Volume VI, Issue 47 November 20, 2017 Word of the Week: thanksgiving Dear ,
Happy Thanksgiving week! I can't believe that I have not used the word
"thanksgiving" OR the word "thanks" since I started the Word-zine on December 12, 2011! It is time to rectify my oversight, and I have the perfect featured writing to do that with, courtesy of a lovely column by former U.S. poet laureate consultant Ted Kooser called American Life in Poetry. (It's actually called "Thanksgiving," in fact.) The giving of thanks is in itself a gift: As Kooser reminds us, "Once we begin to be thankful for things, there are more and more things to be thankful for."
I myself
am thankful I have so much to be thankful for, including getting to visit your inbox every Monday! Thank you for allowing me that privilege.
I'm also thankful to the great staff at The Sunset
Inn for their splendid hospitality and their hosting of WordPlay Coastal Writing Retreats, and to these nine talented writers for participating in the latest one this past weekend. Not only did their writing move us to tears and laughter, but they were also terrific company! Here we are, squinting a bit in the sun...
The next chance you have to participate in a WordPlay Coastal Writing Retreat is February 9th through 11th. I'd love to walk with you at sunset! And, of course, support you in your
writing goals, and hear the words that pour out of your pen...
May this Thanksgiving holiday be bright with love, light, and gratitude for you and yours, Upcoming WordPlay
THE FINE ART OF COOKING UP A POEM A Poetry (and Prose) Craft
Workshop
Everything you need to know about writing outstanding poetry is embedded in the poems of the poets you love—in the form of “poetic ingredients” that comprise their outstanding poems. Learn
how to use any poem you love to inspire and instruct you in crafting your work in this hands-on workshop. Bonus: These ingredients will make your prose stronger and more lyrical, too!
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(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 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, December 16th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration)
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 + room tax for the weekend beginning Friday, February 9th through Sunday, February 11th. 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).
Want to extend your retreat? If you’d like to stay another day to write, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night at half price.
(Extra writing retreat sessions are a possibility too. Email info@wordplaynow.com if you’re interested.)
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, February 9th – Sunday, February 11th, 2018
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for our retreat participants, a number of them are blocked off as unavailable online. Phone to check on your
choice.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, February 11th, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured
Writer
Tim Nolan Tim Nolan was born in Minneapolis in 1954. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1978 with a B.A. in English. He and his wife Kate moved to
New York City in 1978 where he obtained an M.F.A. degree in writing from Columbia University, worked as an archivist at the Whitney Museum, and read the poetry slush pile for The Paris Review. He returned to Minnesota in 1985 and received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1989. Tim is an attorney in private practice in Minneapolis where he practices in litigation, including real estate, eminent domain, and construction. He and his wife Kate live in South Minneapolis
and have three grown children—Elizabeth, Maeve, and Frank. Tim’s poems have appeared in many periodicals, including The Gettysburg Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Ploughshares, and Water~Stone. Garrison Keillor has read Tim’s poems on The Writer’s Almanac on National Public Radio. His poems have also appeared on Poetry Daily and American Life in Poetry.
Featured
Writing
Thanksgiving by
Tim Nolan
(A Column from Ted Kooser's American Life in
Poetry)
American Life in Poetry: Column 400
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
Here’s a poem for this season by Tim Nolan, of Minnesota. Once we begin to be thankful for things, there are more and
more things to be thankful for.
Thanksgiving
Thanks for the Italian chestnuts—with their
tough shells—the smooth chocolaty
skin of them—thanks for the boiling water—
itself a miracle and a mystery—
thanks
for the seasoned sauce pan
and the old wooden spoon—and all
the neglected instruments in the drawer—
the garlic crusher—the bent paring knife—
the apple slicer that creates six
perfect wedges out of the crisp Haralson—
thanks for the humming radio—thanks
for the program on the radio
about the guy who was a cross-dresser—
but his wife forgave him—and he
ended up almost dying from leukemia—
(and you could
tell his wife loved him
entirely—it was in her deliberate voice)—
thanks for the brined turkey—
the size of a big baby—thanks—
for the departed head of the turkey—
the present neck—the giblets
(whatever they are)—wrapped up as
small gifts inside the cavern of the ribs—
thanks—thanks—thanks—for the candles
lit on the table—the dried twigs—
the autumn leaves in the blue Chinese vase—
thanks—for
the faces—our faces—in this low light.
We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2012 by
Tim Nolan, from his most recent book of poems, And Then, New Rivers Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Tim Nolan and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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
"thanksgiving."
PROMPT: Set a timer for seven minutes, and make a list of what you're thankful for this thanksgiving. If you like, craft it into a poem, essay, or story.
And if you want to move a work of fiction forward, make a list of what one of your characters is thankful for, and/or write a Thanksgiving scene.
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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