Are you familiar with that moment when a writer, just some stranger out there in the world, manages to express exactly what you’ve been feeling but could never articulate in your own words?
You become filled to the brim with happiness, because this writer somehow understands you better than anyone else –a lasting connection has been established. You want to explode, because you harbor so many feelings.
That writer is Tyler Knott Gregson.
I first fell madly in love with the poetry of Tyler Knott Gregson through Instagram, where I stumbled upon a vintage looking picture of some typewriter poetry. This led me to discover the vast world of his “Typewriter Series”, and from there I became immersed in the emotional connection found inside what Tyler had created.
Tyler is the brilliant poet behind the “Daily Haiku on Love” and the “Typewriter Series” that he publishes on social media sites such as Instagram and Tumblr. He is also the author of “Chasers of the Light”, a book of selected poems from his Typewriter Series, crafted on his Remington Rand No. 17. To top it all off, he also co-owns Treehouse Photography, a company based out of Helena, Montana. There is nothing this man cannot do.
He first started writing poetry when he was twelve, but the moment Tyler discovered an old Remington typewriter in an antique store is when a new generation of poetry began. In the introduction to his book, Tyler explains that his poetry tries to do two things:
“Dissect big things, giant gestures, grand emotions, into small glimpses, tiny fragments. Take miniature moments, stolen seconds, blink –and-you’ll-miss-them glances, and make them enormous. The miracle in the mundane, the epic made simple.”
Aside from the sheer brilliance of the words Tyler writes, he is truly taking Generation Y into a new time for poetry. His writing style challenges traditional thoughts on rhyme and meter that have been held up by the classics. While maintaining allegorical and metaphorical elements, he is lifting modern poetry out of its dark depths into the light, and stirring up a refreshed interest in young people toward literature. Whenever one his pieces appear on my Instagram feed, I’m not just scrolling through another basic picture filled with clichés. I’m reading a letter from a lover of my own heart, which speaks all the words I’ve been thinking but never have been able to write.
It’s classy. It’s enlightening.
His words inspire authenticity.
He combines two cups of prose and poetry, a dash of precise language that perfectly conveys whatever emotion he chooses, a tablespoon of Buddhism and frosts it with really neat vintage looking paper.
He has a typewriter tattoo on his wrist that reads “love more”.
(“You blur through this heartstreaking wild across my handsand into my arms.”— Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson)
He also has some super cute nieces, nephews and golden retrievers that he spends time with and regularly posts about. Look at these little nuggets!
(My Valentine’s Day mostly consisted of playing rad kids games and goofing around with my nieces and nephews. Also known as Way better than what Valentine’s Day is pressured to be.)
(I love being Uncle Tyler, and I love the spirit and adventure that lives in the tiny veins of my nephew Moyer. Such soul and such joy bubbling right beneath the surface, always spilling over and spreading to anyone near.)
(She stands on guard for me. And when I say guard I actually mean fully prepared to smother with kisses and lean her body weight into anyone that walks up to my house on the off chance they will scratch her back. Here is Hobbes, enjoying the new view.)
If you have never before encountered Tyler’s work, visit it now. It is a treat to have beautiful and profound words grace your clogged newsfeed and shine brightly into your heart. He is the writer that will finally understand you. Welcome home.