Cyril's tortured poetry, written for the staff above. (6)
I believe the answer is:
lyrics
'poetry written for the staff above' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'cyril's tortured' is the wordplay.
'tortured' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cyrils' is an anagram of 'LYRICS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lyrics that I've seen before include "Words used in songs" , "words to perform" , "Short song-like poems" , "words in numbers" , "Words of a pop song" .)