Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric;

out of the quarrel with ourselves, we make poetry.

                               ~W.B. Yeats

Language has amazing power in our lives. In many ways, it is what makes us human.

While all creative writing is an outlet for personal expression and a source of entertainment, poetry is unique in its intense power to transform both writer and reader. Poetry is language distilled to a powerful potion that leads us to look again, to question, to wonder, to feel, to connect. It magically offers not answers, but questions; a great poem actually leads us reconsider our deepest sensibilities. Both a visual and aural art form, poetry translates everyday experiences into language "art" that has sound and shape and texture and flavor and mysticism and meaning.

Like all art -- music, dance, theater, photography, painting, sculpture -- poetry rekindles our spirits and reawakens our connection to the human condition. Poetry, especially, has historically been the art form for romanticism, religion and revolution, each poem sacred even as it is secular.

Though often recited with passion, poetry inevitably is the genre that makes us want to lean in, as we listen carefully, our hearts open to a poet who shares secrets too wonderful -- or too disturbing -- to say directly. Put best by Emily Dickinson, poets "tell the truth, but tell it slant."

EMBRACE THE POET INSIDE YOU

The basis for InSpiritry® is that words have the power to work for good, and you have the power to be a wordsmith. In that way, we can inspire one another.

Give poetry a try. Take a minute or two out of your busy schedule. Consider the world around you. Be attentive to it. Notice sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes. Now open your heart to memories that come to mind. How do you feel?

Now you are ready to write:

• Choose a tanglible sensation (person, object, sound, smell, etc.) that is intense for you.
• Describe it in great detail. Make a word bank.
• What are you reminded of? What life experience is it like? What does it make you wonder or dream about?
• Write about your experience using the details from the first sensation.
• Now find the poem that begins with your sensation, shares your experience and then returns somehow to a detail you introduced in the first few lines.
• Rework your lines with words that repeat sounds or have interesting connotations or say exactly what you want to say.
• Read your work out loud. Smile to celebrate the sound of it!
• YOU HAVE WRITTEN A POEM!

ANNE MCCRADY—POET

That poetic process is repeated dozens of times every week for InSpiritry® founder and lifelong writer, Anne McCrady. Known for her vivid imagery and creative use of sound, Anne illuminates topics that range from family relationships to personal journeys, from global politics and to local social justice, from natural settings to urbane dilemmas. Full of conversational wisdom with a generous helping of hope, Anne’s work has won local, state and national awards as well as wide publication. Beyond her own work, Anne is active in supporting literary groups and events.

Anne’s InSpiritry® creative writing workshops and keynotes offer practical insights into the process of poetry, memoir, fiction and creative non-fiction, all based on the inspiring power of carefully chosen words. Anne’s innovative presentations are perfect for literary guilds, classroom instruction, museum outreach, faith-based events or writing conferences.

Anne's poems have garnered many local, regional and national awards and prizes, and her work can be found in a wide range of journals, magazines, anthologies and websites. In 2003, she won the Poetry Society of Texas Edwin M. Eakin Manuscript Publication Award for her full-length, Texas-inspired collection, Along Greathouse Road. In 2007, her manuscript, Under a Blameless Moon, won the Pudding House Chapbook Contest, a national competition that included publication and $1000 cash award.

Purchase Signed Copies of Anne's Poetry Collections!

InSpiritry® POETRY READINGS BY ANNE MCCRADY

Along Greathouse Road: Snapshots of Rural Perspectives
This reading offers selections from Anne’s first poetry collection, Along Greathouse Road, which won the 2003 Edwin M. Eakin Book Publication Award offered by the Poetry Society of Texas. With unforgettable characters, picturesque settings and Anne’s distinctive reading voice, this program takes audiences "back home" for a while.

Under a Blameless Moon: Personal Connections to Peace

Based on Anne's award-winning chapbook collection by the same name, this powerful set of poems takes the reader on a journey of conscience. From family scenes to classroom dramas to battlefield nightmares to hopeful skies, this provocative collection speaks to issues of social justice and peace in the most practical ways.

