Author: 17numa

Tapping the Main Nerve

~ 17numa ~ 3 Comments
People have been writing prophecies
about the end of the world
since time immemorial
because, let’s face it,
fear sells…
whether scribbled on the wall of a cave,
endorsed officially by King James,
or ranted on street corners by madmen,
ideas about Armageddon
mirror the inevitability of individual death
that each mortal soul must face.
 
Oh shit,
I just saw
the sky crack open
and chaos
start to drain
down to earth
in apocalyptic waves…
break out your pocketbooks
and make checks
payable to:
Scott Thomas Outlar…
all major credit cards
are also accepted –
I was honored recently by Dee Thompson when she asked if I would give an interview at her site The Word Ocean. My answers concerning life and writing, along with four new poems, can be read here: The Word Ocean Interview
 
My new chapbook “Songs of a Dissident” is now available on Amazon via this link. You can read the last post here at 17Numa if you’d like to experience all the bells and whistles of the full sales pitch. For now I’d just like to say that I’d love for anyone who digs my work and can afford to do so to pick up a copy. Much love to everyone who has already ordered the book, and to everyone who has shared the link on Facebook and Twitter. Getting the word out means a hell of a lot. You just never know when and where the “right” set of eyes might fall upon one’s work…so the more you help me spread the word, the better chance there is of this book being successful.
 
I’ve had some new poems come out in the past week at Dissident Voice; SpinRock Reader Lit Forum; Winamop; and Visual Verse. Links can be found if you click on the Poems tab up at the top of the site…but to be perfectly honest I’d much rather you click on the Amazon link to “Songs of a Dissident” here in this post. Ha! Hey, I’m not here to bullshit you…I try to keep it real.
 
Thanks for swinging by everyone. Hope y’all are having a nice holiday season thus far.
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

Songs of a Dissident

~ 17numa ~ 2 Comments
Trump Hand
 
How many bombs
dropped
from all of the war
props
poisonous and poised to hiss
with a snake’s tongue
venom on the fang drips
needlepoint precision
Shock and Awe proclamation
A river of fire
in a ring around the city
Mercury enters the blood
a kill shot to the mind
Alzheimer’s and a loss of fight
The hawks and vultures cry
“Mission Accomplished”
as they send the Eagle in
to pick up the bloody pieces
 
How many lives
lost
from all of the lies
cast
carelessly and callously
with spiteful intentions
malicious persuasion
A thousand points
of propaganda
from the lips of cowards
hiding behind a doomed and decadent Empire
dilapidated and disintegrating
toppling like a house of cards
when a hand of five aces
is laid down on the table
by the collective force
of a Renaissance Revolution
 
How many souls
will rise
on the day that the truth
takes flight
lofty and laced with visions
of a lit up nebula being born
in the blink of a moment
at the brink of a New Age
sipping freely from the full well
raining Love from the constellation
with a song from the spheres
about the cycles of time
The wheels, they spin
The gears, they turn
The dust drifts away
as the Phoenix flows out from the ash
 
– “Trump Hand” originally appeared in Dissident Voice, and later in Poems-For-All #1294 and Degenerates: Voices for Peace; it is the opening salvo in my new chapbook “Songs of a Dissident” –
It has been an exciting ride in the past year or so since I started sending out my poetry, with many high peak moments along the way (600 poems published in 150 print and/or online venues; “A Black Wave Cometh” published digitally through Dink Press; a Best of the Net nomination from Kind of A Hurricane Press; connecting with hundreds of fellow writers and artists while becoming immersed in the indie poetry scene), but this most recent announcement definitely takes the cake…
 
My latest chapbook “Songs of a Dissident” has now officially been released through Transcendent Zero Press. I’d like to say thank you to Dustin Pickering for all the help and input he’s had on the project since we first started communicating and planning things out back in February. Thank you to Christos Karapanos for providing the absolutely stunning cover. Thank you, also, to my friend Heath Brougher for helping get this project in motion. Thank you to my family for being patient and kind. Thank you to everyone I’ve met this past year who has made the journey an unforgettable experience. I couldn’t imagine things having gone any better. The best part of it all is that the work (and the fun) has only just begun…
 
The new book can be ordered directly through me, or by following these links to Amazon and CreateSpace. I hope you’ll help support my future efforts by picking up a copy (or two…it is the holiday season, after all).
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar
 
P.S.
 
