Our Fourth Anniversary Issue and the Kickoff of Poets Read

April is not a cruel month around here. We are so excited to offer you our fourth anniversary issue, available on Amazon as either a print edition or a Kindle edition.

You can purchase either edition here: AMAZON PRINT OR KINDLE EDITIONS

And, as always, our PDF version is available here: PDF EDITION

Four years! We can’t quite believe how fast that time has gone by and how much Gyroscope Review has changed over those four years. We began as a digital-only journal, then offered our first print-on-demand issue for Winter 2017. Josh Colwell joined us in 2018 and took over the social media management. We’ve created covers that have included original photos and drawings, and have created special themed issues that drew in new voices. And this fourth anniversary issue includes the results of The Quatrain Project, a giant collaborative poem project we launched on Groundhog Day this year.

While a fourth anniversary issue is a fine way to kick off National Poetry Month, we have more for you. Much more. We are pleased to offer our Poets Read series, beginning today, and will run it throughout the month of April. Every day, our website and our YouTube channel will feature the voice of a poet whose work has appeared in our pages over the past year. On Sundays, we will offer two poets for your enjoyment.

Let us begin with the voice of Carolyn Martin as she reads her poem Evidence from the Fall 2018 issue of Gyroscope Review.


Evidence
by Carolyn Martin

The fact is I could eat the same meal everyday.
The fact is I do.
The fact is I despise playing games.
The fact is I love playing games I can win.
The fact is Druids knocked on wood to startle trees awake.
The fact is I don’t like trees observing me. 
The fact is behind my façade there’s a scared kid who hopes no one calls her out.
The fact is I hate parties unless I’m in charge.
The fact is the hardest character to impersonate is me.
The fact is I prefer the stark mystery of koans to biblical poetry.
The fact is we will be remembered not for what we build, but for what we destroy.
The fact is people don’t improve much; however, there are exceptions.
The fact is I walk pigeon-toed – although pigeons do it better.
The fact is elbows can’t be licked.
The fact is vertical swirls of wine on the glass’s side are legs
The fact is arteries pulse different tones in the body’s bloody symphony.
The fact is I’d rather play with aquatic humanoids than those carbon-based.
The fact is yetis are more probable than fairies. 
The fact is I could be too good to be true, but I am not.
The fact is bunk is bunk and there’s lots to go around.
The fact is death is impermanent. Ask any perennial.
The fact is 300-pound gorillas in any room are over-rated primates.
The fact is I don’t own pets because I fall in love too hard, too fast.
The fact is beauty’s felt before it’s seen.
The fact is when I can’t climb a mountain, it bends its top toward me. 
The fact is when little is at stake, risk is a breeze.
The fact is on this day something happened somewhere.
The fact is happenstance delights more than plans.
The fact is I’ve filed 97 “Words of the Day” and haven’t sentenced one.
The fact is fact found print in the 15th century, arriving with brainless, 
      foolishness, hodgepodge, and mockery.

About the Poet: From associate professor of English to management trainer to retiree, Carolyn Martin has journeyed from New Jersey through California to Oregon to discover Douglas firs, months of rain, and dry summers. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in publications throughout North America and the UK, and her fourth collection, A Penchant for Masquerades, was just released by Unsolicited Press. Find out more about Carolyn and her publications at www.carolynmartinpoet.com.