The Space Between: Poems for Those Seeking the Spirit
These original poems remind audience members of the universal truth: all of us, as individuals or as organizations, are caught in the "space between I am and I will be." This reading illuminates our doubts and resists our boundaries. It is a treat even for those who don't count themselves as poetry aficionados!

Dropped Coins: Loving and Letting Go
It is our everyday experiences that can most connect us as human beings. Anne has a way of holding life up to the light and making the mundane seem holy. This program offers selections that remind us that we all share this truth: our lives are spent loving and letting go...and then beginning again.

The Luminous Epinoia
Some early Christian fellowships recognized the Holy Spirit as a feminine divine presence, experienced as joyful creativity. While most faith traditions have been led by men, Anne believes there is inspiration to be gained from a female perspective on spirituality and faith. These poems offer tributes to everyday moments of holiness.

	Poetry is truth revealed in a way that bewilders even as it clarifies. Matt Fitzgerald, Poetry
Anne with poet Naomi Shihab Nye at the Poetry at Round Top Festival		Anne with Texas Poet Laureate Violette Newton

InSpiritry® WRITING WORKSHOPS WITH ANNE MCCRADY

Passionate Writing: Rekindling the Spirit of Our Words

A great workshop for personal or spiritual renewal, in this session Anne reaffirms personal experience as a wellspring for literary expression. Memories, relationships, interests, experiences, knowledge, faith and concerns can all be used creatively to lead to more passionate writing as well as more passionate living. Especially useful for those considering writing memoirs or family journals.

Recommended for: Writing groups, family reunions, churches, civic groups, retreats.

Art to Art: Ekphrastic Writing
Writing in response to visual art can stimulate creative expression in new and exciting ways. This workshop offers a step-by-step process of intensive obervation that used can be applied to writing, art appreciation, storytelling, painting and even law enforcement. These same techniques can also bridge music, dance, architecture and other art forms. Recommended for: Museums, galleries, senior centers and educational settings.

Expressing the Spirit: The Process of Poetry
This program looks at how poetry is created, from an initial topic through the mechanics of form and content to the details that impact the final impression left on the reader. For "would-be" poets, this is a chance to discover the joy of creative writing. For writers, musicians, artists and other creative folks, this program is a great chance for creative renewal!

Recommended for: Writing guilds, bookstores, senior centers, churches, schools.

Poetry: The Voice of Our Humanity

For centuries, it has been the poets who spoke the unspeakable about such things as social justice, war and peace, institutions, relationships and spirituality. In this workshop, participants are led to examine their core values and to use vivid imagery, fresh metaphors and honest language to say the things they feel to be said with passion.

Recommended for: Writing guilds, bookstores, senior centers, churches, schools

Organic Poetry: Writing as a Group
This presentation encourages audience members to work together creatively. Perfect for classrooms and other group settings, this program includes exercises designed to guide a group to brainstorm and then, using tools such as alliteration, metaphor, rhyme and rhythm, work together to create an original poem.

Recommended for: Schools, retreats, conferences

Imagine That! Writing 101

Anne McCrady has a magical way of making writing fun for would-be writers as well as elementary and secondary students. Using imaginative activities and open-hearted interaction, Anne turns ordinary instruction into a celebration of words and stories. While exploring writing basics like imagery, metaphor and voice, students and others can discover that they have all they need inside to speak their hearts to the world!

Recommended for: Schools, Youth Groups, Churches, Detention Centers, Conferences

The “Voice” of Experiences: Personalizing Creative Writing
Creative Writing is at its best when it has a unique “voice.” In this workshop, poet and sotryteller Anne McCrady leads participants to recognize how distinct vocabulary, familiar metaphors, memories and personal experiences can strengthen any writing project. This workshop, similar to one Anne gives using poetry, is great for those who want to personalize and improve their writing.

Recommended for: Writing groups, family reunions, churches, civic groups, retreats.

What Judges and Editors Want and Readers Need
Success when submitting to contests and publications depends on being able to analyze a piece of writing objectively. This workshop offers a glimpse into the oft-maligned process of judging and editorial selection, with practical tips for revision and polishing. Of course, the very things that sell a poem to judges make it a hit with readers too!

