Volume VI, Issue 34 August 21, 2017 Word of the Week: eclipse Dear ,
Well, one more bucket list item down today—a total eclipse of the sun! Though I'm
not quite sure I can count it, because, at the last moment, the sun was eclipsed by...a mere cloud.
The entire crowd gathered in Whitmire, South Carolina, which I chose for its reachable-by-back-roads-only, close to home, lengthy 2 minutes 2 seconds of totality virtues, gasped loudly when the sun, down
to a small sliver, disappeared—only to realize it was cloud cover causing the darkness, not the total eclipse.
So, sadly, the only corona I enjoyed was the one in my hand, here in front of the Whitmire Piggly Wiggly, which was actually a fabulous place for an eclipse party, attended by people of all ages and a
number of races from states near and far.
Of course, I had to get a Piggly Wiggly t-shirt, along with my friends. Maybe we weren't the ones who started the trend, but those t-shirts were flying off the racks. Don't you think I'm quite the fashionista,
especially with the addition of such trendy eye wear?
All fashion comments aside, the eclipse was quite a wonderful experience, despite the lack of corona viewing. The whole crowd was all in it together, at the mercy of what nature threw at us. Most of us arrived well before the eclipse began, and watched the clouds gathering. It looked at first as if we wouldn't be able to view the sun at
all. So it was a gift to have it emerge often from the clouds at random intervals to be viewed through our snazzy dark glasses. It was a thrill each time the sun popped out, a thrill to share the excitement with so many others, a thrill to experience the nearly instantaneous darkening of sky, accompanied by a crazy loud chorus of cicadas and crickets. Even the bumper-to-bumper eclipse traffic had a festive air to it.
And another bonus: I'm pleased to keep to our theme, and word, of the
week with a poem by poetry maestro Billy Collins. Scroll on down to enjoy it!
Love and light,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION:
YOUR
WRITING (Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing)
This class is designed to
fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You’ll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You’ll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools and methods. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process, whatever your preferred genre. Through examples of accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process.
* For the benefit of participants, an audio recording of the class will be made each week so that participants are able to listen to classes they miss and/or review material covered at any convenient time and place. These recordings are available throughout the class session, along with all handouts, in a shared
Dropbox folder.
We offer both a Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning class to fit your schedule.
Tuesday evening class:
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon registration.
WHEN: Tuesday evenings, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. September 12, 19 and 26
October 3, 10, 17 and 24
November 7, 21 and
28
December 5 and 12 COST: $425
TO REGISTER: If you’re interested in attending, please email us at info@wordplaynow.com to
be put on the waiting list.
Wednesday morning class:
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte,
28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Wednesday mornings, 10:00 a.m. – noon. September 13, 20 and 27
October 4, 11, 18 and 25
November 1, 8 and 29
December 6 and 13 COST: $425
TO REGISTER: If you’re interested in attending, please email us at info@wordplaynow.com to be put on the waiting list.
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THE GIFT OF MEMOIR: WRITING PERSONAL AND FAMILY
STORIES (Preserving Family History; Writing for
and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir)
Our life stories are a precious legacy. Putting them in writing is a gift to all who know and love us—they can be
treasured and enjoyed for generations to come. It is also a gift to ourselves. As best-selling author Rachel Naomi Remen says in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, facts bring us to knowledge, but stories bring us to wisdom. If you are interested in writing family and/or personal life stories—those significant tales of adventure, transition, love, loss, and triumph, as well as lovely everyday moments from times past or the present, come learn specific tools and techniques to retrieve and record
them.
* For the benefit of participants, an audio recording of the class will be made each week so that participants are able to listen to classes they miss and/or review material covered at any convenient time and place. These recordings are available throughout the class session, along with all handouts, in a shared Dropbox
folder.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Thursday mornings, 10:00 a.m. – noon. September 7 and 21
October 5, 19 and 26
November 9 and 30
December 14 COST: $275
TO REGISTER: If you’re interested in
attending, please email us at info@wordplaynow.com to be put on the waiting list.
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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. Photo courtesy of http://billycollinspoetry.com/
Featured Writing As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse
by Billy Collins I pick an orange from a wicker basket
and place it on the table
to represent the sun.
Then down at the other end
a blue and white marble
becomes the earth
and nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin. I get a glass from a cabinet,
open a bottle of wine,
then I sit in a ladder-back chair,
a benevolent god presiding
over a
miniature creation myth, and I begin to sing
a homemade canticle of thanks
for this perfect little arrangement…
To finish reading the poem, please click this link
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
"eclipse."
PROMPT: Write about any kind of eclipse.
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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