If you’d like to connect, please contact me on FaceBook and/or Twitter.

Scott Thomas Outlar Lilburn, GA Poet

~ 17numa ~ Leave a comment

Thank you to Bree at Least Bittern Books for publishing this poem recently…

Least Bit's avatarLeast Bittern Books

Thus Spoke the Grave Digger

Nietzsche said:
That which does not kill you
only makes you stronger.
This may well be true
for those who have strong wills.
But what he forgot to take into account
are all the people who face an avalanche
and then spend the rest of their days buried alive.

–

Scott Thomas Outlar lives in Lilburn, Georgia…it’s in the suburbs about an hour outside of Atlanta. This poem was published previously at Poetry Community .

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Excerpt from One Hundred Poetic Points

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Thank you to Slink Chunk Press for publishing these excerpts from my project One Hundred Poetic Points which was written back in 2003. I was nominated earlier this year for Best of the Net by The Mind[less] Muse for other excerpts from this project.

Slink Chunk Press's avatarSlink Chunk Press

by Scott Thomas Outlar

Point number ninety

The organization of shifting variables proves to be a difficult endeavor. If one (ship) harbors doubts on this thesis, then by all means: experiment (wrecked).

Point number ninety-one

The counting began [one thousand]; the shuttle was prepared to begin the journey for which it was [nine hundred] created. All systems at proper functioning capacity [eight]; the ignition ignited, the propulsion propelled, the reason was [zero] born.

Point number ninety-four

Love over sex.
Creation over pleasure.

Point number ninety-five

I am closing in (closing) on this (down). Repairs toward recovery (covering), then recreation (up). A critique (changing) on life, an over-all (still) analysis.

Point number ninety-six

Metal on…
Metal.
scrape, crash, crunch, come together harshly.

Life pushing…
Forward.
changing, maturing, growing, evolving, multiplying.

Giving her…
Attention.
in my thoughts, deserved, warranted, necessary.

Point number ninety-eight

Surprise. Surprising. I am the surprised. Delay thought. I…

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Two Poems…November Recap

~ 17numa ~ Leave a comment
In the Morning and through the Night
 
At the end of the day
when head hits pillow,
and in the morning
when eyes see mirror,
it is you
who decides
how big the dream will be
and how clearly to view the vision.
 
 
You Get What You Pay for
 
Money can’t buy you happiness…
but if you are already happy
money can be a toy
with which to have lots of fun
 
Money is not the root of all evil…
fear is
 
You can’t pay to enter paradise…
but once inside
it doesn’t hurt to have
a few dollar bills
The month of November has come to a close…and now, with the emergence of December, 2015 has but one last breath until another yearly cycle bites the dust and disperses into embers and ash…but no need to worry because the Phoenix is always waiting in the wings.
 
Come the Winter Solstice. Come Songs of a Dissident…
 
Words of wisdom (from the mouth of a fool): Take nothing for granted. Cherish every moment you have with family and friends. Love that which is good with a violent passion, and hate that which is evil with an equal fervor. Also, don’t be an asshole….and show a little style.
 