Recommended for: Bookstores, writers' groups, writing classes, writing conferences

What Makes Poetry Poetic?
While there are as many definitions offered for “poetry” as there are poets, there are some ideas that have stood the test of time. Using quotes from well-known poets and examples of great writing, this program offers tips on how to make any genre of creative writing more poetic.

Recommended for: Writers groups, schools

Zen and the Art of Poetic Imagery
The Asian tradition of juxtaposing images for poetic meaning has much to teach modern day writers. Poets are as much visual artists as they are linguists. This workshop leads participants in the essential practice of imagination, image creation and imagery, a practice that underscores the wisdom of "show, don’t tell."

Recommended for: Writers guilds, art groups, schools, creative writing classes

Poets I Have Known and Loved

This is a visit to Anne's personal poetry bookshelf, a feast of exquisite poetry from a wide range of Texas, U.S. and international poets, most still living and writing. For anyone who wants a guide to great contemporary verse and those needing inspiration for their own poetic writing, this session in listening for the muse is essential.

Recommended for: Civic groups, writers groups, creative writing classes

         For other speaking topics, click here.                            

Anne with other Poetry Society of Texas

Book Publication Award Winners:

Evelyn Corry Appelbee, the late Wendy Dimmette,

Paul J. Holcomb & 2006 Texas Poet Laureate Alan Birkelbach

SAMPLES OF ANNE'S POETRY

(click linked titles to listen)

Just War

from Under a Blameless Moon

How can the little boy who listened

deep into his dreams to the lullaby

of his father's voice reading

Goodnight Moon

somehow be old enough

to talk to me about war?

When did the cherub who knelt

with folded pudgy hands

offering the Lord's Prayer on Sundays,

the saint whose shiny quarters

fed children with no supper

begin reciting dark mantras?

Could he be disguised as this

broad-shouldered man in boots

and blue jeans who now gives me his best

puffed chest as he tells me

I must believe

there can be a good kill?

It is hard to say what happens

while children are away in the world

of battles for a seat on the bus

or a spot on the team, hard to know

how life is colored by the loss of a friend

in an armored parade a world away.

Maybe I was the one who taught him

this version of a soldier's song...

didn't we sit together

beneath a blameless moon

while I told him the story

of David launching the stone?

 

Visiting Poet

from Under a Blameless Moon

 

I am careful not to ask too much

about home, careful not to explain things

in terms of families with moms and dads.

There aren’t many of those anymore.

The kids here don’t know there ever were.

I am a stranger, an intruder, a social dinosaur

with my stable nuclear unit and dinner table nights.

 

But today I have to be their inspiration;

their teacher sure a poet can convey

the writing life in three short days.

I have to see their anger

and pull it out into the room

so they can open up the stuff inside

and write it down.

 

I have to hear in their silent stares

the screams and laughter of the bus ride home

and help them turn that into music on a page.

When I ask them to, it will be the first time

some of them have closed their eyes

while they have been awake—

a thing too dangerous or silly until now.

 

As I lead them to remember smells or sounds

that take them to a place they used to know,

not all of them will smile.

Instead, a tear or two will drip

from noses held above clinched teeth

and onto sleeves that fall on fisted hands.

I will show them how to find the beauty in that too.

 

When they start to write, I will hold my breath

and watch them put down words and words,

not caring about form or final draft,

the letter spilling from their troubled hearts

until the truth comes breaking through,

and reading it, the class will cry, together.

I will not ask too much.

West Bank, Day Thirty-Seven

from Under a Blameless Moon

 

cold gun-metal dawn

                    sweet water in the well

          high milk and honey sky

wise olive trees    ancient prayers

                    land of fathers of fathers

          promised                promised

first engines groaning,

                              crawling

          past barricades stacked

                    against injustice

streets filling        vengeance    madness

          shouts clattering like stones

eyes glazed                    teeth-jarring anger

          every word a weapon

                              every building a battlesite

turbid air      gun blast     cannon whistle

          crisp sun on dancing snakes of smoke

crowds of youngsters rising,

                                                  falling

          grandmothers crying

                              stories into their hands

          young men eating the bread

of death       bodies like spent blossoms, bloody

          limbs lifted by shirt sleeve

           pulled by pant leg

mothers heaving anguish into baskets

          no cease      fire in the streets

ancient prayers in first light

                    promises scorched by dry heat

of hatred                passed father to father

          bitter wine             stained cloth

Oh, God

              of small favors

                              where have you hidden

                         peace?

