Volume VI, Issue 39 September 25, 2017 Dear ,
This week's word was inspired by a video about scars and brokenness a friend sent me that about made me cry. I found it inspiring and poignant and touching, especially in these times we are living in. I'd read something similar years ago, and was so happy to be reminded that, often,
scars hold a truth and a beauty that is worth honoring.
Watching this video brought to mind a poem I came across in my earliest days as a practicing poet that speaks to the value of scars so eloquently I have never forgotten it: Floyd Skloot's sonnet "My Daughter Considers Her Body." (This week's
subject line is a paraphrase of—and a tribute to—its stunning last line.)
If you're not a poetry lover, please don't let the word "sonnet" keep you from enjoying "My Daughter Considers Her Body." It took me several readings to
notice it was a sonnet, as the words and meaning so far outshine the form. (And might you be intrigued by the fascinating fact that Skloot's daughter grew up to write the award-winning book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?)
Maybe I am so struck by scars because I've had to contend with my own since childhood—an acute case of shingles when I was ten permanently marred my chest and back. I've learned that scars offer rich writing possibilities. In fact, one of the first poems I wrote for my husband, "Cartographer," ends with the lines:
...a thousand
watersheds, pinnacles, divides during which she's learned to trust him with her scarred landscape.
Speaking of my husband, here's a photo of the two of us at the Hickory Auto Lawn car show a few weekends ago with his Citroen, a classic French car we named Monique—and refer to as his French mistress. (She does, after all, demand a lot of his time and money.)
By the way, though Monique's holding up well for her 48 years, she has a few scars of her own. She'd have fewer of them if we never took her out of the garage. Metaphorically speaking, isn't that true of all of us?
But that's not what life is for, or even how life works. Sometimes our scars find us right where we are hiding, doing our best to shelter ourselves. And no matter how we feel about them, they're a part of our story, a part of a life lived fully. It's good work, as Skloot's gentle poem
reminds us, to "learn to touch" our scars, our blemishes, our flaws, our wounds—to acknowledge and claim them, in and out of our writing.
Love and light,
Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL WRITING RETREATS Connect with Your Creativity at
the Sunset Inn
(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration)
Due to response, this retreat will be offered on two different weekends: November 10th – 12th and November 17th – 19th. Pick the dates that work best for you.
Renew yourself and reconnect with your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create
nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours.
$418 + room tax for the weekend beginning either Friday, November 10th through Sunday November 12th or Friday, November 17th through Sunday, November 19th. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included).
Want to extend your retreat? If you’d like to stay another day to write, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night at half
price.
(Extra writing retreat sessions are a possibility too. Email info@wordplaynow.com if you’re interested.)
WHERE: The Sunset
Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 10th – Sunday, November 12th, 2017
~ and also ~ Friday, November 17th – Sunday, November 19th, 2017
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for our retreat participants, a number of them are blocked off as unavailable online. Phone to check on your choice.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, November 12th or 19th, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay
opportunities here. Featured
Writer
Floyd Skloot
Floyd Skloot is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, and novelist whose work has won three Pushcart Prizes, a Pen USA Literary Award, two Pacific NW Book Awards, and two Oregon Book Awards.
His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Poetry, Georgia Review, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, Hudson Review, Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, and Creative Nonfiction. His nineteen books include the memoirs In the Shadow of Memory (University of Nebraska Press,
2003), A World of Light (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life (University of Nebraska Press, 2008), and Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014); the poetry collections The End of Dreams (Louisiana State University Press, 2006), The Snow's Music (Louisiana State University Press, 2008),
and Approaching Winter (Louisiana State University Press, 2015; and the novels Summer Blue (Story Line Press, 1994) and Patient 002 (Rager Media, 2007) and The Phantom of Thomas Hardy (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016).
He has contributed book reviews to the New York Times Book Review, Boston Globe, Harvard Review, Sewanee Review, and many other publications.
He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Beverly Hallberg. Floyd's daughter, Rebecca Skloot, is the bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown Books, 2010).
Featured Writing My Daughter Considers Her Body by Floyd
Skloot
She examines her hand, fingers spread wide.
Seated, she bends over her crossed legs
to search for specks or scars and cannot hide
her awe when any mark is
found...
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
"scars."
PROMPT: Make a list of your own scars, and/or the scars of one of your characters. (You can stick to physical scars, or include emotional scars, too.) Choose one to write about in whatever genre best fits this particular scar. 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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