From the Editors
In my part of the world it is gray and cold outside, snow swirls in fits and starts, and arctic blasts
sweep patches of the prairie bare. It's a time to be inside looking out, or inside looking deeper
inside, contemplating life in all its myriad forms. Something about winter and the prospect of
long, dark nights leads one to introspection more readily than do warm spring days. It's good to
spend time alone with your thoughts. It's better to spend some time with poetry, considering a
wide variety of topics. In this quarter's issue, poets spent a great deal of time reflecting on
everything from death to walking the dog. There are a lot of personal experiences that may
resonate with the reader. One overarching theme we found was that of loss. Loss of little things
all the way to loss of a loved one. Pain is tempered by hope, and a longing for a different future.
Several poems look outside our world, to the stars. Winter is an ideal time to do that, to stand
outside on a frigid night with your head tipped back, tracing the constellations, glimpsing the
Milky Way in all its glory, becoming a part of the chain of humankind that gazed upward to the
stars and thought about the past, present and future. We invite you to spend some time with Issue
16-1 and her poets, and think quiet thoughts about winter and the world around you. Let the
words take you on a journey, somewhere, perhaps, you never intended to go.
Constance Brewer, Editor
In Minnesota, there is also plenty of gray, cold landscape, but I don’t mind. I love winter here,
the way it pushes us to hunker down and be quiet in a noisy world. That Constance and I share a
tendency toward the contemplative is a part of what allows us to work well together on
Gyroscope Review and give you a coherent journal with a flow that sweeps you along with us.
We have been so lucky over the past year to kick off this little poetry journal with such amazing
submissions from poets who have long publication lists and many other outlets for their work.
We ask that you not only enjoy the poetry here, but also visit our website where we honor poets
with interviews and they honor us with explanations that show us why verse matters, why it will
continue to matter as long as there are people. As 2016 takes form, we will offer you more of
these interviews between issues of Gyroscope Review, nudge you to expand your reading and,
just maybe, also expand the way you respond to this complicated world.
Kathleen Cassen Mickelson, Editor
Gyroscope Review !i