Harry included, is doing just great. Yes, there will be a photo in next week's zine, and more details!
Upcoming WordPlay
POETRY ROCKS!
(Learning the Ins and Outs of Poetry; Strengthening Your Writing Skills; Adding a New Layer of Literary Beauty to Your Life)
You’ll receive a daily “Poetry Creation Tool” in written and audio form (23 in all!) beginning on the day you register, AND, at the end of the program, an e-book that contains all your Poetry Rocks tools and
resources.
Would you like your writing—prose and/or poetry—to be more graceful, powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you.
Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres.
It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
HERE’S WHAT YOU GET: - 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox—in honor of National Poetry month. Use them as you get them, use them when you can, use them over and over to create poems. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem.
Many of them are great for creating prose, too. The tools include:
* a purpose, so you’re clear what you will learn
* background information when helpful
* “how-to” directions to create a poem
* an example that illustrates the poetry tool in action
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
* “Hone Your Craft” suggestions for further exploration
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered - A PDF document of each tool that you can
print or save on your computer
- An audio recording of each tool, so you can learn by listening and/or reading
- Instruction on the role of audience, reading like a writer, and the process of revision, including a handy Revision Checkpoint Chart — this information
can be applied to strengthen your prose as well as poetry
- Additional poetry resources
- An e-book that contains the information and resources covered, as well as your 23 poetry creation tools for ongoing use
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come. COST: $45
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"WRITING OURSELVES
WHOLE"
Writing Workshop
Come and explore the benefits writing can provide—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In this workshop, you will learn and practice simple yet profound ways to use words to heal, to transform, and to grow, as well as to reflect on the way God is working in your life. These methods can also be used to
create stories, poems, and/or essays. Whatever form your writing takes, you will leave this retreat with a new set of skills for writing and growing. Our time together will be ideal for beginners as well as for seasoned writers as we explore the renewal and deepening of our relationship with God, self, others, and the world.
WHERE: Olmsted Manor Retreat Center. 17 E. Main Street, Ludlow, PA 16333.
WHEN: Saturday evening, May 14 until Monday afternoon, May 16, 2016
COST: $252 (includes tuition, room and board)
TO REGISTER: To register online, please visit the Olmsted Manor
Retreat Center website here.
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WRITE LIKE A GENIUS
(Expanding Our
Creativity; Learning New Tools for Our Writing and Our Lives; Creating New Writing)
Discover your own genius as you learn to apply seven fascinating approaches of Leonardo da Vinci to your writing. These techniques enliven non-fiction, poetry and fiction. Expect fun, inspiration and writing galore in your preferred genre, with opportunities to share your work.
$630 for one
week-long session (lodging and meals are additional – options can be found on the Folk School website) WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902
WHEN: Sunday, August 7
– Saturday August 13, 2016.
TO REGISTER: To register, please click this John Campbell Folk School link to register directly from them.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured
Writing
Forty-eight years after their wedding,
I’m here in my parents’ kitchen, clanking
clean silverware back into the drawer.
How many times have I done this before and since I moved away, before and since
my mother lost language and so much more? The Extra Care Unit is coming soon,
the hand feeding. My father doesn’t say much; he’ll do what a good man does. Fork to
fork, spoon to spoon—the
syncopation of silver is soothing. Each to its own place.
My father breaks the rhythm to tell me this mismatched
table knife he’s holding up
should never be put in the dishwasher like I did last night. As he swishes it
through soapsuds, he shows the wooden handle, the rivets he’s repaired time and again.
Its mate, he says, is right now awaiting attention on his workbench. When my look
is an unasked question, wondering if this is yet one more manifestation
of growing up during the Depression, he tells me these two knives are what’s left
of the
place settings for two he and Mother purchased at Woolworth's five and dime after
opening their wedding gifts, just back from their honeymoon in the Poconos.
We made a list of the things we needed to set up housekeeping, he says. Our first
apartment in Cleveland. A
second-floor walk-up for twenty-five dollars a month.
A flourish of the dishtowel, and he's finished, handing me this homely music
complete with crescendo and caesura. How gently can I lay tenderness down,
close the drawer? The silence settles, marks our place in the story, which isn't over.
~ Maureen Ryan Griffin
* This poem is from Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong. If you're interested in reading more about my book, or purchasing it, please click on the link to be taken to my website.
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 "object."
PROMPT: Each object in our lives (and our characters’ lives) has a history, and these histories often make for good writing. Make a list of objects that have been a part of your life (or a character's life) for a while.
Then pick one and write out the details of its history. Give yourself the space to write as much or as little as needed for a poem, piece of memoir, or fictional scene.
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 three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. 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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