Greathouse Road

from Along Greathouse Road

Before subdivisions and trailer parks

sprang up like volunteer wheat,

this stretch of highway was his favorite

part about riding with his grandfather

back tot he house after long days

of moving cows, gathering peaches

and fixing the fence along Onion Creek.

Hugging the metal curve

of the old Chevy truck door,

his skinny chin propped on his forearm

as the draft of the open window

turned his hair into a tousled halo,

he had spent the drive staring

into his grandfather's fields

of maize, the rusty seedtops

flicking past as he listened

to the old man tell stories

of cotton gins and jenny mules

and low-water bridge crossings.

Jostled by the ruts and gulliles

of a road meant for tractors,

he slipped into the sleep

of little boys not used to farm work,

slumped against the shoulder

of the only man he knew

who could tell for sure

the heft of dirt ready for planting,

the sky-color of coming rain

and the taste of grain ready

to be pulled from stalks

too proud to bend to progress.

Laborer at Lunch

 from Along Greathouse Road

Look how he seeks shelter

from the sun in the small shadow

of a pickup truck bed,

how his back finds the pillow

of a whitewall,

how he laughs with the others,

faintly signs to the Father,

opens his lunch pail,pulls away the paper,

smiles at the treasure inside:

 

          day old bread and leftover meat

          pieces of over-ripe fruit

          ragged triangle of cream pie.

 

Watch him take the sandwich

in his fleshy hands like a blessing,

open the fruit skin slowly

with his teeth, drink its juices like wine,

balance the wedge of pie crust

to eat it point first,

savor every morsel,

then close his eyes to rest,

quietly offering a stray mother dog

the last blessed bite.

 

Read a poem about Story on Anne's Storytelling Page.

Read Anne's most well-known poem,

the finale to Under a Blameless Moon, her tribute to hope:

"Public Health Proposal"

 

Anne with Austin Poet Lyman Grant and 2008 Texas Poet Laureate Larry Thomas at the Austin International Poetry Festival	Anne with Texas Poet Laureate Cleatus Rattan and his wife Connie

ANNE'S PUBLISHING CREDITS

Publications that include Anne's poetry and prose

COLLECTIONS

• Along Greathouse Road Print Softcover and CD Audiobook

     Winner - Poetry Society of Texas Edwin M. Eakin Manuscript Award

• Under a Blameless Moon Chapbook

     Winner - Pudding House Innovative Writers Poetry Chapbook Contest

ANTHOLOGIES

• My Heart's First Steps     ISBN 1-58062-936-9, U.S.
• Essential Love     ISBN 0-9675554-2-6, U.S.
• The Book of Hopes and Dreams    ISBN 1-904781-89-6, Scotland
• Miracles of Motherhood     ISBN 1-9731722-92-7, U.S.
• Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers ISBN  1-59869-270-4
• Texas Poetry Calendars     ISBN FOR 2008 978-09760051, U.S.
• Di-verse-city

JOURNALS

• Texas Observer
• Texas Review
• Di-verse-city
• English in Texas
• Suddenly
• Windhover
• New Texas
• RE:AL
• Aries
• Midwest Poetry Review
• Lilliput Review
• Mediphors
• The Touchstone
• James River Review
• High Grade
• Langdon Review
• NFSPS Encore
• PST Book of the Year
• RCPS Yearbook

EDITORIAL CREDITS

• Ginbender Online Poetry Journal - former Assistant Editor/Critic
• English in Texas - Journal of TCTELA - former Assistant Reader
• Di-verse-city - Anthology of AIPF - Guest Editor, 2008

