Drew Myron's Blog, page 60

What's your trick?

reminder • two in a series • by drew myron

Be a Follower

On Monday, July 1, 2013, Google Reader is going away.

Is this a big deal? Not really. Fortunately, when one window closes, a zillion others open.

To follow this blog you have many options. I suggest you:

Enjoy this blog delivered directly to your email.
No fuss, no muss, and you won't miss a minute. Simply type your email address in the box at right, where it says Follow This Blog By Email.  —>

Or

Use a blog feed service, such as Bloglovin. It's a helpful way to organize your favorite blogs in one place. To follow this blog, simply copy this url: http://www.drewmyron.com/off-the-page/. This blog will be added to your list of favorites to follow. (If you're currently using Google Reader, you'll have the easy option of importing your existing blog list).

 

How do you read this blog? What's the easiest way to organize and read your favorite blogs? And how many blogs do you follow?

Thankful Thursday: Retreat

The memory might wilt but it blossoms a new treasure each meeting of pen to paper. — Hayden
I recently enjoyed 24 hours of suspended responsibility.
And now I long to regain the lightness a brief retreat provided.

At the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology earlier this month, I spent the day playing with words. There was no pressure to write smart, clever or profound. We let loose, and encouraged each other to wonder, wander, explore.

It was a luxury of sorts, and just what I needed. Like most people, my days are full of deadlines, demands and the small pressing acts living requires — meals to make, towels to wash, and worry over bills, health, housing and the myriad things beyond my control. 

In a life full of internal chatter, my day away allowed time for restorative quiet. Barbara Hurd writes that this sort of refuge helps "stop our natterings, our foot twitchings and restless tongues."

Those who are fond of various retreats — writers, ecstatics, parents with young children — often comment on the silence such time away allows. Silence becomes something present, almost palpable. The central task shifts from keeping the world at a safe decibel distance to letting more of the world in. Thomas Aquinas said that beauty arrests motion. He meant, I think, that in the presence of something gorgeous or sublime we stop our natterings, our foot twitchings and restless tongues. Whatever our fretful hunger is, it seems momentarily filled in the presence of beauty. To Aquinas’s wisdom I’d add that silence arrests flight, that in its refuge our need to flee the chaos of noise diminishes. We let the world creep closer; we drop to our knees as if to let the heart, like a small animal, get its legs on the ground.

— Barbara Hurd, from Refugium in The Georgia Review

On this Thankful Thursday, I am grateful for a day away, removed from worry and immersed in the pleasure of playing with words.

It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate people, places, things and more. Joy contracts and expands in proportion to our gratitude. What makes your world expand?

 

Note to Forgetful Self

reminder • one in a series • by drew myron

Thankful Thursday: Announcement

We take a break from our regularly scheduled gratitude to provide this special public service announcement:

Thank you notes are not optional.

This message brought to you by the loving friends and families of graduates who are enjoying a season of goodwill and gifts.

 

Photo Credit: Tim Morgan via Compfight cc

Happiness Is Running Out

Or wait, I mean: Happiness is . . . running out of books!

Thin Skin, a collection of photos and poems, is now in its second printing.

If you bought my book, thank you from the bottom of my deep and needy heart. If you didn't, here's your chance to get it free:

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Thin Skin
by Drew Myron

Giveaway ends July 16, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Can't wait? Must have it now? I like your style.
Buy Thin Skin here:

• Amazon

• Push Pull Books publisher

• West Side Books in Denver, Colo

• Mari's Books in Yachats, Ore

• Directly from the author (me!).
  Send cash, check, trade, or jellybeans, to:

Drew Myron
PO Box 914
Yachats, Oregon  97498

Thankful Thursday: Grab Bag

•  a $2 thrift store blouse •  massage •  a box of books •  poemcrazy by susan wooldridge •  waking to sun •  lungs to run •  legs to climb •  the idea of pink brussel sprouts •  bubble bath •  olive oil •  these words from anne carson: it is when you are asking about something that you realize you yourself have survived it, and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself •  wedge heels •  a quick easy laugh •  once, when I was 23, sad, and living alone in a big and dreary city, an elderly man stopped me in the produce section of the grocery store. you are pretty, he said. i was overweight, overwrought, and not at all pretty but it didn't matter because in three words he eased the pressing isolation of invisibility. maybe that is the best gift: to be seen •

 

It's Thankful Thursday. Please join me in a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things and more. What are you thankful for today?

