Welcome to National Poetry Month and Gyroscope Review’s month-long celebration of poets – and their diverse Writing Assistants. Enjoy the audio/video works by previous Gyroscope Review poets and be sure to check out the Author and fun Writing Assistant Bio at the end of each NPM poet post. Don’t forget to tag the poet on Social Media and let them know you enjoyed their work!
Burial
Burial When I arrive, you’re missing. Not in the rough-hewn box. Not in the prefab hole with the perfect corners. Not balanced on the conveyor straps slackened for descent, then tightened. Your silence interrupted by thumps worn prayerbooks dropped landing on the hinged wood. Had you been there, you might have hurled one, said, “See, I’ve still got my pitching stuff.” I don’t look at the hole when my turn comes to shovel, I take off my mittens. It could have been colder and I could have lied, evoked the trope of black umbrellas, but the truth is the sky was so blue that day, it sung.
WRITING ASSISTANT BIO
RUFUS HOROWITZ FRIEDMAN (2005-2022) was known for his impeccable taste in mice, cheese, and words. He spent many years helping his writer grade student papers, and he freely offered his opinions on her first drafts of poems, often deleting phrases with one nonchalant stroke of a paw that he felt were not in service to where a poem wanted to go. He had a special penchant for poems with large degrees of alliteration and assonance, which he loved purring along to as they were read aloud.
AUTHOR BIO
D. Dina Friedman’s newest books are the poetry collection Here in Sanctuary—Whirling (Querencia Press) and Immigrants (Creator’s Press). She’s also the author of two young adult novels: Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar, Straus, Giroux), and a previous book of poetry: Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press). Dina has published in over a hundred literary journals and received four Pushcart Prize nominations. Visit her website www.ddinafriedman.com, and subscribe to her blog on living a creative life in a creatively challenged universe at ddinafriedman.substack.com
Don’t forget to read the Spring 2024 Issue of Gyroscope Review.
NPM 2024 Poets
April 1 – Cal Freeman
April 2 – Susanna Lang
April 3 – Marion Brown
April 4 – Melissa Huff
April 5 – Elaine Sorrentino
April 6 – Alison Stone
April 7 – Alexandra Fössinger
April 8 – Laurie Kuntz
April 9 – Dick Westheimer
April 10 – Wendy McVicker
April 11 – J.I. Kleinberg
April 12 – Ellen Austin-Li
April 13 – D. Dina Friedman