Simple Shuteye
Perfect peace
reigns
in a dream
where she dances
carefree
with a smile
shining
from here to eternity
and a gleam
in her eye
that promises
everything
will be just fine
upon the wake
A few weeks have passed since I last posted here at 17Numa. Deep breath.
March has been a month of much convergence. Alignment. Nuclear fission at the core of absolution. Eruption.
It is the role of the poet to show that chaos births order. That’s one hell of a millstone to carry around. I have a lot of friends who wear it with grace. It’s a good time to be alive in this day and age. Have faith and know that there is a light which will never be snuffed out.
Two reviews for “Songs of a Dissident” have been released in the past couple of weeks. Many thanks to Janine Pickett for writing very kindly about the chapbook at her site Indiana Voice Journal. Thank you also to Michael and Val Organ of Tuck Magazine for publishing Sunil Sharma’s humbling thoughts. The fire inside my soul is never near the threat of extinguishing, but when editors that I respect are generous toward my work it does feel as though more gasoline gets added. All I want to do is burn. Is that too much to ask?
Truthfully, I’d be happy with a flood just the same.
OK. Now the words are ready to start crawling from out my ruptured mind to bleed forth upon the page. Seeping from the dingy corridors of a decadent consciousness. Hell, I don’t always go dark and ugly but sometimes the urge is overwhelming. Then again, I can just as quickly turn off the spigot and get lighthearted. It’s all fun and games after all, except for the fact that it’s deadly serious. The world has been at war for a long time…just for the record. The intensity of a violent trajectory is ramping up as the proxy battles being fought overseas seem to now be ready to come home and roost. I am only an observer. I’m here to report what I find in the field. If I could stop the madness by magically snapping my fingers, then I’d immediately start to create a funky beat with the sound. But that more than likely won’t do the trick at this stage of the process. So all I can say at this point is: heads up, watch out, and get right with whatever God you love the most. If there were an alarm, I’d ring it. I’m simply suggesting that the storm has been brewing for years now and so when it finally hits it’s going to be a big one. Fair Warning.
With all the dire foreboding about the oncoming dystopia out of the way, I can now safely return my attention to some really cool news concerning my poetry. So far in the month of March my words have appeared in eight print publications, three of which are based out of the UK:
The Stray Branch Issue 17
Pittsburgh Poetry Houses Volume I
PUSH Issue 20
Tigershark Magazine Issue 9
Futures Trading: Anthology Three
Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze Anthology
The Seventh Quarry Issue 23
The Angry Manifesto Issue 4.0/5.0
Links to all these journals, along with other online publications from March, can be found on the Poetry Page.
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar
Curses, Crosses, and Crucibles
One step
leads to the next
There is something
in the air today
making me question
everything
I am thankful
for such moments
that test my faith
Forward movement
is the blessing of God’s grace
The future is a promise
openly rewarded
to those with courage
Survival is embedded
in our activated DNA
There are people
in this world
who will hate you
for their own reasons
A simple smile
is a perfect reminder
that love will always
win in the end
17Numa 
Reblogged this on The South African Poet¤Die Suid-Afrikaanse Digter aka SalamanDer.
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