Wordless Wednesday*

Is attending a writing workshop as much fun as preparing for it?

See you Saturday at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology!

 

* with thanks to Molly Spencer, creator of Wordless Wednesday.

Thankful Thursday (on Friday): Laundry

It's Thankful Thursday! Please join me in a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places and things — large and small.

On this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful for laundry. Yes, I said I am thankful for piles of stain and stink.

Of all the household chores, laundry is the lazy girl's dream. You don't have to break a sweat or break a nail — and the results are dramatic and fairly quick. A task requiring very little physical toil perfectly suits my domestic lassitude. I like to fold and iron. When my mind is a tangle of deadlines and decisions, doing laundry provides a sort of solitary focus, and a sense of accomplishment. With the touch of a button and a few folds, I get order, in my house and in my head.

I'm not alone. Years ago in a poetry class with Sage Cohen, one of our assignments was to write about an ordinary task, such as washing dishes or mowing the lawn. Great material lurks in the mundane.

There is joy in clean laundry.
All is forgiven in water, sun

and air.

— from Laundry, by Ruth Moose

What are you thankful for today?

What have you done?

Indexed - by Jessica Hagy

So, what have you done for your writing community lately?

We've talked before about good citizenship but it's a concept for which I can't stop trilling (or drilling). Here's the deal: It's not enough to write your novel, poem, story. You've got to give back. It's that simple. You give, you get, you give some more.

Pioneering the principles of Literary Citizenship, Cathy Day sums it best (italics mine): "I wish more aspiring writers would contribute to, not just expect things from, that world they want so much to be a part of."

How to contribute? Take a cue from these Literary Citizens:

Shine a Light (on someone other than yourself)
• Brian Brodeur, creator of How a Poem Happens, has penned two award-winning books but you'll never hear him hyping himself. Instead, he interviews other poets to gain backstory on their work (to date, over 150 poets featured). The results are insightful, sometimes amusing, and always useful.

• I like Mark Thalman's style. Rather than mention his book at every turn, he turns your attention to others. He created www.poetry.us.com for just this reason. Packed with poems and writing tips from his favorite poets, it's a one-man labor of love. He's not making money, and, in fact, he's busy teaching middle school students and writing his own poems, but he takes time and effort to make others look good.

• When poet Diane Lockward was writing a book of craft techniques, she reached out to other poets for poems they had penned using her prompts and practices. Using these real-world examples, her forthcoming book, The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop, includes the work of 100 poets — a real chorus of the community!

Write a Book Review
• Give a writer gold. Write an Amazon or GoodReads review and that book will get traction, and maybe even sales. No joke, a quick review — and we're talking just two to three sentences delivered with enthusiasm — will boost a book's visibility. Forget those high school book reports, today's "review" is simply feedback, and it really is gold to an author.

Provide a Stage
• Lisa Romeo, nonfiction writer and teacher, frequently invites authors to compose pieces on topics of their choosing. This simple action — providing a stage for writing colleagues to share their work — introduces others to new authors, books, and ideas. She illuminates, and helps others navigate, a wider world of writers.

Take to the Streets
Literary Citizens take action. They give words a fresh twist. Need some ideas?

• That man ranting on the street? Oh, that's just poet Shawnte Orion. He's taken part in over 50 readings and the venues are often, ahem, unusual. As in: pool halls, art galleries, and busy street corners. He's what I call a true poet of the people.

• Set up a booth — for poetry, like this group offering Poems While You Wait. Wouldn't this be a great fundraiser for your favorite literary organization?

• For three years, I've helped orchestrate a poetry contest for the Denver County Fair. Poems get ribbons (just like pies) and winners get to read their poems on the stage between canned preserves and pet pigs. It's a hoot, and it showcases local, often unsung, writers.

Encourage Others
We've all got voices in our head, and most of them are unkind. How wonderful, then, when a colleague offers sincere applause, or an offer to write together, or to share work. The simple stuff, really.

And even better to encourage young writers, those finding their way and their voice. Read to a child. Write with a teen. Small actions can yield powerful results.

"Writers and artists naturally have generous spirits, I think, and we need to tap into that generosity to support one another (and let go of envy)," writes poet Hannah Stephenson.  

Exactly.

Pay attention. Take action. Be a good citizen.