Category: essay
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Welcome, 2021. We’ve Been Waiting For You
2021. Welcome. I keep checking out my window to make sure nothing is sneaking up on us, Mad Max style. It’s Day 1. So far, so good. Marking the New Year is supposed to be about resolutions. As writers, resolutions are easy to make and a bear to keep. The Muse is fickle, and despite…
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Killing Pesky Clichés
One thing we see a lot of here at Gyroscope Review is a good poem—that suddenly goes wrong. In their haste to put a tidy bow at the end of the poem, the poet wraps it up with a cliché. Instead of ending strong and leaving the reader to marvel at the deft wording, the…
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Taking Inspiration by Force
Although I’ve been writing poetry as best I can of late, I felt my output wasn’t where it should be. The state of the world had me flummoxed. My poems were scattered in theme and many felt unfinished even when completed— a sort of bookish throat-clearing that happens periodically as I flail about, searching. I…
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The Trouble With Being A Poet
The last two times on the Gyroscope Blog, I talked about listening vs. performing poetry. Here’s one last thought on that topic, more along the lines of reading vs performing poetry. Billy Collins. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed Collins’ poems until I started listening to his CD “Live”. I didn’t come to appreciate…
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Listening to Poetry — Part II
(Click HERE for Part I -Listening to Poetry vs Reading Poetry, and last week’s videos.) What happens when we listen to a poem? All kinds of stuff goes on in your brain when you’re actively listening. Scientifically, neurons in your brain fire in sync with the rhythmic structure of what you are listening to. Neurons…
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Listening to Poetry vs Reading Poetry, Part 1
Do you prefer to read your poetry on the page, or listen to it? (Or watch and listen to it?) Which are you more comfortable with? As a poet, do you write your poem to be read on the page or performed? Give a listen to the YouTube poem readings below and consider how each…
