Category: writing process
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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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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…
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Looking Down to Find Yourself
One of the things I miss about being pandemic homebound is flying to a different place. I’m not big on flying but once I get on the plane, and reassure myself the pilot DOES know what he/she is doing, everything is okay. I’ll even sit in the window seat. I love flying in the daytime…
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The Journal Jungle
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…
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It’s Drafty in Here
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…
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Throwing Your Heart into The Fire, or How to Win at the Publication Game by Elya Braden
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…
