Volume IIII, Issue 9
March 2, 2015
|
Word of the Week: meander
|
Dear ,
The best thing about my retreats are the people that come to them -- I love meeting new WordPlayers, spending time with WordPlayers who are currently in classes, and the opportunity to be with WordPlayers I don't get to see often because they moved away from Charlotte. (Nancy, in the photo above, is one of those.) And I love bringing these wonderful
people together. The Coastal Retreat has drawn participants from far-flung Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, and even Puerto Rico. It's always a bit sad when, after bonding over things like a shared appreciation for Wordsworth, Annie Dillard, Sue Monk Kidd -- or even the Beatles -- it's time to drive (or fly) home. (I'm so glad the Sunset Inn offers us Sunday night for half off -- that extra day makes the transition back to ordinary life a little
easier.
And what, you might wonder, does any of this have to do with the word of the week? Well, that's what's so great about meandering -- you don't have to justify how you get from one place to another -- the point of meandering is to make zigzags, twists, and
turns.
If you don't remember the last time you meandered, either geographically or mentally, you owe it to yourself to do at least a bit of meandering this week. Jerry Eidenier's poem "Meandering Is Focus" is sure to help! I met Jerry at the John Campbell Folk School, a place that is well worth
meandering to! (If you'd like to join me in my next class there in August, here are the details.) And so will this week's prompt.
And
now that I've meandered through this note to you, I am off to finish unpacking, through a load of laundry in, go through the mail, and all that other "back home" stuff.
Meanderingly yours,
Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
SPRING WRITING RETREAT (Writing as Renewal / Creating New Writing / Tools for a Writing Life) Renew and delight yourself. The Spring 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, March 28th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
TO REGISTER: To register securely online
with your credit card, click here. To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPINNING WORDS INTO GOLD
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams and Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising and
Polishing Your Writing)
Does writing fulfill you? Do you wish you were writing more? Jumpstart your writing life and learn to keep your words flowing. Learn specific techniques and exercises to create nonfiction, poetry and/or fiction. Whether you would like to keep a journal for your own personal growth, spin stories for your loved ones, or further a career as a professional writer, experience the
satisfaction of developing a writing practice that works for you—come spin words into gold. 
In the community room after our
reading
$594 for one week-long session, plus lodging and
meals. WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road,
Brasstown, NC 28902
WHEN: Sunday, August 23rd through Saturday, August 29th, 2015
TO REGISTER: Call the John Campbell Folks School at 800.FOLK.SCH (800-365-5724). More WordPlay opportunities here. WordPlay Success Story
"Maureen’s approach . . . was work in the deepest way: thoughtful attention to what is—being, feelings—and how that attention assists in forming a language worth
sharing."
Meet Jerry Eidenier
Elon G. (Jerry) Eidenier is the author of Sonnets to Eurydice and Draw Fire Catch Flame. His work has appeared in various journals including The Virginia Quarterly Review,
Rhino, Tar River Review, The Outer Banks Magazine, In a Fine Frenzy, Poets Respond to Shakespeare (U. of Iowa Pr.), 27 Views of Hillsborough (Eno Publishers), and Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, A Guidebook (UNC Press). His work has been translated into Greek and Russian. Elon has given readings at the School of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., U. of Virginia, U. of Western Oregon and locally. He also has taught poetry workshops in the schools and introduced Robert
Pinsky’s “Favorite Poem Series” at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife Betty.
What Jerry says about WordPlay
The John C. Campbell Folk School is a place of idyllic pastures cradled within the shadows of mountains. The school “forces” a strong focus in
creative activity within various arts, from blacksmithing to fly fishing. The week I was there offered poetry. I enjoy writing poetry and why not spend a week immersed in the conversation of ways words matter? Intrigued by Maureen’s approach using Leonardo di Vinci’s method of paying attention combined with the promise to spin words into gold, I signed up. What struck me is the strong, relaxed comment Maureen brought to assist the poets in their search for words which would form a path toward
deeper understanding, both for themselves and for those who heard their poems. The use of Italian words to convey sensibilities beckoned writers to become engaged in the meaning of what is felt rather than be preoccupied in this is what I feel. WordPlay signifies what poetry is, the play of words on us and the way we in turn play with words. Maureen’s approach was relaxingly intense. The week was work in the deepest way: thoughtful attention to what is—being, feelings—and how that
attention assists in forming a language worth sharing.
Featured Writing
Meandering Is
Focus
by
Jerry Eidenier
On which side of your brain do peonies burst, which ear
hears
bees rollick in their open fists? Walk softly
through quiet wildness of Russian Sage. Swallow sprigs, spring until you belong. Pansies enjoy being looked at.
Cezanne waits hours as the mountain tries to think. Jane Austen walks fields for days until story begins
to paint in ink. It does not have to be profound to be
an overturned heart. After all, a lot of beauty is
skin deep. A robin hops into
still water, sprays silver droplets into air as lice flee from wings. Shamans,
many years before we were thought, entered blackened caves to imprint spirits. I think this is why Virginia Wolfe needed
a room. What good is it to weed without a chair in the garden. Roses suffer when not
sniffed. Leaves comb, wind whispers.
Five senses were not created to get things done. Pathways are ways to place where we arrive. Just saying mountain is
heaviness; wonder absorbs before thought forms weight of stone. Hunks of marble lugged down, Michelangelo transforms
to muscle. Austen chisels days, paper comes alive. I’m not sure I’ve been thought, perhaps cherry tree in front yard squeezes
tart taste into red of me, or cats, in hunger think me, or maybe on damp mornings, tulips begin to color a whom in explosions.
I wonder if poppies recall those they grow
upon. To be thought by another is difficult to place between ears. It could be love is more than.
Every seed, a hard yellow sweetness, repeats name. When rich soil is scraped we hear as we walk toward garden, taste
is on our tongues. On a mountain outcrop, we call helloes; voice
returns from over an unknown.
"Meandering Is Focus" first appeared in Tar River Poetry, volume 53 number 2, spring 2014.
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 "meander." PROMPT:
A left brain-right brain method I call the Sprawl (sometimes called a mind map) seems like the perfect fit for the word "meander." - Write the word "meander" in
the middle of a blank sheet of paper.
- Moving out from that center, free associate words and phrases for ten minutes, letting one lead to another.
- When one strand of your Sprawl runs out, come on back to the center and go out in a different direction. You may want to circle your center word, or all your words. You may
want to connect your words and phrases with lines. Experiment.
- Look over your Sprawl and create a piece of writing (a poem, perhaps, or story, or essay), using as many or as few of the words, phrases, and ideas as you like.
|
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! |
|
|
