FROM THE EDITORS
Welcome to our first issue with a theme. When Constance and I decided to issue a call for poems
with some underlying idea about honor, we hoped that we would get pieces that went beyond
people in uniform. We wanted poets to explore the ideas that hold the very foundation of honor.
How do we learn it? Who teaches us? How do we show honor, act with honor, feel honored? But
in this contentious election season, and with the recent 15th anniversary of 9-11, thinking about
honor beyond the obvious images of military and politics proved to be difficult. But perhaps that
is the conversation we desperately need to have: how to be honorable in the face of ferocious
disagreements about how to live in this world.
And that is the task of a poet or any other artist: figuring out how to define what is happening
around us, how to hold it up for others to consider. We offer you 11 poems that came in at the
behest of our themed call, and they are the most varied group we could assemble from the
submissions we received. These pieces cover war, of course, both current and past, as well as
human rights, hard work, acceptance, courage. They consider the aftermath of honorable service,
the history that honorable acts create.
We’ve nestled the honor poems in their own special section in the middle of this issue. Our
regular submissions, as we’ve come to expect, are widely varied. We love reading what poets are
thinking about. We love seeing all the different styles and structures poets employ to get their
ideas across. Relationships, home, nature, and details of everyday life are constant sources of
poetic inspiration.
If you are so inclined, after you have read this issue, let us know what inspires you.
Kathleen Cassen Mickelson, Editor
In this quarter's publication we ask, "How do you define honor?”. It wouldn't be fair to pose that
question without attempting to answer it ourselves. At first glance there would appear to be
somewhat of a dichotomy between honor and poetry. What does one have to do with the other?
It's interesting that discussions of honor usually focus on the military, as Kathleen states in her
editorial. We look to the military as a sort of John Wayne keeper of our honor, content in the idea
the military will do the honorable things for us, so we don't have to think about it. It may surprise
you to learn I served in the U.S. Army. I come from a family of military veterans and grew up
hearing stories of service in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Service was a duty my relatives felt
obligated to do. They went without resentment. They served, and when the time came, they got
out and came home. It was no big deal. They did it because it had to be done. They did it because
it was expected of them - by themselves and others. They did it because it was the right thing to
do.
Gyroscope Review 16-4
Page i! i