JUDGING CREDITS

• Poetry Society of Texas
• National Federation of State Poetry Societies
• Pennsylvania Poetry Society
• East Texas Writers Guild
• Rusk County Poetry Society
• Southwest Writers
• San Antonio Poets
• University of Texas at Tyler
• Full Armor Christian Academy

OTHER LITERARY PRIZES AND AWARDS

• Poetry Society of Texas Therese Lindsey Award
• National Federation of State Poetry Societies Founders Award
• Rusk County Poet of the Year

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED POETS

If you are dedicated to writing great poetry, your work deserves the influence of these gifted poets, all of whom are favorites of mine. Make time to read them!

       INTERNATIONAL POETS

• Usha Akella - India
• Ekiwah Alder-Belendez - Mexico
• Seamus Heaney - Ireland, Nobel Prize
• John Keats - Englad
• Rudyard Kipling - England, Nobel Prize
• Frederico Lorca - Spain
• Czeslaw Milosz - Poland, Nobel Prize
• Gabriela Mistral - Chile, Nobel Prize
• Pablo Neruda - Chile, Nobel Prize
• Octavia Paz - Mexico, Nobel Prize
• Li Po - China
• Alexander Pushkin - Russia
• Romain Rolland - France, Nobel Prize
• Rumi - Persia
• William Shakespeare - Britain
• Ahmad Shamlou - Iran
• Wole Soyinka - Africa
• Rabindranath Tagore - India, Nobel Prize
• Ko Un - Korea
• W. B. Yeats - Ireland, Nobel Prize
• Wislawa Szymborska - Poland, Nobel Prize

      AMERICAN POETS

• Julia Alvarez
• Margaret Atwood
• Wendell Berry
• Elizabeth Bishop - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Joseph Brodsky - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Gwendolyn Brooks - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Bly
• Hayden Carruth
• Sandra Cisneros
• Billy Collins
• Barbara Crooker
• Annie Dillard
• Mark Doty
• Rita Dove - U.S. Poet Laureate
• T.S. Eliot - Nobel Prize
• Claudia Emerson - Pulitzer Prize
• Jill Alexander Essbaum - Switzerland
• Lawarence Ferlinghetti
• Nick Flynn
• Carolyn Forche'
• Robert Frost - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Alan Ginzberg
• Nikki Giovanni
• Dana Gioia
• Louise Gluck - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Haas - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Donald Hall - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Hayden - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Hirsch
• Jane Hirschfield
• Marie Howe
• Langston Hughes
• Jane Kenyon
• Jack Kerouac
• Ron Koertge
• Ted Kooser - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Maxine Kumin - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Stanley Kunitz- U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Lowell - U.S. Poet Laureate
• W. S. Merwin - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Angela O'Donnell
• Sharon Olds
• Robert Pinsky - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Sylvia Plath
• Edgar Alan Poe
• Kay Ryan
• Carl Sandburg
• Gary Snyder
• William Stafford - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Gerald Stern
• Mark Strand - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Robert Penn Warren - U.S. Poet Laureate
• Walt Whitman
• Richard Wilbur - U.S. Poet Laureate
• C.K. Williams
• William Carlos Williams - U.S. Poet Laureate

      TEXAS POETS

• Kaye Abikhaled
• Evelyn Appelbee - PST Book Winner
• Linda Banks
• Alan Berecka
• Wendy Barker -
• Alan Birkelbach - 2003 Texas Poet Laureate
• Lyman Grant
• Michael Guinn
• Marian Haddad
• Tony Hoaglund
• James Hoggard - Texas Poet Laureate
• J. Paul Holcomb - PST Book Winner
• Walt McDonald
• Budd Powell Mahan
• Jack Myers  - Texas Poet Laureate
• Violette Newton - Texas Poet Laureate
• Kathleen Peirce
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• Cleatus Rattan - 2006 Texas Poet Laureate
• Anne Schneider
• Naomi Simmons
• Pat Stodghill
• Chuck Taylor
• Larry Thomas - 2008 Texas Poet Laureate
• Scott Wiggerman
• Robert Wynne - PST Book Winner

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