I have a few things to cover today, so let’s dive in!

When we went back to church on Sunday, I opened the bulletin, and there inside was a separate paper detailing the new Masterclasses being offered by the church, one being creative writing! I vowed to sign up immediately, which I did as soon as I went home. The classes are being offered every Tuesday for the next month, and last night was my first one. It was on poetry, but that’s ok, I’ve been writing more poetry than ever since joining Medium several years ago.

I was excited to be doing something not only through my church but in my chosen field. When I got there, we all met in the fellowship hall to eat our brown bag dinners, and then we were led to our prospective classes. (There are several going on, including DIY, Art, and Journaling) I was surprised that our instructor for the Creative Writing class was our associate pastor Holly’s husband. I’d never met him or the three other people in the class, so here is another benefit: getting to know more people at church!

The first thing he talked about was the poetry of two different people so he could compare their styles and give a brief history on both. I was instantly intrigued by the work of Dorothy Parker (the queen of satire) and when I got home, I googled her for more in-depth info. What a woman! For being a poet from the 20s and 30’s era, she was quite an outspoken and brash sort of woman, yet funny too. Check out her poem, Comment:

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.

She’s a hoot, isn’t she? Read more here.

The next poet was William Carlos Williams, whose poem was super simplistic, yet said a lot:

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

What a difference in style and tone, right?! After those two were discussed and their styles explained, we moved on to meter, rhyme, and metaphor. He talked about hymns and how to identify the meter, rhythm, and syllabic structure in each one. I don’t want to bore you with everything, but it was a very interesting class, and we were even given an assignment for next time! I can’t wait!

On a totally different subject, yesterday I got busy cleaning out and straightening a couple of cabinets and the closet in the game room that holds all the boxes we never unpacked, plus a few we brought home from Claudette’s house after she passed away. I was mainly trying to downsize the boxes, which I did, and reduce some clutter. I seem to be in spring cleaning mode. It is probably still me dealing with the grieving process, and that’s ok. It’s better for me to stay busy so I don’t have time to think or dwell on things that make me sad. One good thing that came out of it was that I found another beautiful box I had previously used to hold junk or something, that I can now use to store mementos and pictures of Dad. I already had one for Mom, so this was a perfect find.

The next and hardest task will be to go through pictures and make albums and frame up some pictures to hang up.

In due time. 😉