By Tyler Knott Gregson
The epic made simple. The miracle in the mundane.
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.
He fell in love.
Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a striking collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method. Chasers of the Light features some of his most insightful and beautifully worded pieces of work—poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light.
I first found Gregson’s poems almost five year ago. In early 2010, my friend and I became obsessed with the website called Tumblr and soon after, we discovered Gregson’s scraps of poetry. We eventually drifted away from Tumblr and Gregson’s poems, but while looking for another book of poetry on Amazon to send as a gift, I discovered that Gregson had published a book. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
Chasers of the Light did not disappoint. Each of the poems is every bit as beautiful and meaningful and lovingly constructed as the first poems I ever read of Gregson’s. Some of the poems are printed are beautiful photos and others look to be printed on odd bits of paper (receipts, library cards, etc.).
Reading the “About the Author” I learned (or maybe relearned?) that Gregson is a photographer by profession and I can only assume the beautiful pictures in the book are his.
I highly recommend this book of poetry especially for those who want to get into poetry and don’t know where to start or those who think they don’t like poetry.
When I write poetry now and again, my structures resemble Gregson’s which is perhaps why I like his poetry so much. Simple, free-form, and full of beautiful images and meaning.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite poems from Chasers of the Light:
You
are the poem
I never new
how to write
and this life
is the story
I have always
wanted
to tell.
