Volume IX, Issue 18
April 22, 2020
Dear ,
Here in Charlotte, North Carolina, it's a beautiful day to be outside. I hope, wherever you are, you can spend some time with sun on your face, dirt on your hands.
Today, I'm celebrating that the earth is benefiting from the coronavirus, which is a great comfort, as it's the only home we have. Earth Day is the perfect day to share (perhaps again, if you read the Word-zine regularly) three of my favorite people with you: Kathy, Dede, and Wendy of Our Blue Boat
I was with these three lovely women the day this photo on their blog celebrating our beautiful earth was taken, and have found joy and meaning in each of their weekly posts. To quote their "About
Us" page:
OUR BLUE BOAT is the story of our journey to serve Mother Earth. The name was inspired by the lovely lyrics of singer/songwriter Peter Mayer, who calls the earth “our beautiful blue boat home.”
This blog marks our deliberate return to nature to rekindle our relationships through creative action in the form of intention, ceremony, language, and photography. As citizens of the Universe, we hope to inspire deep listening and re-remembering of the oneness in our collective lives. We invite you to join us.
If you'd like to rekindle, or stay mindful of, your relationship with the earth, their blog is a lovely place to visit: https://ourblueboat.org/.
I learned of today's featured writing, Kitty O'Meara's "And the People Stayed Home," from Wendy's post "In the Pause of Covid-19." As it's gone viral, you may already be familiar with it. I enjoyed learning more about the back story from an interview with Kitty O'Meara in The Oprah Magazine.
Thanks for being my "homemate" on our shared earth, which provides for us so generously. May we appreciate, and lovingly tend, its beauty and its bounty.
Love and light,
Maureen
Poetry Opportunities
In Honor of National Poetry Month
CHARLOTTE READERS PODCAST
CELEBRATES NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!
On Tuesday, April 21st, on Charlotte Readers Podcast, named best podcast in Charlotte 2019 by Queen City Nerve, we meet five Queen City poets, who share their love of poetry and their poetry journeys and perform two of their poems.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Charlotte Readers Podcast partnered to bring these local poets to the podcast stage in celebration of National Poetry Month. You will hear poetry by Bluz, Jay Ward, Kathie Collins, Kia Flow and Shane Manier.
National Poetry Month each April is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry's important place in our culture and our lives.
You can connect with the show at: www.charlottereaderspodcast.com
The line-up:
Bluz: slam champion, spoken word artist, Emmy award winner and coach of SlamCharlotte, a competitive poetry team that won multiple National Poetry Slam championships
Jay Ward: poet and teaching artist, youth slam poetry coach and winner of National Poetry Slam and Individual World Poetry Slam championships.
Kathie Collins: published poet, student of Jungian psychology, graduate instructor and co-founder of Charlotte Center for Literary Arts.
Kia Flow: poet, author, stage performer, National Poetry Slam championship team member and recipient of Poet of Influence award by The Jax Poetry Fest
Shane Manier: creative coach, artist, live event painter, poetry mentor, National Spoken Word Poet and youngest poet to be inducted into the Poetry Council of North Carolina
POETRY ROCKS!
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—especially in this challenging time.
And, hey, National Poetry Month is just around the corner!
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, which is right around the corner. 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 internet.
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 sign-up online for Poetry Rocks, click here.
WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT POETRY ROCKS
" . . . for letting me hear your voice in my head, for the gift of reading poetry every day and asking “how does she/he do this?”, for filling my tool box with a lifetime of just-the-right-tool (my husband says you can do any job if you have the right
tool), and for being a writer whose work bubbles over with words that remind me of this great gift of humanness — thank you!
~ Linda Whitesitt
. . . a master class in creativity, writing and understanding poetry. It is exceptionally rewarding, educational, and enjoyable. It is a celebration of life. . . . each lesson includes a “what to do” section that directs the student to create a poem. . . . The Tools can be used again
and again, long after the course has been completed, to create new poems. . . . Maureen takes a playful approach to writing and teaching that makes this course particularly enjoyable.
~ Bud Thomas
Featured Writing
And the People Stayed Home
Kitty O'Meara
And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised,
and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being,
and were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant,
dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices,
and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully,
as they had been healed.
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 “earth."
PROMPT:
Today, deliberately commune with the earth, with each of your senses. Spend at least five minutes in silence, outside, just listening for any natural sound you can hear. Look deeply at a singular plant that calls to you, from the smallest blade of grass, to the showiest flower, to a tree you've walked by so many times you've stopped seeing it. Smell soil, or something that grows in it. Eat something the earth
produced. Touch at least three different earth-made textures: tree bark, rock, dirt, pine cone, any petal . . .
Then write something about the earth, or that includes the earth, in prose or poetry, fiction or nonfiction.
You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats here.
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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