Volume V, Issue 40 October 3, 2016 Word of the Week: communicate Dear ,
I am so proud to feature WordPlayer Phyllis Hartsell and her new book,
She Calls Me Ruby. I first met Phyllis a number of years ago through our mutual friend Linda Matney, and I will be forever grateful. Phyllis's loving spirit, commitment to creative growth, and can-do spirit are an
inspiration.
She Calls Me Ruby is, to quote its back cover, a collection of poems about "a loving mother/daughter duo...as they try to make some sense of living in the skewed dimensions of dementia. You will find silly and poignant stories about curious
manifestations of this disease, and you will be sustained as you go through your own journey."
It's a beautiful book indeed, and it's been a joy to watch it grow, poem by poem, in Under Construction classes over the past year, and to learn the story of Phyllis's love of her mom through the last stage of her
life. I'm grateful to have been a witness to the journey.
Phyllis's mom passed away just two weeks ago, after a long roller coaster ride, and I for one am so glad she got to see her daughter's book about her first.
The poem featured below, "How Many Ways to Communicate without Words?," is one of my favorites from the collection. I hope you enjoy it. Of course, as writers, we do tend to communicate with words. But we can also find words to use about communicating without them, as Phyllis demonstrates below.
This week, may all your communications be filled with love and light,
Maureen P.S. Great news if you've been wanting to write at the beach! We've had a cancellation for the Coastal Writing Retreat November 11th through 13th. There is currently one spot left. Details below and here. Call the Sunset Inn now to reserve if you'd like to
come. Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL WRITING RETREAT (Writing—and more—as Renewal and
Inspiration)
1 spot left!
Renew yourself and reconnect with your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll
use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours. $418 for the weekend. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Additionally, for those who might like to stay another day to work on their writing, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering to Coastal Writing Retreat participants only, the
opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 13th, at half price.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 11 – Sunday, November 13, 2016* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at
888-575-1001 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online. Register soon by phone — this is a popular event and there is only
1 space available.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in the bonus opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 13th, at half price.
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WINTER WRITING RETREAT
(Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing
Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Winter Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or 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, December 17th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. Click here to pay online, using PayPal.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writer
Phyllis
Hartsell
NOTE: I thought, since there's a picture of Phyllis and her Mama at the top of this week's zine, that you'd enjoy seeing this picture of the two of them some years earlier...featured on her new
book!
Phyllis Hartsell enjoys a country life in Lancaster, S.C., with her supportive husband, Joe, and their lab, Maddie. Phyllis is a wife, mother, granny, and daughter. She has been by her mother’s side, traveling a long journey through dementia. Logically, it has been an education in health care,
medicine, and caregiving. Unexpected lessons in creativity, patience, and enlightenment inspired Phyllis to write a book of poems, She Calls Me Ruby. She also has compiled a family history, A Dozen Cousins. Phyllis’s essay that juxtaposes her high school years with her brother’s years in Vietnam was published in The Sun Magazine in July,
2016.
What Phyllis says about WordPlay
In the beginning, retirement looked like an abyss, a dark fat hole where I might get lost in bittersweet caregiving and mindless routines. Then my friend Linda Matney invited me to join Maureen's class, "How to Think Like Leonardo." We colored, we listened to music, and we wrote. It was so much fun that I
accepted Maureen's offer to play, WordPlay that is, with some writers of memoir...oh, the stories we shared!
Another spring, the mystery of poetry was revealed as Maureen taught me to build a compost of emotion, senses, and sound. This pile of rich, black soil filled my abyss and left fertile ground for a memoir,
A Dozen Cousins, that I wrote for my dear family.
Then, remembering how Maureen planted seeds with the sound of Springsteen and germinated thoughts with the nourishment of Gandhi, I felt she could tend my garden of weeds in a class called "Under Construction." And she did, teaching me to hoe and prune. The bounty was harvested. I have a book of poetry, She Calls Me Ruby,
dedicated to my sweet Mama to prove it.
It's a new season now, and Maureen is preparing to propagate something fresh. I can't wait.
Featured Writing
How Many Ways to Communicate Without Words? by
Phyllis Hartsell point wave show a fist and pound it on the bed slap punch blow spit crinkled lips pitch a real loud scream the look the nod, back and forth and up and down the frown the frown upside down even a show of teeth rolling eyes a
wink possum eyes a blink a gaze a stare out to the galaxy furrowed skin grimaced cheeks raised eyebrows wide opened mouth a pout hand to mouth hand to head hand to heart lips
to my hand, a kiss ~ This beautiful poem, and many others, can be found
in Phyllis Hartsell's book She Calls Me Ruby. 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 "communicate."
PROMPT: Write a poem, scene, essay, or story that includes at least one example of communicating without words. 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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