Volume VI, Issue 26 June 26, 2017 Word of the Week: Milky Way Dear ,
My heart stopped for a minute last week when I saw, as I was scrolling through my
always-crowded inbox, these words pop out from my North Carolina Writers’ Network Newsletter: Kathryn Stripling Byer, 1944-2017.
How could generous, gutsy, brilliant,
talented Kay Byer, former North Carolina Poet Laureate Extraordinaire, be gone from this world? Kay, whose laser-accurate way with figurative language and mountain dialect and the multi-splendored ways of the heart shone so brightly?
Kay Byer, who was always so kind, so interested in others, who was lightning quick to give me her permission to use the only writing I wanted
to illustrate the section on “persona” in Spinning Words into Gold: her poem “Circuit Rider.” As I said in my introduction of it, “I found Byer’s poem in
The Georgia Review some years ago, and loved this feisty mountain woman who dared to speak so brazenly to the traveling preacher. I wished, reading it, that I had half of her irreverent spunk.”
Kay was a woman of both reverent and irreverent spunk herself. I count myself among the lucky to have the purple poster of her deliciously gorgeous “Piece of Cake” poem, written for her inauguration as our state’s Poet Laureate, on the wall of the WordPlay studio. (it’s this week’s featured writing, and you can see it in its star-studded purple glory here: http://www.kathrynstriplingbyer.com/poet-laureate.html.
Marvel at how she moves from “Laureate” to “lariat” to her friend and neighbor “Laurette,” who bakes her famous Milky Way Cakes “in the heart of her kitchen,”—and then,
dazzles her way to on her way to “lassoing” “the Milky Way,/word after luminous word of it.” “Piece of Cake” is a wonder to behold, as was Kay.
I'm taking consolation in the thought that the Milky Way is there in the sky all the time, even when we can't see it. And I've brought all my best memories of Kay with me to one of
my favorite places in the world, Chautauqua Institution in western New York. New memories are being made here every day, of course. So far, I've taken in a performance by Jay Leno (I laughed my head off and marveled at his ability to keep the jokes and stories coming and coming and coming), been moved by the words of the Very Reverend Alan Jones, and had my heart stirred by several musical performances.
But one of the things I love best about
Chautauqua is the way it honors traditions and long-standing memories. Like the three taps of a gavel that opens every summer season, tapped out this time by Chautauqua's 18th president, Michael E. Hill, with the same gavel that's opened every season since 1904, made of olive wood from the banks of the River Jordan.
Like the Miller Bell
Tower, which rings on the quarter hour, and, at appointed hours during the day, spills out a medley of tunes ranging from "Amazing Grace" to "June Is Busting Out All Over" to "The Impossible Dream." The Bell Tower was dedicated on August 1, 1911 as a memorial to Lewis Miller, one of the founders of Chautauqua Institution. (His daughter Mina was Thomas Alva Edison's second wife, by the way, and according to
the Chautauquan Daily, "when Edison learned that she would be staying the summer at Chautauqua, he arranged to spend time there to woo her and meet her family." He proposed to her at Chautauqua, in fact. Via Morse code. But that's another story.) A story I'm
sure Kay would have enjoyed.
Today, in her honor, I walked down to the bell tower and snapped this photo, smiling at the thought that, somewhere in the sky above, blue as it was, Kay was shining.
If it's clear tonight, I'll look up again. And again. These June nights are made for star-gazing, don’t you think? Why not step outside and see what luminous words await you? Upcoming WordPlay
CLASS AT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
MEMOIR: TELLING THE TIMES
OF YOUR LIFE
Our life stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us – they’ll be treasured for generations to come. Come learn engaging, easy-to-use tools and
techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses, successes, and more with ease and enjoyment, no matter where you are in the process, and whether you are writing for yourself, your family, or to publish for a wide audience.
WHERE: Chautauqua
Institution. 1 Ames Ave, Chautauqua, NY 14722. Turner 105
WHEN: Monday, July 3rd – Friday, July 7th, 2017. 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
COST: $82 TO REGISTER: Please visit the Chautauqua Institution registration page here.
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RETREAT AT OLMSTED MANOR
MEMOIR: TELLING THE TIMES OF YOUR LIFE
Our life stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us. They
will be treasured for generations to come. Come learn engaging tools and techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses, successes, and more with ease and enjoyment, no matter where you are in the process.
Participants are asked to bring along photos of people, places, or events that are significant to their lives to be used as inspiration for
writing.
WHERE: Olmsted Manor. 17 East Main Street. Ludlow, PA 16333
WHEN: Friday, August 4th – Sunday, August 6th, 2017
COST: $230.00, which includes class, 2 nights stay, and 6 meals
TO REGISTER: To
register by phone, call 814-945-6512. You can also register by sending an email to olmstedreservations@gmail.com or online at www.olmstedmanor.org/events.
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FALL WRITING RETREAT
Renew and delight yourself. The Fall 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, September 23rd, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured Writer Kathryn Stripling (Kay) Byer
Featured Writing
Piece of Cake
by Kathryn Stripling Byer
(written for Poet Laureate installation, 2005, at the state capitol)
When the young woman calling from
Charlotte to interview me for her radio program
asked, “What is a Laureate, anyway?” I heard my voice hem and haw
like a bad line of poetry. I thought I heard all of the Old
North State holding its breath while I
struggled to say something clever, but all I could think of
was “lariat.” Then in a moment
of quiet desperation, I thought of Laurette, who lives just down the road
from my childhood home, hands busy sculpting
the icing on each of her Milky Way
cakes as she stands in the heart of her kitchen,
the sun sliding into the cornfields, another June
day disappearing, another night kindling its Milky Way stars,
and at long last I know how to answer
that question. A Laureate lassoes the Milky Way,
word after luminous word of it,
holding it out in her hands like a piece
of Laurette’s chocolate cake
saying, Try this!
Believe
me,
You’ll like the way poetry tastes!*
*Poet’s note: Laurette Hayes is a good friend and neighbor of
my family in southwest Georgia. She makes several wonderful
kinds of cakes, but her Milky Way Cake reigns supreme.
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 "Milky
Way."
PROMPT:
Write about the Milky Way, in a poem or in lines of prose. If nothing else, try weaving it into a line of dialogue.
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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