Volume IIII, Issue 24
June 15, 2015
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Word of the Week: photographic
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Dear ,
Hope you had a great "Flag Day" weekend! I got to spend a fair chunk of mine with my delightful business manager, Morgan. And I got to introduce my grandson Rhys (in my lap and on far right) to Morgan's son Ben, who happens to be my friend and WordPlayer Wendy Gill's grandson (center photo). It's a real family affair!
Morgan came to Charlotte for a weekend of WordPlay "Morganizing" and planning, and after all the sharing we've done about "our boys" it was great to get them together at a nearby park. I'm laughing so hard because Ben and Rhys were doing their very best to wriggle off our laps so they could get back to the fun. And isn't it nice
we have some photos of their serious "Work-Play"?
I've been spending a lot of time with family photographs lately for a writing project I've been up to my ears in, and many of them bring back vivid memories of a particular moment in time. This week, WordPlayer Helen Gardiner-Parks shares, in time for Father's
Day, the memory contained in one of her family photos.
I'd forgotten, until I read Helen's words, that she came to WordPlay through one of my seasonal writing retreats. (There's one this Saturday, by the way, if you're available and interested. I'd love to have you!) Helen's graced a number of WordPlay retreats and classes since then, and it has been a joy to watch her grow as a writer. Her "Photographic Memory" shared below was written in a "Gift of Memoir" class, using the prompt below. One of
the reasons I like this essay so much is because it lets readers into exactly what it felt like to be Helen's father's daughter on that day. So much love shines through its gentle acceptance of the imperfection in perfection. (Or is it the perfection in imperfection?)
I hope you enjoy it, and I hope
you enjoy writing one of your own photographic memories. Maybe even one about your father that you'll share with him if you're still able. I lost mine in 2009, but I still share my writing with him from time to time. I can almost see him smiling as he listens...
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. WordPlay Success Story
"Maureen has helped me realize that I have wings, that I can trust them, and that I need to use them."
Meet Helen
Gardiner-Parks
Helen Gardiner-Parks is a former homeschooling mother whose current claim to fame is that she graduated from the same college as a certain woman who is campaigning to be the 45th President of the United States of
America. Her previous claims lie in being published in Ranger Rick
magazine as an eight-year-old and winning a high school writing prize from Burlington High School in Vermont. It has been a long time since Helen was published and she is thrilled to launch her adult career as a writer in these hallowed pages.
Helen lives to the north of Uptown Charlotte in a house variously
full of human and creature animals, along with a reasonable amount of clutter and plenty of pet hair.
What Helen says about WordPlay
Many years ago,
when our children still squalled if I left the room, my partner graciously agreed to stay with them all day so that I could attend an event called a “Seasonal Writing Retreat” with a woman named Maureen Ryan Griffin. Little did I know that my innocently placed bid on this particular church auction item would do so much to enrich my life.
The selling points of the event were threefold: writing,
retreating, and staying close to home. Ever since the age of eight and a certain—very pink—strawberry-shaped notepad, to the endless composition books with which I am now surrounded, I have always journaled. The retreat part was a no-brainer as a mother of three, and, wonder of wonders, the location was my family’s church—Maureen used to host her seasonal retreats at Piedmont UU Church in North Charlotte.
Not advertised in the very welcoming description she crafted for that church auction was my fear. I had never shared my writing with folks other than teachers, neither had I spent time in a circle of people who actually called themselves writers, nor was I anywhere close to being comfortable with my own voice. But I wanted what I detected in the group around me, so I plunged into the sacred space created by Maureen and I have not looked
back.
Fast forward more years, workshops, and classes than I can probably count (I do notice there is slightly less squalling at home now) and I declare, “I am a writer,” when folks ask what I do. Maureen has helped me realize that I have wings, that I can trust them, and that I need to use them. So here I am—come fly with me! Featured Writing
Photographic Memory
by
Helen Gardiner-Parks
I was probably in my first year of college, so Mum and Dad had been divorced a couple of years. We didn’t see Dad a lot, especially my sister and me together, but here we were, both Claire and I, walking with our father into Eastern Mountain Sports in South Burlington. I’d always loved that
store with its indoor smell of the outdoors—all its nooks and crannies filled with backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, dried food and the like.
We were there for Dad to buy us stuff; buying made all of us happy. It was one of his ways of connecting—no expansive expressions of devotion required—and he knew we weren’t greedy: Claire and I each chose a wool shirt jacket and I added a
hat.
Thinking of the jackets now, words from Monty Python come to mind: I am a lumberjack and I’m okay. Mine was in the traditional style, red and black, the squares about an inch across—you’ve seen that pattern before, I’m sure. Claire had a blue and green one, its squares considerably larger. My cool, cool hat was slouchy in smooth, light tan wool—an awesome shapeable hat I wore for
years.
And just like that, our father had outfitted us. I like to think he was proud, but you never knew with Dad; he didn’t reveal much. He hid behind his camera, ready to swing it up and capture a moment here or there. It’s just as true today, in his eighties, that the lens of his camera is interposed between him and the world.
And that day was no different, his photograph of us the only reason I remember that afternoon at all. We are on a set of railroad tracks in our new clothes and Claire, with her shorter frame, is leaning out from behind me. My arms are spread wide in the picture. I am joyful in the brilliant sun as I walk along the rails in the cold of autumn. I remember the aroma of the dying leaves and the metallic tang of the iron baking in the sun. I recall how the gravel crunched
under his feet as Dad backed up to capture this perfect shot of his perfect daughters on that perfect day.
Thanks, Dad.
Helen and her sister Claire. Even though it's not the photograph she wrote about, Helen is wearing the jacket her father bought her under her windbreaker.
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 "photographic." PROMPT: Choose a photograph from anytime in your life. As Helen illustrated, you don't have to have the photograph in front of you to write about it. Write down the following "ingredients that emerge as you consider your
photograph: - A "when" word or phrase: You can use a full date (June 12, 2015) or any "time” word (i.e. evening, soon, yesterday, April).
- A "where" word or phrase: You can be as specific ("the multi-purpose room of Mercyhurst Preparatory
School") or as general ("the beach") as you like.
- Three "who's": These people do not have to be pictured in the photograph.
- Three physical objects: Again, these objects (natural or man-made) do not have to be pictured in the
photograph.
- Three "color" words
- Three “sound” words or phrases: Anything you can remember or imagine hearing as you consider the photograph.
- Three “smell” words or phrases: Anything you can remember or imagine smelling as you consider the photograph.
- Three “taste” words or phrases: Anything you can remember or imagine tasting as you consider the photograph.
- Three “touch” words or phrases: Anything you can remember or imagine touching as you consider the photograph.
(For examples, check out Helen's essay—it's rich with specific, evocative,
sensory details.)
Now, write about your photograph in any genre or style that suits you, using as many or as few of the things from your list as you care to.
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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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