I’ve never suffered a fool in my life. I’ve listened to them, laughed with them, laughed at them, and waved them along on their way. Like ships passing in the night. I must always continue toward the light in the distance. It’s not my fault when they wind up crashing on the rocks in the darkness.
Author: 17numa
Implosive Absolution
Strip away the power from the Beast System. Strip away the power from the IMF, from the World Bank, from the United Nations. And give the power back to the Federal government. Strip away the power from the Federal Government. Strip away the power from the Federal Reserve. And give the power back to the States. Strip away the power from the States. And give the power back to the counties. Strip away the power from the counties. And give the power back to the cities. Strip away the power from the cities. And give the power back to the local communities. Strip away the power from the local communities. And give the power back to the family. Strip away the power from the family. And give the power back to the individual. Strip away the power from the individual. And give the power back to God.
Audio available via SoundCloud
Novelmasters

I’m not here claiming to have all the answers (just a few when I’m feeling particularly self-righteous). I have, however, searched the cavernous regions of my own psyche fairly deeply during the past several years; I’m pleased with the results, but will never become cocky enough to believe that it’s okay to cease seeking further improvements in every aspect of life. There is no actual state of perfection that exists, only a path that promises to inch ever-closer toward its ineffable nature.
Honestly, I’m just here to have a bit of fun, ignite huge fires (all figurative, of course), and sling words around with the intention that they might land safely by aligning in an interesting order that makes them somewhat entertaining to read. At the end of the day, it’s a primal urge toward Renaissance and Revolution that turns me on. No big deal really.
Anyway, that sort of nonsense wasn’t even the original point of this post. But I simply can’t help myself sometimes. After all, there’s never been a more exciting time to be alive. Please forgive me if I get a bit hyped up now and then.

I’ll try this again. Deep breath. Focus. OK. When Christopher Gretkus asked me to come on board as a contributing editor at Novelmasters last year, I was more than happy to take him up on the offer, although I did say up front that other responsibilities on my plate might limit the amount of time I’d have to put toward the site. For the most part, this has proven to be true thus far. Thankfully, I have been able to solicit work from a few contemporary poets, and an interview that I conducted with Johnny Longfellow in which he waxes philosophical on a number of topics appeared not too long ago. I’m excited to announce that there are more interviews in the pipeline that will be appearing soon, and I’m going to try my level best to start sending in essays on a regular basis.
The brass tacks of what I’m trying to say here is that Christopher has established one hell of a slick, sleek, finely tuned venue. He’s continually updating and improving the design of Novelmasters, and I hope that you’ll swing by and check out some of the art and literature available to peruse. This page features links to my poetry, essays, and interview at the site.

Featured Writer: Scott Thomas Outlar
My poem “Continuous Light” was featured at CTU Publishing recently. Thank you to Raja Williams for allowing me to contribute…
Continuous Light
My days do not begin with the sun,
and they do not end with the stars.
My days do not have an alpha,
and they do not have an omega.
My days do not rely on the hours of a clock
or the rotation of the earth.
My days do not require food or water
or oxygen or sleep or prayer or faith.
My days are not spent questioning
the meaning of existence through philosophy.
My days are not days at all
because my life is now but one day,
one moment, one thought, one meditation,
one experience constantly unfolding
as a single, pure, righteous source of light.
My day belongs to you
because my day was born from you.
My day is here, my day is now,
My day is truth, my day is you.
© Scott Thomas Outlar
About the Author
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With the Wind

Sweet and Sour
I had an opportunity to read a selection of my work at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center recently in Atlanta, Georgia. While inside this magnificent venue, the permeation of pure poetry pours through one’s blood. It’s an inviting experience. The audio from my set is up here on SoundCloud.
Code of Conduct

