Volume VI, Issue 42 October 16, 2017 Dear ,
Growing up Catholic, I heard the word "saint" often. There was the "communion of saints"
we acknowledged we believed in at every Mass, and there were patron saints for every profession under the sun, including musicians (St. Cecilia), fishermen (St. Andrew), teachers (St. Thomas Aquinas, among others), bakers (Elisabeth of Hungary), and many, many more, including queen (St. Jadwiga of Poland) and pig-keepers St. Malo). I loved leafing through our family's copy of A Saint a Day to read about the (often gruesome) sacrifices these men and women made for God. (A Saint a Day leaned heavily toward martyrs.)
As I grew up, however, I gained an appreciation for the ordinary saints of the world, those people who make small, daily sacrifices that lighten the loads of others, brighten the days (and spirits) of those around them. If we're lucky, we have at least a few of these saints in our lives.
And what, you might wonder, has set me off on this topic? Blame the guy on the left, M. Scott Douglass, and his lovely wife Jill, who inspired this week's featured writing, "St. Jill of Albion."
I heard this poem live last weekend at a book party for Scott's latest collection of poetry, Just Passing Through, a tribute to road trips and motorcycles and the people we meet along the way, and—yes, the people (perhaps saints) who travel with
us.
Richard and I have known Scott and Jill for many years now, and we both think she's deserving of sainthood, at least as far as Scott is concerned. We're glad Scott agrees with us!
But seriously, I couldn't be happier for Scott, who's from my childhood hometown of Erie, PA, and who's published several of my books, including Spinning Words into Gold and Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong. It's great that he makes time for his own writing, as well as the motorcycle trips
immortalized in Just Passing Through, in between all the high-quality publishing he does. You could even say that Scott, who's made hundreds of
writers' dreams of becoming an author come true, is a bit of a saint himself. But don't tell him that! It'll go to his head.
This week, celebrate the saints in your life. It's a great way to tap into the power of gratitude, and
also find a good story or two.
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
M. Scott Douglass
M. Scott Douglass is publisher, managing editor, and book designer at Main Street Rag Publishing Company which he helped found in 1996. He grew up in Pittsburgh, attended Penn State-Behrend (Erie, PA) and has a graphic arts degree from Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. His poetry has appeared in such places as Ashville Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Iodine Poetry Journal, Midwest Review, North
American Review, Plainsongs, Poetrybay.com, Redheadded Stepchild, San Pedro River Review, Slipstream, Tar River Review, The Southeast Review (Sundog), Southern Poetry Review, and Wild Goose Review (among others). He’s been a Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of a 2001 NC Arts & Science Council Emerging Artist Grant which was used to publish his first full-length poetry collection, Auditioning for Heaven (an honorable mention for the 2001
Brockman Campbell Award). In 2010, the Poetry Council of North Carolina dedicated its annual, Bay Leaves, to M. Scott Douglass for his support of poets and poetry in the state of North Carolina. His cover designs have garnered two PICA Awards and a 2010 Eric Hoffer Award nomination for graphic design.
Off the field (so to speak), he’s been a dental technician, a construction/demolition worker, a bookstore owner, baseball and basketball coach. He bred rats for the University of Pittsburgh’s Pathology Department and even wrestled a lion once. Yes, a real lion. Featured Writing
St. Jill of Albion by M. Scott Douglass
M. Scott Douglass St. Jill of Albion
True love rides behind you in rain gear from Pittsburgh to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland through late June monsoon and doesn’t
complain.
She warms your back on the way down, laughs when you arrive drenched and muddy, then wrings water from your socks and riding
jersey.
Fourteen riders signed up for this trip, fourteen experienced bikers, but only you, Joe, and Sumo showed and
rode
and then there was the lady on the back of your bike, the one who hates mud, shivers when air dips below sixty-five
degrees,
the one who unpacked a spare pair of jeans and sweatshirt before you left to fit a curling iron and blow dryer in your
bag.
Your hosts are in awe of this woman who your own family proclaims a saint for putting up with your
shenanigans.
But there’s so much more to the story: outracing funnel clouds in central Nebraska, driving a Crown Vic
through
Rabbit Ears Pass during a white out, skating black ice in West Virginia at seventy and only clipping a guard
rail.
She threatened to let Texas cops keep you when their lights lit up as you passed going one-ten in the other
direction.
And who can forget that shortcut around Mt. Hood when an accident closed highway 35? You rerouted
to a country road on your Gazetteer that degraded to misty logging trail at 10K feet in Big Foot country.
She’s traveled too many roads with you to panic when you live too fast for conditions, conditions come and go,
and still you manage, you adapt, you move on, you and your companion, navigating these roads together.
~ M. Scott Douglass
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
"saints."
PROMPT: Write about one or more "saints" in your life, or in the life of one of your character's. 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! |
|
|
|
