Volume IIII, Issue 15
April 13, 2015
|
Dear ,
Greetings from Portsmouth, Virginia! My husband is here for a conference, and I came along for the fun. Praise hotels next to a river we can walk along. Praise northbound travel that gives us daffodils and irises and cherries in bloom again. Praise technology for allowing us to do our work anywhere. And for allowing us to connect with people we love through multiple avenues, no matter how far apart we may be.
I'm full of praise for so much today, so happy I am to be featuring my beloved friend Vivé Griffith in this week's zine. I met Vivé more than 20 years ago at the first writing retreat I ever attended, and we've been fast friends and writing buddies ever
since, even though for most of those 20 years we have had many miles between us. When Vivé was living in Prague, we wrote each other long letters, often with a poem tucked in. The letters continued when she moved to Cincinnati, and then to Austin, augmented with long phone conversations and occasional visits. In the early years of our friendship, email was a pretty new thing. Imagine!
And now we have, not only email, but also video chats, and Facebook, and Twitter, and zines, and blogs... Which brings me to this week's featured writing, which is one of Vivé's recent blog posts. When I read her words, “For the month of April, I'm writing a praise song each day on picsandparagraphs.com. Because it's national poetry month. And because April isn't so cruel. And because it's good practice to praise,” I thought, how great would it be to share these beautiful, praise-filled posts with you?
I was thrilled when she said yes. Not just because Vivé is such a light in my life (her work, as well as her friendship, inspires me), or because I'm proud that her writing graces Spinning Words into Gold, but because her writing makes me feel glad for the sheer privilege of being alive -- and I'm hoping it will do the same for you.
Vivé calls her April posts "praise songs" (you'll learn more about that below), but you can
also call them prose poems. If you're interested in what such a thing might be, it's not too late to register for Poetry Rocks! and find out. It IS National Poetry Month, after all.
But enough already! Scroll
on down and meet Vivé, and then try a little praising yourself.
Love and light,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
POETRY ROCKS! * still open! POETRY ROCKS: TAP INTO ALL POETRY
CAN DO FOR YOU(Learning the Ins and Outs
of Poetry; Strengthening Your Writing Skills; Adding a New Layer of Literary Beauty to Your Life)
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. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask any question you’ve ever had about poetry but were afraid to ask. It would be a joy and
an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
- 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
- A private Facebook community just for Poetry Rocks! participants, so you can share, learn, ask questions, etc.
- An online class that will include poetry creation, live revision of poems created during Poetry Rocks! (maybe one of yours!), and a Q & A
session.
BONUS: All interested participants will be entered in a drawing to get a 750-word (or shorter) poem critiqued. The five winning poets will be able to share a poem created in Poetry Rocks! during our online class to illustrate the revision process.
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via phone, web, or replay
WHEN: You'll begin receiving your tools the day after you register.
COST: $45
COASTAL WRITING RETREAT Coming this November!
Give yourself time to
write in community with others who love words and ideas, and time for solitude, too. There’ll be ample free time to savor your beautifully appointed private room with king-sized bed, private bath and balcony, the large porches with rocking chairs and swings, and the coastal setting the Sunset Inn provides. You’ll return home refreshed, with new ideas and energy for your writing — and your life. 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.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 6 – Sunday, November 8, 2015
Find out more here.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
WordPlay Success Story
"[Maureen's] friendship has been one of the sustaining forces of my writing life, and I’ve loved watching from afar as she has become a force in so many other people’s writing lives through WordPlay."
Meet Vivé
Griffith
Vivé Griffith is a poet and essayist who lives in Austin, Texas, where she directs Free Minds, a program offering free college humanities classes to low-income adults. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Oxford American, Gettysburg Review, and
elsewhere.
What Vivé says about WordPlay
Maureen and I met more than 20 years ago on a writing retreat in the NC mountains. The retreat leader connected us to carpool,
and we chugged up the steep roads in an old VW already deep in a conversation that would last decades. Her friendship has been one of the sustaining forces of my writing life, and I’ve loved watching from afar as she has become a force in so many other people’s writing lives through WordPlay.
When I registered for her fall Coastal Writing Retreat, my primary goal was to see Maureen and our dear friend
Dede and enjoy another retreat together. But as is so often the case in my times with Maureen, there was magic afoot. I met amazing people (Hello, Sunset 8!), connected to my creative life in powerful ways, and wrote pieces I believe will form the base of my next poetry collection.
On the last morning at Sunset Beach, Maureen asked us to write a praise song. The piece I wrote about the Kindred
Spirit—a mailbox on the beach where people fill notebooks with their wishes and prayers—reminded me how much I want my poetry to honor the small miracles of our lives, to find the holy in the everyday.
I write a paragraph each day to pair with a daily photo for my blog Pics and Paragraphs (picsandparagraphs.com). I decided for April that I wanted to write a daily praise song, inspired by the one Maureen invited us to write at Sunset Beach. We’re not yet halfway through the month, yet I can see how this simple act of pausing for praise changes my relationship with my days. Whatever else is going on, I am paying attention and finding what needs celebrating. For that, I am grateful.
Featured Writing Praise Song: Books of Poems
by
Vivé Griffith Featured
Writing
Praise Song: Books of Poems
by
Vivé Griffith
Praise how they come into the world, despite their unlikeliness, and how they just keep coming. Praise lines, verses,
stanzas spilling down the page, praise white space en mass in this paperless age. To judge the Balcones Prize, I must read 37 books, and in this box they wait for me. Inside, a thousand poems with their pronouncements, their suggestions, their nuance, their clarity. They wait for me from cold apartments in Soviet Russia and the once-burned landscape of Hiroshima, from the deep seas of a father’s past and hands joining across a kitchen table. Praise the belief that we still have something to
say. Praise the publishers who help us to say it. Praise the notebooks and napkins and open Word documents out of which they came. Praise the order, the voice, the desire to find just the right word. Praise, again, the lines, versus, stanzas, white space. Praise the music. Praise the need to speak it.
You can read more of Vivé's praise songs, each more lovely than the last in my opinion, at picsandparagraphs.com.
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 "praise."
PROMPT:
As Vivé noted, I asked the participants of last November's Coastal Retreat to write a praise song on their final morning, an
exercise I based on poet Barbara Crooker's beautiful poem by the same name. It's an exercise I just love -- the results often sound magically lyrical, and it's a real spirit-lifter. It's easy:
1. Pick something to praise. (You may want to make a little list of topics, and then choose the one you'd most enjoy WordPlaying with.)
2. Begin with the words, "Praise (whatever subject you picked), and
keep going. You can write in paragraph form, creating a prose poem like Vivé's, or in lines, creating a free verse poem (that just means it doesn't use meter or rhyme -- though of course you're welcome to add either/both of those components if you'd enjoy that). As you write, feel free to repeat the word "praise" as
many times as you care to.
|
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! |
|
|