Reflections on the New Age (Entering Atlantis Version 2.0)
A small (yet ever-increasing) number of people are deeply informed about the complex geopolitical conditions of the modern world. Though never perfect, their ideological leanings are at least based on solid research and logical analysis of the facts. They are blessed with a moral compass through which their agenda in life unfolds. Engaging with them in conversation is somewhat like dancing merrily through paradise hand in hand with enlightened angels. They also tend to smell nice.
Meanwhile, vast swaths of people have completely lost their sense of intuition and instinct. Such as these are like unto cult members who spew every opinion out of their mouth as if they are nothing more than gibbering parrots, having absolutely no clue how to discern between reality and propaganda. These people should be observed with piqued curiosity; however, such research should always be conducted from a safe distance. These drooling automatons are victims of the very institutions which they loyally serve, it is true, but their hysterics can prove to be dangerous when experienced in close quarters.
Don’t be a rube. It is not sexy. It is not cool.
Don’t be a mark. Your nihilistic death urge is no longer trendy and cute.
Don’t be a fool. Being able to engage in blind obedience to the systems that oppress you is not a skill to brag about on your resume. The world is evolving all around us, quickly. Learn to stand up straight and walk tall or you’re going to get trampled underfoot. Learn to surf atop the wave or you’ll wind up drinking the tide.
On a completely unrelated note (though once you’ve experienced the high symphony of synchronicity sweeping through your soul, it’s difficult to claim that all events in life aren’t quantumly connected to some degree), my book Chaos Songs is now available on Amazon through Weasel Press. Please consider picking up a copy here.

