Volume VI, Issue 48 November 27, 2017 Dear ,
Happy Cyber Monday! I hope you are feeling much better than I am today. I've been down and out with either the flu or food poisoning since Saturday, and while I'm feeling better, am still in no creative shape to craft a new zine.
So I decided to rerun a previous issue that features writer and WordPlayer Natalie Sloane of New York City, who sent me a few of her "Seen on the Subway" poems and shared that an exercise from Spinning Words into Gold inspired them. Now, that was an email that made my day!
It's also timely because, just like in April of 2014, I have a poetry workshop coming up that I'm very excited about. (Details here and below.)
(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
(I owe my becoming a poet, in large part, to e e cummings, whose inventive use of language and punctuation inspired the rebel poet in my 16-year-old soul.)
If we are awake and open, writing possibilities are all around us—even in subway ads and graffiti, as Natalie proves below...
This week, keep your eyes open and your ears awake! Challenge yourself to incorporate at least one thing you see each day into a piece of
writing. And see the prompt below for the exercise that prompted Natalie to create poems on the subway.
Love and light,
Maureen
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.
WordPlay Success Story
"I came into Maureen's class with a couple of
blossoming stories and poems I was proud of, and left with a world of knowledge and inspiration."
Meet Natalie Sloane
WHAT NATALIE SAYS ABOUT
WordPlay I didn't really know what I was in for before Maureen's class at the John Campbell Folk School. I was looking forward to taking in the mountainside, enjoying some R&R, and meeting new people. I didn't know that I would be thrown into such a creative frenzy. I always liked writing, mostly poetry, but some short stories here and there. I came into Maureen's class with a couple of blossoming stories and poems I was
proud of, and left with a world of knowledge and inspiration. Although I have not set out to be a writer or changed my career course as a result of the class, I still carry Spinning Words Into Gold with me on any job assignment.
Recently I have shared the book and my experiences by starting a creative writing course with my clients. As a social worker (to be) I have had the opportunity to teach my clients; adults
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS different outlets to express themselves through writing. I plan to continue to incorporate creative writing into my social work career in hopes of inspiring my clients, those who generally do not feel they have a voice, to feel free to express themselves. The note card exercise from Spinning Words Into Gold has recently inspired me to turn my long subway commute to and from work each day into a
fun way to jump start my creativity. By collecting words that I see throughout my journey underground, including advertisements, graffiti, people's books beside me, or advisories, I get to rearrange my seemingly redundant routine into poetry.
Featured Writing
Selections from
"Seen on the Subway" by
Natalie Sloane
Seen on the subway pt. 2:
Choose your calling fast. Get connected. Easy green, 7day focus, the fall, more years. What's next? The day YOU hear their
stories. Then write your own. Seen in the subway pt. 6:
Lucas likes to talk about a boy who free based on the world. 2 doors circle round Lucas. Lucas uses circles to keep things moving. Lucas and Romeo experience the end of legends, Kung fu, and
magic. They need the art, like the students that wanted the cloud, but taste the real world; caution, they graduate. Growing up yes, a bad
need, believe genuinely. Lucas uses no room, no path. Lucas can lead you to #takeyourcityback 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 "seen."
PROMPT:
NOTE: This tool that I call "The Shuffle" sometimes baffles people because it's so different from the way we usually write. What you'll end up with is a three-stanza poem (for new poets, stanzas are formed by skipping a line). Each stanza will contain the same ten words, but in different order because of your Shuffling. Here's how to play:
- Gather paper, a pencil
or pen, and ten index cards.
- Choose ten words you love for their sound and meaning, the more interesting the better, and write each of them on a separate index card. (If you've already created a "Personal Diction Deck" use 10 of these word cards.)
- Shuffle your ten cards well!
- Create the first stanza of your "sound poem":
* Flip over the first card, and write that word on the first line of your paper. Example: lullaby
* Flip over the second card. Here is your choice: you may either write this word on the same line, or begin a new line.
Add any punctuation you like. You may also add endings to words ("s" or "es", "ed", "ing") but you may not add any words or change the order of them. Example:
· Lullaby wind or
Lullaby Wind * Flip over your third card. Remember, your only poetic choice
is, Do I put this word on the same line, or the next line? Example:
Lullaby wind, cascade
or
Lullaby
Wind cascade
or
Lullaby
Wind
Cascade - Proceed as above with cards four through ten. Remember, you must use each word in the order you flip it over. Your poetic expression comes with choosing, for each word, "Same line, or next line?" and with any punctuation you'd like to add. Congratulations! You have now written the first stanza of a
poem.
- Shuffle your cards again, and repeat steps above. Be sure to skip a line before you write your words. You've now completed your second stanza.
- Shuffle your cards again, and repeat steps above, again skipping a line.
- You've now completed your Sound
Poem.
- Read it aloud. Savor the sounds.
This exercise is sheer fun, especially when you get into the spirit and really deliver your poems, with great interpretive inflections. And often, two or more words that end up next to each other provide a serendipitous juxtaposition -- a fresh, surprising metaphor, a joke, or sheer loveliness. Listen for these.
What ideas do they suggest?
If you want to take this process a step further, create a "regular poem" using as many of the words/word combinations as you care to.
I'd love to see what you come up with! Email it to me at info@wordplaynow.com—you could be featured in a future Word-zine.
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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