Poem Renaissance – Laurie Rosen

Gyroscope Review is celebrating National Poetry Month with a Poem Renaissance, a review of previously published poems looking for new life and new views. Every day through May 20^th, a new poem to fall in love with all over again.

A Bevy of Infinitesimal Events Usher in Seismic Change
by Laurie Rosen

All June we hike Vermont’s rocky root-laden trails
while gypsy moths feed on tender leaves.

Fuzzy insects, no larger than my pinkie, defoliate  
entire forests of oak, birch, beech, and maple. 

Like the patter of warm summer rain, dropping
excrement fills the forest’s quietest corners.

We protect our hair—wrap blue and red kerchiefs 
over our heads, flick away stray caterpillars that fall 

onto the flimsy cotton, then squash them with our boots.
Countless tiny mouths digest one leaf at a time, 

leaving behind acres of destruction.
Their silken threads catch 

in the wind, sending them aloft–– 
tree to tree, east to west.


                    Previously Published in Lit Shark Best of 2024 Anthology 



Laurie Rosen is a lifelong New Englander. Her poetry has appeared in Gyroscope Review, Peregrine, Zig Zag Lit Mag, Oddball Magazine, The Inquisitive Eater: New School Food, One Art: a journal of poetry, and elsewhere. Laurie won first place in poetry at the 2023 Marblehead, MA Festival of the Arts.

Don’t forget to read the Spring 2025 Issue, available now, online and in print

Previous Renaissance Poets

April Poets