November was fairly righteous on the writing front, and I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the editors and publishers associated with these 39 venues for accepting and/or publishing my work last month:
 
Words Surfacing; Dissident Voice; Dead Snakes; Verse-Virtual; Fauna Quarterly; Visual Verse; Medusa’s Kitchen; Tuck Magazine; Eunoia Review; Indiana Voice Journal; Lunar Lit Poetry Page; Three Line Thursday; Writing Raw; Random Poem Tree; Come and Take It; The Poet Community; Futures Trading; Clockwise Cat; SpinRock Reader Lit Forum; Piker Press; The Thumb Print Magazine; Slim Volume: This Body I Live in; Void Magazine; Least Bittern Books; Duane’s PoeTree; Slink Chunk Press; Poetic Diversity; First Literary Review-East; Whispers; The Word Ocean; Eskimo Pie; Horror, Sleaze & Trash; Unbroken Journal; Vagabonds: Anthology of the Mad Ones; Winamop; Inwood Indiana; Straight Forward Poetry; Five2One Magazine; and MUSED – the OnlineBella Literary Review.
 
Thank you to all those who follow and read my work here at 17Numa, as well as on FB and Twitter. It’s greatly appreciated, I assure you. Cheers as we head into the stretch run of 2015. Hell, let’s make it count by finishing strong…
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

One Night Pass

~ 17numa ~ Leave a comment
She bled crimson lust
with dragon breath
when the fire came
to wash my soul
to hell and back
with a one night pass
to fever dream city
as Satan moaned
at every touch of flesh
and hiss from fangs
that poured ecstatic venom
 
She laughed long and hard
with eyes lit up
as the sky wept down
in bullet point rain
straight to the vein
with mercury overload
singeing the chaos
of a symphony choir
in love with the siren
that remains a liar
but still gets the meal in the end
 
Recorded version via SoundCloud
My poem “Manifestations of Heat” appeared recently in the latest issue of Clockwise Cat. This is a piece I wrote back during a period in late 2009 when I was attending open mics for the first time. The chemical cocktail dosage flowing through the veins was at a fever pitch. I don’t play those games these days, but that doesn’t mean I have any regrets. Hell, it was madness, but it was glorious. I understand that a lot of people use drugs as a way of escaping the world or dealing with depression (in fact, in my early twenties I used them in just such a way), but, for the most part, whenever I’ve dabbled (or gone all in) with various substances it has always been in an effort to reach altered states of consciousness and bring about new rhythms of creative expression. Again, there are zero regrets. We all make our choices. I stand behind mine. This particular poem was one of around thirty stream of consciousness pieces that poured forth during a session that took place in the early morning hours over a few day period that Winter. I called it “Gurus in the Streets.” The title came about after having deep conversations with homeless poets outside bars in Atlanta. I’ve always had an affinity toward the homeless, and have probably over romanticized the lifestyle in my own mind at certain phases when it was actually something I thought would be enjoyable. Alas, it wasn’t to be for me in this life (so far). Karma tells me that I probably slept under a few bridges in a past one though. Anyway, this issue of Clockwise Cat is full of great writers, from the featured poet Sarah Frances Moran, to my good friend Heath Brougher, to fellow members of the Southern Collective Experience Holly Holt and Felino A. Soriano, to seasoned veteran Alan Britt, to the editor herself Alison Ross…it’s chock full of killer content. Read it. Devour it. Love it. Digest it. Then write some verse of your own from the inspiration that you won’t be able to hold at bay.
 
I also have three poems out in this month’s issue of Writing Raw. Many thanks to editor Weeb Heinrich for allowing me to contribute at his site once again. Anyone interested in checking them out can do so at this link: Time’s Up; Under the Sign; and Backseat Driver.
 
I’ve been focusing my attention more heavily this past week on submitting chapbooks. I feel that 2015 has been fairly successful in getting my words out into different publications, having had over 500 poems appear in around 130 various venues, so a subtle shift in energy and intention is necessary at this point to start putting more effort toward the process of getting chapbooks and full length compilations published. With that in mind, I’ve been staying up and burning the candle at both ends for the past couple of weeks (that could actually be said for the entirety of the past year, but who’s counting?) while whittling down the 1,000 pages of final draft poems from 2015 into several different collections. I already had seven chapbooks ready to go, and now I’m in the process of compiling four more along with (what I feel to be) the best of my material into a full length. These things are, of course, quite subjective. But it’s my name on the work at the end of the day, so I’ll live with the choices that are made.
 
