Covering the Gamut
Poems about this –
Poems about that –
Poems, of course, about the other –
Poems about angels –
Poems about demons –
Poems about fire and brimstone –
Poems about pillars of salt –
Poems that burrow their way into your mind
where they chisel themselves upon neuron stones
to eternalize the scripture in an ecstatic flash dance –
Poems about black tar cancer –
Poems about honey maple molasses –
Poems about righteousness –
Poems about revolution –
Poems about renaissance –
Poems about the Phoenix –
Poems about the New Age
as Aquarius cycles through the spheres of heaven
with a wellspring of water
for those who have an insatiable thirst for knowledge –
Poems about Pisces in transit
as all the flayed fish
starve on the surface of earth –
Poems about gasping gills –
Poems about collapsing lungs –
Poems about Empire and its prophesied collapse –
Poems about lemmings that march
to the orders barked by dogs of war –
Poems about nuclear annihilation –
Poems about stardust and flaking ash –
Poems about entropy and evolution –
Poems about love and romance –
Poems about the yawning grave –
Poems about this –
Poems about that –
Poems, of course, about the other –
– This piece originally appeared at Dissident Voice where I am a weekly contributor to the Sunday Poetry Page. It was written around half a year ago after I’d attended a relative’s funeral. I was sitting outside the church atop a tall brick wall, smoking a cigarette, contemplating all the usual sorts of things that tend to scurry around inside my head.
OK, I meant to get a January recap posted earlier in the week, but, hey, sometimes it’s best to hold off until the mood is right instead of trying to force something.
Going into the New Year my plan was to cut back on the amount of submissions sent out to journals, and to concentrate my attention primarily on sending out chapbook and full-length manuscripts for consideration. I did slow my roll considerably, though I wound up still having over 50 poems published in January.
Some of the highlights from the past month included an interview that I did back in September of last year with Geosi Gyasi that found its way into the light of day at his site Geosi Reads.
I was excited to start helping out as an editor in January at both Walking Is Still Honest Press and The Peregrine Muse. It’s been a good learning experience so far working with the different platforms of these sites, and I look forward to getting even more involved as time goes on.
The high-water mark so far this year was the contract that I signed with Creative Talents Unleashed for my full-length poetry collection “Happy Hour Hallelujah” which will be released later in 2016. I’m in the process at the moment of doing a read through on the final draft sent over from Raja Williams at CTU to make sure there aren’t any subtle shifts of rhythm that need to be made. Of course, there could also be a typo hidden in there somewhere that I missed. I would like to think such a thing impossible, but it has been known to happen.
I’d like to say a big thank you to all the editors associated with these twenty-nine venues for accepting and/or publishing my work in January:
Unbroken Journal; Poems and Poetry; Dissident Voice; Dead Snakes; UFO Gigolo; Cavalcade of Stars; Poets International; Dark Matter Journal; Your One Phone Call; Duane’s PoeTree; High Coupe; Visual Verse; Eunoia Review; The Literary Nest; Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine; Inwood Indiana; Green Panda Press; Creative Talents Unleashed; Yellow Chair Review; Napalm and Novocain; Asian Signature; Fauna Quarterly; Tuck Magazine; Geosi Reads; Anti-Heroin Chic; Scarlet Leaf Review; The Poeming Pigeon; Pittsburgh Poetry Houses; and Slim Volume.
I’ve had poems come out in six venues so far in February, including a second place finish in Cultured Vultures’ weekly contest. Links to recent work, along with all my past online publications, can be found on the Poems Page here at 17Numa.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to also mention that my chapbook “Songs of a Dissident” was released back in December through Transcendent Zero Press. Having said that, I’d be a fool not to let everyone know that it is available on Amazon. If you have already ordered a copy, or if you decide to pick up one right this very moment, I offer a sincere thank you. For real. It means a lot.
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar
17Numa 