Volume V, Issue 22 May 30, 2016 Dear ,
Happy Memorial Day! I've been so touched by all the photo tributes of dads and husbands and sons in their military uniforms, and offer gratitude for all who have served our country, including my own dad, who, along with his other classmates at the Coast Guard Academy, was graduated a year earlier so he could serve in World War II.
He looks so incredibly young in this photo, and when I think of how he must have felt to be going off to war, I'm comforted by the fact that he was well-versed in Scripture and would know that every hair on his head was counted
and that he should fear not.
A few weeks ago, one of my writing students noted, as we read a paragraph of E.B. White's essay "The Ring of Time" that referred to the "straw-colored ponytail" of a girl riding a horse bareback, "It's always about the hair."
I'd never thought about it before, but hair does come up a lot in the written word. A quick Google search showed that it appears 60 times in the King James version of the Bible, and, indeed, when I checked I discovered that 14 of the poems in my latest poetry collection, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, mention hair at least once, including a tender one about my mother (pictured here with my daughter Amanda 28 years ago) that is this week's featured writing. Some days I can hardly believe the granddaughter I mention in the poem below, who was once purely a hope for my own and my mother's future, is now a mother herself.
This is the only photo I have of my daughter as a grown-up in which her hair isn't absolutely perfect (we'd just come back from a very muggy walk), but I couldn't resist sharing it with you. (You'll see why when you read the poem.)
This was baby Harry's first bath, which he took with his big brother Rhys, and it was just as sweet of an occasion as it looks like, well worth memorializing. What good- or bad-hair days can you write about this week? And what "hair moments" can you find in the essays, poems, and stories you read this week?
Upcoming WordPlay
WRITING CLASSES AT CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK
Our life stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us - they'll be treasured for generations to come. Come learn engaging tools and techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses,
successes, and more with ease and enjoyment, no matter where you are in the process.
Course No: | 1700 |
| When: | Monday, June 27 – Thursday, June 30, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. |
| Location: | Hall of Ed.(Sheldon), rm 201, Chautauqua Institution |
| Cost: | $80, plus $22 for optional textbook (payable to instructor) |
Reap the benefits writing can
provide—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—in this class in which you'll learn and practice whole brain methods for using writing as a transformative process as well as a creative one. These tools can be used to create essays, poems, memoir, fiction and/or nonfiction. For beginners and seasoned writers.
Course No: | 1705 |
| When: | Tuesday, July 5th – Friday, July 8th, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. |
| Location: | Turner, 104, Chautauqua Institution |
| Cost: | $80.00 plus $22 for optional textbook (payable to instructor) |
Ever wondered what makes a poem a poem? Or wished your writing had more finesse? This class that explores
"poetic ingredients" in the areas of content, sound, and form will increase your expertise—in poetry and prose. Learn how to identify and use these ingredients, as well as how poems you love can inspire and instruct you. All levels welcome.
Course No: | 1706 |
| When: | Monday, July 11th – Thursday, July 14th, 3:00 – 5:00
p.m. |
| Where: | Hultquist,
201A, Chautauqua Institution |
| Cost: | $80.00 plus $22 for optional textbook (payable to instructor) |
Buying Passes Your class registration will admit you to our grounds for the duration of your class. You do not need an additional gate pass unless you plan to come early or stay late. There is a charge for parking.
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SUMMER WRITING RETREAT
(Writing as Renewal / Creating New Writing / Tools for a Writing Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Summer Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces
of writing and/or new possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they elicit beautiful material that can be shaped into essays, poems, stories, or articles. After a communal lunch, you’ll have private time which can be used to collage, work with a piece of writing from the morning, or play with a number of other writing prompts and methods. You’ll take home new ideas, new drafts, and new possibilities. $97 includes lunch and supplies.
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon
registration.
WHEN: Saturday, August 6th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. To pay online, please click this link to check out using PayPal.
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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
For Mother, as I Sort through This Box of Clothes
You Saved for a Granddaughter
by
Maureen Ryan Griffin
I
remember sitting in the tub, you washing my hair, a halo around your head where light met the steam. I was telling you how much I loved being eight, that I wanted to be eight forever.
And then I was nine and so happy to be nine I wanted that age to last forever, too, then ten, the years clicking by like Hail
Mary’s on your rosary beads till I would want nothing more than to leave you.
But that year, my eighth, you bought me this striped pink and white dress with a whale appliqué on it. I remember wanting to cry when I tried it on the next summer and it no longer fit.
Though I didn’t say a word, you came home one day carrying an identical dress in the next larger size, proving something about love I’ve never found words to thank you for.
~ Maureen Ryan Griffin from
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 "hair."
PROMPT:
Set a timer for ten minutes, and, for you or one of your characters, make a list of every "hair memory" you can think of, from the way it felt to touch your first boy(or girl)friend's hair to a time
you washed someone else's hair to your worst haircut to your very best "good-hair days" and everything in between.
Now, pick one, and weave it into a poem, essay, or story.
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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