Showcase Spotlight #5: Heath Brougher

Heath Brougher attended Temple University. He is the poetry editor of Five 2 One Magazine and co-poetry editor of Into the Void Magazine. He has published two chapbooks, A Curmudgeon Is Born (Yellow Chair Press 2016) and Digging for Fire (Stay Weird and Keep Writing Publishing Co. 2016) with another one titled Your Noisy Eyes due out in 2017. His poem “Curriculums” received a Best of the Net Nomination and his work has been translated into Albanian and been published in over 25 countries. He was the judge of Into the Void Magazine’s 2016 Poetry Competition and edited the anthology “Luminous Echoes,” the sales of which will be donated to help with suicide prevention. His work has appeared or is due to be published in Of/with, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, Main Street Rag, Crack the Spine, Cruel Garters, MiPOesias, The Blue Mountain Review, Third Wednesday, Lehigh Valley Vanguard, Gloom Cupboard, X-Peri, W.I.S.H., Gold Dust, eFiction India, Tipton Poetry Journal, Lakeview, Van Gogh’s Ear, *82 Review, and elsewhere. When not writing, he helps with the charity Paws Soup Kitchen which gives out free dog/cat food to low income families with pets.
Brougher: Yes, many of my poems are concerned with the search for Truth. My new chapbook Digging for Fire is about that search but in a much more metaphysical way. In general, though, I believe the search for Truth means taking in all the information you see and hear and letting it swirl around in your head, trying to look at it from every possible vantage point. This way, through your own Epiphanies, you are able to find the “actual Truth.” I believe in the cultivation of the Intellect. I consider Intellect to be a component of knowledge. If more people would begin to actually cultivate their Intellect instead of just blindly believing everything they are told there would be a lot more acceptance of Individuality in this world. Every person would have their own personal ideas about the Truth (which the majority of the time would hopefully synch up with others who have cultivated their Intellect) and be much more tolerant of people who didn’t believe exactly what they did. When people are introduced to someone new the first words out of their mouth are usually, “So what do you do?” As if what a person does for a living defines them. I dream of a day when people ask instead, “So what have you been thinking lately?” I know that may sound silly, but only if you’re a mindless robot. There is, however, one big problem with the whole “searching for Truth” thing and that is that the brain is easily tricked by what it sees. So searching for metaphysical Truths may actually be easier than searching for the Truth before your very eyes. Human beings tend to mirror their environment, whether consciously or subconsciously, and that is why I think it is important for people to disconnect themselves from what I call “the Mainstream Thought” and begin to sincerely view this world through their own eyes. As far as Truth in politics goes, forget it. There’s not one ounce of Truth in what is spouted from the mouths of these disgusting egomaniacal politicians.
Brougher: Yes. That one will always be my “baby.” I thank Sarah Frances Moran for choosing it for publication. The book is about disconnecting from the “Mainstream Thought” as I call it. There are so many mysteries to our lives and our origins and most people end up with these things never crossing their minds as they just fall right into the safety basket their given culture has placed there for them. They are born into a world of previously arranged “Manmade Realities” and immediately their minds are attacked as they quickly turn into mindless members of that given society. What they see as reality is what they’ve been told their whole lives is reality while they haven’t given it a second thought. I wanted to try to shake at least a few people out of that “daily grind” mindset and get them to “cultivate their Intellect” by having the poems in this chapbook, both stylistically and thematically, spiral outward instead. I wanted it to screech against the endless loops that encompass most people’s lives. It’s a form of slow motion evolution if you follow the beaten path of endless cycles but if you sync up to a spiral mentality then there is room for endless growth. The line in the book that I always go back to is “circular paths are false for the Truth lives within the Spiral.” That line itself kind of encompasses the book. Digital Veins (originally published in Otoliths)
Caliginous monstrosity clogation
of cognition unhumbled robotic caligony
fills the air beats upon the eardrums
its metallic taste of wobbling noise
we endorphinlessly morph by the day
as we further depend on these mechanical monsters
to run amuck in our lives and willingly allow it so much so
these robotic beasts are infiltrating and controlling
as they slowly tempt us with their bright screams of screens
of contagious connectivity evolution spun metallic
soon to spring and spoil the soil [soul]
as Mankind sticks its perfectly uncut human perceptions
heads and hands directly into the mouths of these monstrous computer
screens swimming with waning viscera in a pixilated pool
of pathetic predetermined angles of standpoints.
Misperception (originally published in Eunoia Review)
That oak tree
is not really an oak tree.
That oak tree
is only an oak tree
because you call it an oak tree.
Maybe you should stop lying to yourself.
String of Thought
The thread of thoughts thinkings
the threat of thoughts thinkings, leaking
hate into the head
brinking
into sayings
the slither of said sayings
the slaughter of said sayings, sinking
into the viscera or invading by osmosis the brain.
ears hear arsonist songs sung by anarchist loaves
of Nothingnessism. F(r)u(i)tility.
Boxing for Airtime (originally published in The Curly Mind)
So strutteral and rambunctational.
Meanwhile your swagger is so thickend outwhirled
that otherwise people have been snapshot-talking about
you behind your earlobes. I never did understandify why
you carry so much about the weight of what other flesheden automatonians
thought about your emenatious animationness inny[buttonbelly]way.
Just ferment about them and leave your lifeing to your self.
Youar’ much bedder off this way. I don’t care
about the idiocity they associalate with you.
Nuclear Baby (originally published in SLAB)
My mother breathed contaminated air
while I was floating in the amniotic swimming pool of her belly.
My mother was pregnant with me during the Three Mile Island crisis.
She living only a forty minute drive from the power plant,
nuclear air swept into her lungs and spread to my tiny alien body.
Her umbilical cord, a soft hypodermic needle injecting radiated air,
atomic nutrients, straight into my buttonless belly.
I was born into a world of nuclear waste. Nuclear skies and
clouds pouring acid rain. Nuclear particles whisking along the toxic breeze.
I came nascent and pink into this world gasping for my first breath
among the atomic poison that blew cold and mutagenic
along the air-paths of my hometown.
(2016 Recap) Stepping Stones (2017 March)
It was a great honor to be named the 2016 Poet of the Year by Michael Lee Johnson for his Contemporary Poets group. A number of my friends are included among the 10,000 members of the group, and the inspiration I regularly receive from their work helps keep me on-point, so I consider it all to be a synchronized reciprocal process. But I’m also wont to look at life like that most of the time, in general, as it were, anyway. It sort of makes me who I am.