Volume VIII, Issue 6
February 11, 2019
Word of the Week: astonished
Dear ,
This issue is a tribute to the life of poet Mary Oliver. (You may have known that immediately upon seeing this week's subject line.) Mary Oliver left this earth she paid such attention to, was so astonished by, and told so beautifully about, on January 17th, 2019, and I, for one, can still feel her
presence.
What a glorious legacy she has left us: preceding her "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it" are the words "Instructions for living a life." Pair this with the last lines of her poem "A Summer Day," for a perfect circle of answer, question, answer: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious
life?"
I first encountered Mary Oliver's gorgeous poetry in a class with Irene Blair Honeycutt in the early 1990s. I chose Oliver's "Trilliums" as the poem I would read every day for 30 days, and the words still linger:
" . . . I believed in the world./Oh, I wanted//to be easy/in the peopled kingdoms,/to take my place there,/but there was none// that I could find/shaped like me . . ."
It was clear to me from this beginning onward that Oliver understood the way I felt, understood the rapture I experienced, despite my loneliness, walking in spring woods. "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,//" she seemed to be saying just to me in her poem "Wild Geese," "the world offers itself to your
imagination,/calls to you like the wild geese . . ."
One of my fondest memories was getting to drive Mary Oliver to the airport after she read and spoke at CPCC's Spring Literary Festival in 1996, thanks to Irene, who was the festival founder and director and made literary magic happen year after year. Seeing this photo of the two of them together makes me smile.
Irene was the first person I told when I heard the news that she had passed away. Irene and I celebrated Mary Oliver's life together by taking a long walk in the woods, stopping several times to read each other poems of Mary's we especially loved.
Irene chose, among others, "In Blackwater Woods." We stood by these cattails as she read: "Look, the trees/are turning/their own bodies/into pillars//of light,/are giving off the rich/fragrance of cinnamon/and fulfillment,//the long tapers/of cattails/are bursting and floating away over/the blue shoulders//of the ponds . . ."
My thanks to Irene for sharing these two special photos with me, and for bringing Mary Oliver to Charlotte those many years ago, and for
introducing me to Oliver's work, which still comforts, uplifts, and sustains me.
You can learn more about Mary Oliver and the healing power of her poetry from this article: https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2019/01/mary-olivers-wild-and-precious-life/.
And hear her reading the poem cited here: "When Death Comes," Read by Mary Oliver.
If you'd like to know more about her poetry, check out this article:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/what-mary-olivers-critics-dont-understand.
Just one more link: You can hear an interview with Mary Oliver by Krista Tippett of "On Being" here: https://onbeing.org/programs/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world-jan2019/.
Lastly, this week's featured writing is a poem of Mary Oliver's that came to me twice within an hour of learning that she had passed on. Clearly, these words were meant to be shared.
May you pay attention, may you be astonished, and may you tell about it,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THE SEVEN ENERGIES OF WRITING
A Holistic, Whole Brain Approach, With Accompanying Tools and Strategies To Enhance Creativity, Productivity, and Writing Pleasure
If you’ve ever had a hard time getting started writing, finishing what you’ve begun, or gotten stuck in the middle (AKA writer’s block), knowing how to engage in the most helpful “energy of writing” for you at each stage of your process—and on any given day—will be a game-changer. In this class, we’ll explore—and practice—the ins, outs, and benefits of all seven energies of writing.
You’ll learn invaluable tools and strategies you’ll use again and again to write with maximum ease and effectiveness. Yes, you can be more productive, creative, and fulfilled, no matter what kind of writing you do or how experienced you are.
WHEN: Saturday, March 30th, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: The WordPlay Studio, South
Charlotte
COST for Workshop and Materials:
$67
TO REGISTER: To register for The Seven Energies of Writing online, click here.
Or email info@wordplaynow.com for details on registering by check via mail.
Class size limited to 12
More WordPlay opportunities here.
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
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 "astonished."
PROMPT: Write about a time that you were astonished: by truth, beauty, by joy, by love . . .
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.
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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