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…
Let’s talk about ending poems. Reading through slush I’m always looking for a kick-ass ending to a poem. It’s like watching a close basketball game. Last quarter, 2 seconds on the clock, poet racing down the page. Here’s the throw at the buzzer and Ohh…..it bounces off the rim. I hate that. I want the poet to succeed, make me slump back in my seat, stunned with awe and envy. Rock my world. That is…
