Volume VIII, Issue 30
August 12, 2019
Dear ,
One truth I know I know is how incredibly lucky I am to have been able to spend a week at Chautauqua Institution engaging in the theme of "grace" with these two dear, longtime friends and fellow writers, Vivé Griffith and Dede Mitchell.
Despite the joy we find in being together, it was a sober week in a number of ways, beginning as it did with the tragic news of the shootings in Dayton and El Paso, which
I'm sure affected you deeply, as it did us. What does grace look like in a time like this? What truths do we need to face to be a part of any kind of solution?
Dede and I found challenge as well as comfort in New York Times best-selling author Barbara Brown Taylor's Tuesday talk on "Alarming Grace." ("Grace is alarming. . . . Grace isn't fair. But since most of us want God's grace for ourselves and God's justice for everyone else, there's bound to come a time when we confront a third error of grace, which is, there is nothing remotely
transactional about it.")
But the hands-down favorite program of the week for all three of us was the Wednesday morning interview that Krista Tippett of the podcast "On Being" did with poet Richard
Blanco on his latest book, How to Love a Country. One of the poems he read, "Complaint of El Río Grande" (the Rio Grande River), brought tears to the eyes of many people in the audience, including
me, calling us as it did to claim and embrace "the truth we / know we know" about our need for unity. His decision to let the river speak for itself was such a powerful one!
I knew immediately that this poem would be this week's featured writing. I wish you could hear him read it aloud, but I couldn't find a link for you. I did find an interview in
which he discusses How to Love a Country with Boston's WBGH news here that includes his reading of another poem from the book I find very moving.
I hope this week's writing and "persona" prompt feed your heart as well as your imagination.
Sending you a hug and a wish for peace, love, and beauty in the midst of these tumultuous times,
Upcoming WordPlay
POETRY ROCKS!
(Learning the Ins and Outs of Poetry; Strengthening Your Writing Skills; Adding a New Layer of Beauty to Your Life)
Would you like your writing — prose and/or poetry — to be more graceful, powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you.
Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres.
It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
HERE’S WHAT YOU GET:
- 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox — in honor of National Poetry month. Use them as you get them, use them when you can, use them over and over to create poems. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem. Many of them are great for creating prose,
too. The tools include:
* a purpose, so you’re clear what you will learn
* background information when helpful
* “how-to” directions to create a poem
* an example that illustrates the poetry tool in action
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
* “Hone Your Craft” suggestions for further exploration
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
- A PDF document of each tool that you can print or save on your computer
- An audio recording of each tool, so you can learn by listening and/or reading
- Instruction on the role of audience, reading like a writer, and the process of revision, including a handy Revision Checkpoint Chart — this information can be applied to strengthen your prose as well as poetry
- Additional poetry resources
- An e-book that contains the information and resources covered, as well as your 23 poetry creation tools for ongoing use
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via the web.
WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come.
COST: $45
TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. To register for Poetry Rocks online, click here.
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DELICIOUS MEMORIES
Food not only nurtures and sustains us, it’s also a rich source for writing. We’ll explore our culinary connections as we write of when, where, what, with whom, how — and even why — we ate. We’ll also learn from the work of accomplished writers. You can use the tools you’ll learn to create a family cookbook, individual essays, stories, or poems, scenes in fiction or memoir, a food blog—or just for your own
pleasure.
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution. 1 Ames Ave, Chautauqua, NY 14722. Hultquist 201A
WHEN: Monday, August 19th – Thursday, August 22nd, 2019. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
COST: TBA
TO REGISTER: Register directly through the Chautauqua Institution website here.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured Writing
Richard Blanco
for Aylin Barbieri
I was meant for all things to meet:
to make the clouds pause in the mirror
of my waters, to be home to fallen rain
that finds its way to me, to turn eons
of loveless rock into lovesick pebbles
and carry them as humble gifts back
to the sea which brings life back to me.
I felt the sun flare, praised each star
flocked about the moon long before
you did. I’ve breathed air you’ll never
breathe, listened to songbirds before
you could speak their names, before
you dug your oars in me, before you
created the gods that created you.
Then countries—your invention—maps
jigsawing the world into colored shapes
caged in bold lines to say: you’re here,
not there, you’re this, not that, to say:
yellow isn’t red, red isn’t black, black is
not white, to say: mine, not ours, to say
war, and believe life’s worth is relative.
You named me big river, drew me—blue,
thick to divide, to say: spic and Yankee,
to say: wetback and gringo. You split me
in two—half of me us, the rest them. But
I wasn’t meant to drown children, hear
mothers’ cries, never meant to be your
geography: a line, a border, a murderer.
I was meant for all things to meet:
the mirrored clouds and sun’s tingle,
birdsongs and the quiet moon, the wind
and its dust, the rush of mountain rain—
and us. Blood that runs in you is water
flowing in me, both life, the truth we
know we know: be one in one another.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK, How to Love a Country: As presidential inaugural poet, memoirist, public speaker, educator, and advocate, Richard Blanco has crisscrossed the nation inviting communities to connect to the heart of human experience and our shared identity as a country. In this new collection of poems, his first in over seven years, Blanco continues to invite a conversation
with all Americans. Through an oracular yet intimate and accessible voice, he addresses the complexities and contradictions of our nationhood and the unresolved sociopolitical matters that affect us all.
(from https://richard-blanco.com/book/how-to-love-a-country/)
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 "truth."
PROMPT: Sometimes, as Richard Blanco discussed during his conversation with Krista Tippett at Chautauqua Institution last Wednesday, our writing can be smarter that we are, can speak a truth more clearly than we are able to.
One way this can happen is through shifting perspectives to someone or something outside ourselves by taking on a persona—in other words, imagining another's point of view and speaking from it, rather than our own. Richard Blanco does this so beautifully in "Complaint of El Río Grande."
This week, try writing a persona piece, in either poetry or prose. Slip into the skin of something or someone else and write directly from this persona, in the first person.
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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