Sometimes, we find just what we need in another’s words. Thoughts that stir our thoughts can be a jumping-off point. It’s easy to dismiss another’s words of wisdom as not applying to you, it’s harder to absorb the thought, process it, and then decide if you can accept or reject the premise. Does something about the wording stir your imagination, grab hold, and not let go? Can you create a poem or two from the…
With the various lockdowns going on, I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of posts recommending prisoners, err, people do some journaling. This is a good thing. A good idea. It is helpful to get those thoughts down on paper to look at in the future. Confession time. I don’t journal. At least not in the traditional method of opening a blank book and spewing my guts. I have lots of blank books, I can’t…
National Poetry Month is two weeks in the rear-view mirror. How did your April go? Did you accomplish all you wished? I have an awful lot of poem starts, one to four lines of the beginning of poems. I found I work quite effectively this way, getting the idea down then coming back at a calmer time to flesh it out. I used to believe you had to write an entire draft of a poem…
Now that Gyroscope Review is open again for submissions, I’ve been thinking about rejections. As I read poem after poem, noting yes, no, or maybe, commenting online to the other editors and reading their comments, I’ve been thinking about the responsibility every editor has to the writers who are brave enough to risk rejection by putting their work out there for judgment. I just went through a nine-month wasteland of nothing but “No’s,” so believe…
