The WordPlay Word-zine Volume VII, Issue 10 March 5, 2018 Dear ,
I spent this past weekend at one of my favorite places, Well of Mercy Retreat Center, in nearby Harmony, North Carolina. (It's so lovely; and open to anyone who would like to spend a bit of time in solitude). Walking (and sitting) beside this beautiful stream is my favorite part of being
there. While I was there, I browsed through a book called Soul-Based Art and was struck by this quote: "It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its
desires."
That made me smile. Because I believe that we should all be loyal to our soul's desires. And, while I had never considered this a duty, I love the idea of this.
My mother, who would have celebrated her 93rd birthday yesterday, was a big believer in duty. But it seemed to me that duty always involved work
that I didn't want to do. Duty to our soul's desires? That I can jump into!
I've been thinking a lot about my mother these days, because in just a little over a month, I'm receiving a legacy award, and giving a reading. (Speaking of, I would be so honored if you could come. It's on Monday evening, April 9th. Details here.) And, while I lost my 16 years ago, there's no one I want more to be there.
The closest I can come is to read some excerpts from my in-progress cookbook memoir, How She Fed Us. (Right now the closest I've come to a subtitle is "Recipes, Reminiscences, and Reflections on a Perfectly Imperfect Mother." I am open to
suggestions!) I have been writing like a maniac, and remembering so much about my mother. And learning new things about her, too, from the vantage point of such a new perspective. Because she is the one I owe my love of words to.
One of the things I found, going through all the things I brought back to Charlotte with me some sixteen years ago, was this 1940 photo of the MARYVUE Staff (her high school newspaper). Mother is the on the left, typing. (You'll hear more about this in today's featured writing.) One of the things I've learned about my mother is that she was loyal to her soul's
desires, even though I didn't understand this when I was growing up. She encouraged all of her five children to do the same, in her own way.
I hope you enjoy the excerpt from How She Fed Us featured below, "Casual Josephs." Since my dad's birthday is March 9th (he would have been 95), I picked a piece that includes him. Look for the duty, loyalty, and desire woven throughout the
story.
One last note: I am so honored that the legacy award I'm receiving bears the name of my beloved teacher and mentor Irene Blair Honeycutt. I wanted to be sure you knew about an opportunity to take one of her workshops this Wednesday morning, March 7th, at Charlotte's fabulous Literary Arts Center, Charlotte Lit. It's called Celebration and Consolation: The Poetic Rite of Expressing Deep Emotion. Details here.
Love and light, Maureen
P.S. If you're free tomorrow,
Tuesday, March 6th, I'd love to see you at the FREE poetry workshop I'm leading at the recently reopened Morrison Library! Details just below.
Upcoming WordPlay
THE FINE ART OF COOKING UP A POEM: A Poetry (and Prose) Craft Workshop
Ever wished your writing had more finesse? Or wondered what goes into the making of a fine poem? This class that explores “poetic ingredients” in the areas of content, sound, and form will increase your expertise—in poetry and prose. Learn how to identify and use these
ingredients, as well as how reading work by writers you love can inspire and instruct you. All levels welcome.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 6th, from 7:00 until 8:30 p.m.
Other
News
SENSORIA: A CELEBRATION OF LITERATURE & THE
ARTS
I hope you can join me and my beloved teacher, mentor and friend Irene for this year's Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award Presentation and Reading ( it's free, as are most Sensoria events, and it's on Monday, April 9th at 7 p.m. (preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.). More important, I hope you come for as many Sensoria events as you can make it to! You'll be glad you did. Full schedule here.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lanier Library is holding their 10th Annual Sidney Lanier Poetry Competition. They are accepting submissions through March 15, 2018 with prizes awarded April 28, 2018 at the library in Tryon, NC.
Adult and Student categories are available with prizes from $500 (Adult) and $100 (Student). Featured Writing
"Casual Josephs"
from the upcoming cookbook memoir
How She Fed Us
by
Maureen Ryan Griffin
“Would a supper dish by any other name (to paraphrase Shakespeare) smell as sweet?” My father renamed “Sloppy Joes,” a Saturday night favorite back in the
60s, “Casual Josephs,” having reached the conclusion that any food with the word “sloppy” in its name could only undermine his never-ending efforts to teach his often-unruly children appropriate table manners. Mother clearly didn’t care for the name “Sloppy Joes” either, given that she called this recipe “Wineburgers” when she put it in Plain & Fancy, the P.T.O. cookbook she co-edited in 1966 for Saint Luke’s parish school in Erie, Pennsylvania. (I'm quite sure she used water, not wine, in the “Casual Josephs” she made for us.) Mother took her editing seriously, names and all. Our 1966 Christmas newsletter begins:
This has been a hectic year, mostly because Pat has been co-editor of the parish P.T.O. cookbook. We have the feeling she has always
had the urge to write a book, but at this point it seems a try at the great American novel would have been simpler. Mother often wrote our Christmas newsletters in the third person, but I’m guessing these are Dad’s words, as he told me he’d done a lot of pinch-hitting for Mother over the years. Despite her experience on the staff of her high school newspaper, she wasn’t much of a typist. He was spot on about Mother’s literary yearnings. As I mentioned
in the introduction, I found out many years later that Mother had indeed always wanted to write a book. But it was a cookbook with her name on it that she dreamed of, never the great American novel. Although she gave me everything I needed to become a poet and essayist, and even a typist and editor—including frequent trips to the library, gifts of books on Christmas and birthdays, and shelves of her own childhood fiction to read—food was always Mother’s true passion. Honoring that passion, Mother, ever committed to variety, quality, and appropriate quantity of menu items—even, mind you, in the P.T.O. cookbook—filled in with her own recipes where fellow parishioners had left gaps. Years later, looking through Plain & Fancy, I kept coming across my grandmother’s and my Aunt Genny Lou’s names. A real-life mystery, as they’d
both lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and had at no point been members of Saint Luke’s parish in Erie. Mother, when I asked her, had a perfectly reasonable explanation. Her name, she said, was in the cookbook under an
embarrassingly large number of recipes already. What else could she do but resort to some finessing? So, she was, in a manner of speaking, a fiction writer after all. My mother and Shakespeare, two writers who, along with my dad, understood the power in a name.
Mother’s Wineburgers, AKA Dad’s Casual Josephs
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter or oleo
- 1 pound ground chuck
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 (10¾-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ cup Burgundy or other red wine (or water)
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 to 8 buttered, toasted hamburger
buns
Cook onions in butter until soft, but not brown. Add ground chuck, stirring with fork, cooking until meat is no longer red. Sprinkle flour over meat; blend well. Add soup and wine. Cook, stirring
constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Add seasonings. Simmer, uncovered, for about ten minutes, stirring frequently, while toasting and buttering buns. Spoon onto buns. Serves 6 to 8.
~ Maureen Ryan Griffin, from the upcoming cookbook memoir How She Fed Us
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 "desire." PROMPT: This week, write a scene, essay, poem, or story that centers on a being dutiful to desire, whether it's your own soul's desire, or a character's.
It's fun to play with prompts in community with fellow writers, and to be able to share the results when you're done. You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats
here. 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. You can listen to it here. 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! |
|
|
|