Dear ,

Just had to share the (to me, at least) incredibly good news that Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac is making a comeback. And not only are there now new episodes, but the archives are all back as well. You'll find new Writer's Almanac episodes here and the archives here.

A huge thanks to WordPlayer Mary Herbert Love for alerting me to this comeback. While I don't condone Keillor's misconduct, his contribution to the writing community through The Writer's Almanac is so large, and I have missed his gorgeous voice. No one reads a poem like Garrison Keillor.

I had to smile when I read this opening to one of the stories on Keillor's new website titled "Someone to Sit Next to Me" that speaks of comebacks: 

There was so much good news last week. Gorillas
appear to be thriving, according to the Wildlife
Conservation Society, and there are about 361,919
of them, twice as many as had been believed. Humpback whales, who were nearly hunted out of existence in the 19^th century, are making a comeback in the seas off Antarctica: the birth rate is on the upswing, according
to a new study. (The animals are the size of a school
bus and have a life expectancy similar to ours.) And a
study at the University of Michigan shows that people
who work out even 10 minutes a day tend to be more cheerful than those who don’t.

This is science, people. This isn’t fake news. These conclusions are based on actual facts established
through observation by people who can count. What I
learn from this is that it brightens your day to skip the
front-page stuff about Washington and focus on science.... (You can read the rest of the story here.)

I share this in honor of last week's word—isn't that a nice synchronicity? And so is the fact that, the night before I listened to the June 7th episode of The Writer's Almanac that features  Christina Rossetti's poem "A Green Cornfield," I'd been reading a chapter of a wonderful book called Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants and been struck by these gorgeous words

"The corn stands eight feet tall; rippling green ribbons of leaf curl away from the stem in every direction to catch the sun. No leaf sits directly over the next, so that each can gather light without shadowing the others."

Synchronicities abound! Can I call the fact that I'm leading a workshop on "The Nurturing Nature of Words" this Saturday another synchronicity? That's stretching it! Still, I hope you can join me. Details below.

Now scroll on down for Rossetti's beautiful poem and this week's prompt. Wishing you synchronicities and comebacks abounding.

Love and light,

​​​​​​​Maureen

Upcoming WordPlay

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Featured Writing

A Green Cornfield

​​​​​​​by

Christina Rossetti

​​​​​​​

The earth was green, the sky was blue:
I saw and heard one sunny morn
A skylark hang between the two,
A singing speck above the corn;

A stage below, in gay accord,
White butterflies danced on the wing,
And still the singing skylark soared,
And silent sank and soared to sing.

The cornfield stretched a tender green
To right and left beside my walks;
I knew he had a nest unseen
Somewhere among the million stalks.

And as I paused to hear his song
While swift the sunny moments slid,
Perhaps his mate sat listening long,
And listened longer than I did.