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Dear ,
First off, if you live in the Charlotte area, CPCC is offering amazing free literary events this week, including readings by Ron Rash and Li-Young Lee!
Details here, along with other great free literary events!
And second, I'm still celebrating my 20-year WordPlay anniversary. You may already have received this free gift -- a mind/heart/body/spirit practice you can do before, during, or after you write that combines yoga with the Lord's Prayer -- but if not, you can download the video here:http://vimeo.com/55644125
And lastly, I am on a "wild" ride of my own today, mind, heart, body, and spirit -- my daughter is in labor! She just called me from the hospital: she's 4-5 centimeters. So as soon as I'm finished typing, off to the hospital waiting room I go! (I can tell you right now that next week's word is going to be "baby!")
I hope you enjoy WordPlayer Marianne London's fiction that was inspired by a poem called "Echocardiogram" by Suzanne Cleary that I found on the Writers Almanac
and one (or both!) of this week's prompts. Given that my heart, "the house where love lives," is "wild and steady, wild and steady, wild" right now, these all feel just perfect for today's WordZine...
Here's to wild, exhilarating rides with joyous endings,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
ILLUSTRATING OUR AUTHENTIC SELVES
Join Maureen Ryan Griffin, author of Spinning Words Into Gold, for a free one- hour session on collaging and writing as self-exploration. We invite you to bring your own visual images for this session. Other supplies will be provided.
Age Group(s): Teens (12-18), Adults
WHERE:Myers Park Library, Charlotte
WHEN: Monday, April 22, 6:45-7:45pm
TO REGISTER: http://www.cmlibrary.org/calendar/eventsignup.asp?ID=133508&disptype=info&return=http://www.plcmc.org/programs/
DELICIOUS MEMORIES
Food not only nurtures and sustains us, it's a rich source of metaphor and memory! We'll explore our connections with food as we write of when, where, what, with whom, how - and even why - we ate! You can use your food writings to create a family cookbook, creative nonfiction, poetry, a food blog, etc. -- or just for your own pleasure. $49/1 session.
WHERE:Queens Sports Complex, Tyvola Road near Park Road, Charlotte
WHEN: Monday, April 29, 6:30-9:00pm
TO REGISTER: http://www.queens.edu/Academics-and-Schools/Continuing-Education/Program-Categories/Writing---CE/Writing---Delicious-Memories-with-Maureen-Ryan-Griffin.html
For details about more 2013 offerings, visit www.wordplaynow.com/current.htm.
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WordPlay Success Story
"Maureen's classes remind me what an exhilarating, winding and wonderful ride our words can take us on."
Meet WordPlayer Marianne London
During one of the many writing classes I have taken from Maureen, I somehow wrote a crazy story about eggs and a fictitious smart-mouthed waitress named Earline. Thanks to the creative juices that flow in Maureen's classes the freewrite took on a life of its own. The story sashayed across the page as the writer (that would be me) kept having a fit of the giggles. When it was time to read what we had written, it was Earline's "nasal twang" that came out of my mouth. I had become the story.
Maureen suggested the piece would make a good NPR commentary. Never in a million years would I have thought I could be on the radio reading my work. But thanks to Maureen's encouragement and step- by-step mentoring, not only did I read my story on the radio, but it was also published in an anthology of NPR commentaries! Maureen's classes remind me what an exhilarating, winding and wonderful ride our words can take us on.
Featured Writing The Old Tin Shed by Marianne London
It's been 35 years since I have seen the old tin shed, a symbol of my childhood hidden deep in the woods. Wild tangles of blackberry brush cover the shattered windows. Sucking air deep in my lungs, I gently push the creaking door open and step inside. All is still there. The wooden bench, flush against a mossy wall. Still paint spattered, with the childish scrawls of promises broken. William + Amanda = 4ever A nest of moldy magazines scattered beneath the bench. Pages frayed from anxious adolescent fingers gliding across images that Mama would not approve of.
Sparklers of sunlight cut a sharp line across the dirt floor. A dividing line between the man I am now and the young boy that once was. I step gingerly over that line and return to my boyhood. 35 years drift away. The old tin shed. Having weathered the years, its aging sides dulled to grey. Not so different from me. Both of us still timeless soldiers, guarding the past.
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 "wild."
The "crazy story about eggs" Marianne wrote began with my instructions to "riff" on the word "egg." The fictional "Old Tin Shed" began with words gathered from a poem called "Echocardiogram" by Suzanne Cleary that I found on the Writers Almanac.
Here are two prompts for you. Try one or both:
Choice 1: "Riff" on the word "wild" -- just set a timer for ten minutes (I love this applauding online one: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/?ns=../../s/3.mp3)
, pick up your pen and let "wild" take you on a ride, fictional or real. Choice 2: Read "Echocardiogram" (see link above) and pull out five to ten words. Let those words suggest a topic, and again, just set a timer for ten minutes (I love this applauding online one: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/?ns=../../s/3.mp3), pick up your pen and let your words take you on a"wild" ride, fictional or real.
Want to be featured in a future Word-zine?
S
end in a piece of your writing that you think could inspire other WordPlayers to write. 500-word limit, please.) You can send something inspired by this writing, or anything else of your choosing. Email your words to WordPlay here and your piece may be chosen for a future Word-zine.
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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 two collections of poetry, 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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