Volume IIII, Issue 22
June 1, 2015
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Dear ,
I
seriously loved summer back in 1966, when this photo of me was taken, largely because I got to go to Camp Hawthorne Ridge for the best two weeks of my entire year. (If you read last week's zine, you might remember that WordPlayer Bridgett Langson mentioned we met at a Girl Scout Camp reunion.) Note that my mother IRONED the WHITE shirt and plaid shorts she sent me off to camp in!!!!) Maybe you'll find it amusing that my mother would not let me take any books to camp with me, and I
still loved it. So you know it had to be good! I remember the fireflies and the sparks shooting from the campfires against an ink black, star-studded sky. I remember bull frogs and peepers accompanying our round of "Here the lively song of the frogs on yonder pond..." And afterward, flashlight tag in the tent (ah, I can still smell that canvas, warm from the sun). Steaming hot chocolate in pitchers for breakfast, and the Icicles Club, whose members jumped in the swimming pool
at 7 a.m. to earn a badge with a polar bear on it. And oh, so much more.
And I seriously love summer now, with day lilies and delphiniums blooming their hearts out, fireflies winking, and peaches and garden-grown tomatoes right around the corner. Each season brings its own sensory
delights, but none are sweeter than summer's.
My husband says I'm jumping the gun, that it isn't summer yet. Well, I know, not officially, but it is June. And I want to give you enough notice so you can come to the WordPlay Summer Writing
Retreat, which takes place in just a few weeks when it really IS summer! I hope you can come!
Meanwhile, I'm sharing a beautiful short summer poem by Raymond Carver, whose writing I am a huge fan of, and a summer prompt below. Savor the sweetness of the season!
Love and light,
Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
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, June 20th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 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.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Suppose I say summer, write the word “hummingbird,”...
...read the rest of Carver's poem here.
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 "summer." PROMPT:
Make a list of summer delights, one for each of the five senses -- taste, smell, sound, sight, and touch. Now, following Raymond Carver's lead, pick a person you've shared at least one of them with. Write a poem, essay, or letter reminding this person of the summer joy you've shared. You can simply allude to it, as Carver does in "Hummingbird," or be
as effusive as a cascading waterfall!
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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! |
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