Reading poetry Archives – Gyroscope Review

Reading Women Poets of the World

By Constance Brewer | August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 by Constance Brewer

I’ve been re-reading Women Poets: From Antiquity to Now by Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone. It’s an interesting collection ranging from a lone Sumerian poet through Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Persian, Indian, African, Chinese, Japanese, European, Native American poets, and even one translated Egyptian Hieroglyph poem. The time span ranges from about 2300 BC to poets born in the 1950s. The range of voices is fascinating. Although hundreds and sometimes thousands of years separate the poets…

essay

The Trouble With Being A Poet

By Constance Brewer | September 15, 2020September 14, 2020 by Constance Brewer

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 it until I was into about the tenth listening while driving across the barren Wyoming plains week after week. About…

essay

Listening to Poetry — Part II

By Constance Brewer | September 1, 2020August 30, 2020 by Constance Brewer

(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 like the rhythmic and process it exactly into your brain. On the other hand, the pitch of sounds might get…