Moon Beams #27 - Beth Gylys

“I’m determined, even if I feel dark, I’m determined to move past that, because that’s no way to live,” poet Beth Gylys told me after I came to the word “hope” in the word-association game I threw into our chat on episode #27 of “Moon Beams.” 

Our conversation traversed all kinds of terrain, from the growth of politics entering poetry, which Beth described as reflective of “the larger place that politics is playing in our lives and how divided our culture is,” to her work on “Beyond Bars,” https://beyondbars.gsu.edu/staff/beth-gylys/, which consists of a “blended team of incarcerated editors and student editors, so we’re really embracing the community and trying to honor what our incarcerated team wants in terms of their editorial choices and their vision for the journal.”

Beth also shared about her work in interviewing the poet Maxine Kumin, as well as her love for poets like Andrea Gibson, Stanley Plumly, Anne Sexton, Stephen Dobyns, Theodore Roethke, Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Carlos Williams, who felt especially relevant in the following quote she read from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”:

“…It is difficult to get the news from poems                         yet men die miserably every day                                                 for lack of what is found there.” 

Beth’s most recent published works include the chapbook “After My Father” by Dancing Girl Press & Studio, the collection “The Conversation Turns to Wide-Mouth Jars” co-written with Jennifer Wheelock and published by Kelsay Books, and her solo full-length “Body Braille” by Iris Press.

“Your Own Sky,” a chapbook of what Beth described as breakup poems, will also be out soon by Harbor Editions.

Beth’s generosity, service, and energy are inspiring to see at any time, but especially now, and this conversation in particular is a gift I’m honored to share here. Beth has my deep gratitude, and I’m thrilled to see what she does next.