Wondrous Words: Winding Down the Writing Retreat

Our writing retreat ended this morning. After open mic last night and this morning I am convinced the participants will continue writing wondrous words long after they drive off today.Our visiting writer and my brother Raymond Pert inspired people to "let it rip" and they felt safe and supported doing just that.
HT said good-bye to the lake with our group mascot Dexter playfully following close by.
It was a good week. To keep wondrous words flowing our writers had a quiet setting, time, an inspirational visiting writer, support, campfire smoke, great camp food, tears, laughs, examples of good literature, songs sung by LR, reader's theater,hikes, fresh air, s'mores, camp dogs, and gorgeous sunsets.

Photo Images by Thea: Postcards from McCall

The area around our retreat center in McCall is breathtakingly beautiful. One of our participants Thea Carter took this series of photo images and gave me permission to post them.A group did a guided walk around the area yesterday and she captured some of these images.
I love the combination of textures in this photo.
The lake here is a deep blue, but here the beach along the shore creates quiet beauty.
I love how simple things like steps up from the beach can be an incredible creation of light and shadows. I will close with this postcard-like picture and let the beauty speak for itself.
photo collection by Thea Carter, June 2008

And This Is Life

Life
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double.
And this is life!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and tears to refresh us,
And joy seems sweeter when cries come after,

And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter
And that is life!

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

I enjoyed this poem recently in a novel I was reading. The ideas matched well with what we learned in our writing workshop today. Raymond Pert explained that the basic thing every writer needs is"to be awake". We need to pay attention, open our eyes, and listen. I was reminded of this poem as I reflected on my learning later. Whether it is thinking of a corner to sleep in , an Ode to Socks, or a favorite childhood food writers need to be awake to it. It is so simple.

Dexter pictured above is a perfect example a creature that enjoys life. His owner works at the camp and this dog pays attention to the lake, the squirrels, the guests, and just wears a smile that says, " I am awake."

I had to take a series of pictures of him because his face reminds me so much of my dog Annie. Dexter is a Springer/Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix.

Open Mic night

Tonight we had our first open mic night at the Writing Retreat. People had the opportunity to share their own writing. This is my friend Bev that coordinates the retreat with me. She shared a piece she had composed earlier in the day. LR, my brother-in-law's sister sang two beautiful gospel songs she had written and recorded as part of her sharing for the evening. The lyrical words and the melodies brought tears to my eyes.
Our classroom is a yurt. We have lots of natural light and a view of the lake. It doesn't get much better than this!

Filling the Vase: A.M. Writing Workshop

In our workshop this morning Raymond Pert had us compose a piece that associated writing with activities we do that bring us pleasure. Here is the first draft of my poem:

Filling the Vase

Writing is wandering through the
garden path harvesting morning flowers.
Gathering leaves, finding fillers,
snipping blossoms as they begin to open.
Pausing to reflect and even observe
while paying attention to the smells.

Gold, chartreuse, and deep purple become the wondrous words,
thorny stems phrases cut too deep.
The combination of textures sort the sentence variety
over powered by the sweet scent of similes.

The violet vase is the vessel of form
Aligning the sentences, arranging the words,
Taming texture with attention to audience.

Place the bouquet on the farmhouse table,
or away for a spell to let the contents settle.

inland empire girl June 24, 2008

Gathering for Writing: A Perfect Setting

The participants in the writing retreat arrived today. We began our retreat with a short session, and were able to enjoy this lovely sunset as we gathered around the campfire.
People had some time to get acquainted and enjoy some relaxation before we begin our writing sessions tomorrow.

Our visiting writer is my brother Raymond Pert. He participates in the weekly sibling assignments and his blog can be found here. His car broke down this morning after he was halfway here. Finally he found a rental truck and was able to arrive in time to meet the group at the campfire. I look forward to a full day of writing and discussion tomorrow.