WRITING–POETRY & PROSE
WRITING POETRY...
Wyrick’s greatest interest in writing is in creating poetry, perhaps because her visual artwork is constructed of many images acting together to create more than what is seen on the surface. She attended poetry workshops in Minnesota in the 1990s and fell in love with the intrigue of playing with language just as she plays with visual images in her art.
The artwork done by Wyrick that is shown on this website tells much of the story of her creative journey in visual art, but around 2009 when she became a member of the University Women’s Writing Group, she found that writing poetry has deep resonance with her visual works. Poetic imagery relates directly to the visual relief imagery that had been her preference in making sculpture.
Based on “Ruthlessly, but Kind” critiques of its members’ writings, the group is encouraged to deeply analyze a wide range of writing without offense to the authors. Many members also encourage and share how to pursue having works published.
The Writing Group of the University Club offers members the gift of caring, the gift of listening, the gift of careful consideration, the gift of others’ insights. The differing ways that these friends see Wyrick’s writing has helped her meet the challenge of finding the right words, the right rhythms, the right tone so that she can express her feelings and emotions most powerfully and clearly in poetry. And in addition, they help her at times to express her insights in a humorous way.
Concrete Poems...
About Art...
Games...
When I wrote Twelve O'Clock Midnight, I was bringing to the poem my memory of an early childhood game of tag in the dark that my sister, cousins and I played in my cousins’ long bedroom that was actually made from two rooms whose adjoining wall had been taken out. This game was unendingly exciting. As we sat on the bed reciting the Twelve O'Clock Midnight verse (that always resulted in the light being switched off) and then ran to touch the opposite wall and back to home base without being tagged in the dark by the person who was “It,” we developed numerous strategies to stay “safe.”
Almost all members of the Writing Group responded to my reading of this poem with one word ––“Chilling.” What I had thought must be a common childhood game that frightened but thrilled us as children was not known by anyone at that W.G. meeting. Instead, its underlying metaphor of awaiting Death was thought to be its primary meaning. This poem sparked a long discussion about childhood games and created a question in my mind as to who might have actually originated the game, which I now know I’ll never find out.
Upon hearing this poem, another member questioned what an “outcropping on the wall” was and I gave the answer in my second poem, The Outcropping on the Wall.
Humor...
Family & Friends...
Health...