I’m serious about starting to shop some of these books around, so if there are any editors and/or publishers who enjoy my work and might happen to be reading this, if you’re interested in possibly working together, please contact me. Or, if you dig my work but logistics are such that a collaboration isn’t possible at this point in time, if you have any suggestions on where I might send out manuscripts, please let me know that as well. Friends and fellow poets that are reading this who might have suggestions…hit me up, let me know. I’m in full sale’s pitch mode right now. I’m seeking advice if you have it. I’m reaching out my hand. Reach back. I love you. Thank you.
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar
 
P.S.
 
Dustin Pickering at Transcendent Zero Press recently sent me the cover design for “Songs of A Dissident” which is scheduled for an early 2016 release. To say I’m excited about what he’s done with it would be an understatement. I’m not just whistling Dixie when I run my mouth about the Phoenix all the damn time.
 
“…let it burn…”

The Perfect Dose

~ 17numa ~ Leave a comment
Face down on the rug
with a head full of pills…
hard to believe
one could feel so high
while lying so close to the floor.
 
First glimpses into the vastness
of synchronicity’s scope
on that August night in 2003
while listening to “The Nurse Who Loved Me”
off A Perfect Circle’s “Thirteenth Step”
for the first time
and hearing the lyrics,
“Say hello to the rug’s topography,”
while already actually doing such a thing.
 
Talk about having one’s mind blown…
and the song itself
was also about pills,
while the theme of the album was addiction.
 
Like, whoa, man, whoa, far out…
it all makes perfect sense
in little doses
here and there.
 
Years later I gave that favorite rug
to my best friend
as a gift during another Summer season
slammed full of synchronicities,
which also happened to include
more pills
than most people could ever live to tell about.
 
 
The synchronicities have been coming in heavy waves the past few days, which I always take as a good sign. Some comments from a friend on Facebook yesterday concerning the A Perfect Circle music video that I’d posted on Sunday led to my writing this poem out on the front porch during my afternoon session (chunk of a chocolate espresso bar, first cigarette of the day, ink, and notebook). I also had some amazing dreams the night before where I was flying all over the damn place…another omen I always view as being “highly” fortuitous. The kundalini energy is surging strong, it would seem. Whenever such is the case, I simply open up and let the energy take me where it will. Some of the things I’ve seen and experienced during different phases of my life are beyond explainable…so I won’t even try. For instance, The Message I Just Received from another FB friend that happens to deal with synchronicity right while I was typing that last sentence. Let’s just put it this way…Everything in Life Is Really Big…
Thank you to Caleb Puckett at Futures Trading for publishing my poem “The Camel’s Back” in the recently released issue 3.3.
 
Thank you, also, to Sand Pilarski of Piker Press for publishing my poem “Sitting Pretty” yesterday.
 
I’m always down to connect with new people, so please feel free to hit me up on Twitter and Facebook. Things are starting to get fairly interesting, to say the least. Thanks for stopping by 17Numa. Y’all come back now, ya hear?
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

Ash to Ash

~ 17numa ~ Leave a comment
Now it’s here…
now it’s gone
 
Now you have it…
now you don’t
 
What seems so simple
is so hard to grasp
 
that what has been given
shall be taken away
 
A life
A love
A breath
 
A hope
A dream
A touch
 
Be true, be gentle, be merry…
for tomorrow we die
 
Be here, be now, be present…
for the winds doth blow
 
 
– This poem originally appeared last month at the Dissident Voice Sunday Poetry Page where I’ve been a weekly contributor for over a year now. You can read more of my poetry from DV, including the piece from this week, at this archive.
Cheers to Ben John Smith at Horror Sleaze & Trash for accepting my poem “Last Dance” recently which will be appearing at his awesome site sometime in the not too distant future. I’ve had work published there a couple times in the past…and the material definitely fit the name of the site on both occasions. You can follow the link above to the site’s homepage where you’ll find some strong poetry by the great Amber Decker which came out a couple of days ago.
 
