Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson

Title: Chasers of the Light: Poems From the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson
To be published September 2, 2014; Perigree Trade
Genre: poetry

Oh  what  we

could  be  if  we 

stopped carrying

the remains  

of  who  we  were.

Here is the story of how a photographer became a poet...a typewriter poet.

One day, while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photographer Tyler Knott Gregson stumbled upon a vintage Remington typewriter for sale. Standing up and using a page from a broken book he was buying for $2, he typed a poem without thinking, without planning, and without the ability to revise anything.

Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method. Chasers of the Light features poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate a life spent chasing the light. (publisher)

The one-page poems are written as though typed on different kinds of scrap paper -  on graph paper, beige or blue or brown paper, red paper on occasion, and on photographs. Some poems are created using a black out method, with white words standing out on a black background.

Most of the poems in this book are love poems:

A  moment,
a  smile;
a  single burst
of  laughter
that  sounds  exactly  like
the  rest
of  my  life. 

I think the value of the Typewriter Series is that is makes poetry more approachable for those who might shy away from it, those who feel poetry too esoteric for them. The presentation of words in this informal, casual, and typed format makes poetry seem "down to earth" and thus easier to appreciate.

I would give this book to anyone I'd like to convince to start reading poetry.

Thanks to Oleg Lyubner Publicity for a review copy of this book of poems.