This is the last of our special National Poetry Month presentations and Gyroscope Review’s month-long celebration of poets – and their diverse Writing Assistants. We hope you’ve enjoyed the audio/video works by previous Gyroscope Review poets and their fun Writing Assistant Bios. Thank you for reading and listening along with us. You can find these poets and more in our Back Issues. Be sure and read the Spring 2024 Issue for the latest poems and poets.
LES AMOUREUX EN BLEU – Marc Chagall, 1919, oil on paper
LES AMOUREUX EN BLEU Marc Chagall, 1919, oil on paper It’s blue, oceans of blue, filling the canvas in azure, blue jay feathers fallen to earth. His blue hair, demarked in curls. Her eye, in deep blue shadow. His blue shirt, white collar. Her blue dress, dotted with squares. Her blue lips, the sideways kiss. Where are they now, these lovers? Caught up in blue, they are so young, but this was over one hundred years ago. Now they are dead or old. Which is why we love paintings, isn’t it? Because here they can live in love forever. His eyes are closed as he drinks in her lips. Her gloved hand is tender on his cheek. Yes, there are slashes and gashes of black, but they only serve to delineate and define. Death’s shadow, that old black crow, does not appear. link to the Chagall painting which inspired the poem: https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/les-amoureux-en-blue-by-barbara-crooker
WRITING ASSISTANT BIO
AUTHOR BIO
Barbara Crooker is the author of twelve chapbooks and ten full-length books of poetry, including Some Glad Morning, Pitt Poetry Series, University of Pittsburgh Poetry Press, longlisted for the Julie Suk award from Jacar Press, The Book of Kells, which won the Best Poetry Book of 2019 Award from Poetry by the Sea, and Slow Wreckage (Grayson Books, 2024). Her other awards include: Grammy Spoken Word Finalist, the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council fellowships in literature. Her work appears in literary journals and anthologies, including The Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Here’s a link to Slow Wreckage; links to her other books can be found at her website, www.barbaracrooker.com
Don’t forget to read the Spring 2024 Issue of Gyroscope Review.
NPM 2024 Poets
April 1 – Cal Freeman
April 2 – Susanna Lang
April 3 – Marion Brown
April 4 – Melissa Huff
April 5 – Elaine Sorrentino
April 6 – Alison Stone
April 7 – Alexandra Fössinger
April 8 – Laurie Kuntz
April 9 – Dick Westheimer
April 10 – Wendy McVicker
April 11 – J.I. Kleinberg
April 12 – Ellen Austin-Li
April 13 – D. Dina Friedman
April 14 – Connie Post
April 15 – Georgina Key
April 16 – Judith McKenzie
April 17 – Jacqueline Jules
April 18 – Amanda Hayden
April 19 – Lisa Zimmerman
April 20 – Richard Jordan
April 21 – Beth Kanell
April 22 – Kari Gunter-Seymour
April 23 – Jane Edna Mohler
April 24 – Susan Cummins Miller
April 25 – Kathleen Wedl
April 26 – Judy Kronenfeld
April 27 – Claudia M. Reder
April 28 – Tresha Faye Haefner
April 29 – Alicia Elkort
April 30 – Barbara Crooker