Volume XI, Issue 13
March 30, 2022
Word of the Week: longing
Dear ,
Greetings from Well of Mercy, a retreat center near and dear to my heart, where I'm currently leading a writing retreat. This is one of my favorite spots.
This week's featured writing by TED speaker Susan Cain speaks
to me (and to so many others) so deeply, and fits right with our retreat topic of "Writing Ourselves Whole." I hope you find it moving and meaningful as well.
Love and light,
Maureen
Highlights of CPCC's Literary Events at this April's Sensoria
April 11, Reception 6PM, Reading 7PM,
Tate Hall, Central Campus
Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award Winners
The Bechtler Ensemble
Re-imagining Our Place on This Earth
through Poetry and Music
This iconic team has cultivated their talents and desire to cross boundaries, reaching out through poetry and music to inspire audiences in difficult times. Elevating mind, body and spirit, their spoken words and music arrangements move us deeper into gratitude, transporting listeners to another realm. What emerges is the theme of healing and hope, light in darkness. Be it Sorkin, the Beatles, Rilke or Rumi.
Be it the husband-wife team “Tanja and Bob.” Be there to hear it!
Larry Sorkin is a poet-in-residence at the Airy Knoll Arts Project. His poetry book Uncomfortable Minds was published in 2021.
Tanja Bechtler, cellist and adjunct instructor at Central Piedmont, is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Bechtler Ensemble.
Robert Teixeira, currently on the faculty at Queens University and Central Piedmont Community College, has collaborated with award-winning guitarist, Mary Akerman, in concert appearances.
Learn more about The Bechtler Ensemble here.
April 14, 11AM & 7:30PM Halton Theater, Central Campus
Irene Blair Honeycutt Distinguished Lecturer
Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera is the 21st Poet Laureate of the United States (2015-2016) and the first Latino to hold the position. Herrera is the author of thirty books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children.
Learn more about Juan Felipe Herrera here.
The Hidden Power of Sad Songs and Rainy Days
by
Susan Cain
When I was in my early 30s, I was an associate at a Wall Street law firm. And I had been working 16-hour days for seven years straight. And even though, ever since I was four years old, I'd had this beautiful and impossible dream of becoming a writer, I was also pretty ambitious and on the verge of making partner. Or so I
thought.
Because, one day, a senior partner named Steve Shalen knocked on my office door. Steve was tall and distinguished and very decent. And he sat down and he reached for the squishy stress ball on my desk, and he said that I wasn't going to be making partner after all. And I remember very badly wishing that I had a stress ball too, but Steve Shalen was using mine. And I remember feeling sorry that it had fallen to Steve
to be the one to tell me this news, because he really was a good guy. And I remember bursting into tears right in front of him, such a nonpartnerish thing to do. But that very afternoon I up and left my law firm for good. And a few weeks after that ended a seven-year relationship that had always felt wrong.
And so, now I was in my early 30s, and suddenly I had no career, no love, no place to live. And immediately, I fell into a relationship with a handsome musician who liked to compose lyrics by day and stand around a piano with friends, singing, at night. And he was the wrong guy for various reasons, but my feelings for him developed into this crazy obsession, the likes of which I have never experienced before or
since, thankfully. No matter what I did, I couldn't escape it. Until one day, a friend said to me, “You are this hooked because he represents something you're longing for. What are you longing for?"
To continue reading and/or watch this TED talk, click here.
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 "longing."
PROMPT:
What are you (or one of your characters) longing for? Dive into answering this question with your whole self—mind, heart, body, and spirit.
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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