Thank you to R.L. Black for accepting two poems of mine for future issues of Unbroken Journal, one of which will be included in the upcoming January/February issue, and the other which will appear later in the March/April edition.
 
Thank you, also, to Weasel Patterson and Emily Ramser at Weasel Press for accepting two poems recently. “Canceled Check” will be included in the next print issue of Vagabonds: Anthology of the Mad Ones, and “Lit Sky” will be appearing at the website. I’m always especially stoked to be published in anything put out through Weasel Press…good people there who publish really solid journals and anthologies.
 
There have been a few other acceptances as well as six published poems that have appeared in different venues so far this week. I’ll try and get another post up soon to give proper acknowledgements to all the editors. But, for now, I’ll mention one more in this particular post. My poem “Rush Hour” which originally appeared earlier this year in Indiana Voice Journal was published in issue 7 of Come and Take It Zine by Stout City. Many thanks to the editor Tim Oi for including my work amongst the likes of PW Covington, Kushal Poddar, Catfish McDaris, and many other cool poets.
 
As always, the biggest thank you goes out to those who read and support my work here at 17Numa. Feel free to drop by anytime and say hello. If you really dig my stuff you can always follow the blog to stay up to date that way. You can also get in contact with me on Facebook and Twitter. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

Beyond Comprehension

~ 17numa ~ 1 Comment
Love is a spasmodic explosion
Love is a tidal wave of passion
Love is a womb bursting open
Love is a scream across the void
Love is an aching in the bones
Love is a fire deep in the marrow
Love is an agony without satiation
Love is the electric pulse of skin friction
Love is the tip of the tongue tasting center
Love is hot flesh pressed tightly against hot flesh
Love is a stain found between bedsheets
Love is a wild dance in the midnight hour
Love is the first sip of wine in a new day
Love is the seed shooting out its first sprout
Love is the dirt into which roots burrow
Love is the evolutionary fervor of mutating genes
Love is the unstoppable swarm of progressive adaptation
Love is a widow weeping in despair
Love is the sorrow of existential desolation
Love is the pain of seeking perfection
Love is trying again when rejection strikes
Love is the thunderclap of gods in the sky
Love is the rumbling storm of righteousness
Love is a fat wad of cash filling up pockets
Love is a space of shelter in the midst of chaos
Love is the entropy that wails and gnashes
Love is a tooth being cut on hardships
Love is getting back up after failure
Love is the new dawn rising above far horizon
Love is a truth that cannot be rationalized
Love is a force beyond all comprehension
Love is justified violence against atrocity
Love is blood, sweat, sex, cum, and tears
Love is war, baby…
Come and get some –
My weekly piece at Dissident Voice went up recently on the Sunday Poetry Page. Many thanks, as always, to the awesome editor, Angie Tibbs. It’s been raining now for twelve straight days, which is, to say the least, an out of the ordinary occurrence. “Tricks of the Trade” was written on the front porch some days ago during one such stage of the downpour.
 
I received an honorable mention in the prompt contest at Three Line Thursday this past week. Many thanks to the Year Two: Week Six judges for thinking kindly of my work.
 
Cheers to JD DeHart for using my short, simple, uncharacteristically sweet poem “Sunshine Song” at Lunar Lit Poetry Page a few days ago.
 
Thank you to everyone who swings by 17Numa to see what the recent happenings are. Please always feel free to hit me up on Facebook and Twitter.
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

God, Love, Truth and Light

~ 17numa ~ 2 Comments

Many thanks to Ian Chung at the great Eunoia Review for the recent publication of my poem “God, Love, Truth and Light”…

perfectsublimemasters's avatarEunoia Review

If you want God
I can show you to the forest
but that’s a tree you’ll have to find yourself

If you want Love
I can point at the moon all day
but it is the night that you’ll be needing

If you want Truth
I can teach you all about addictions
but that’s a drug you just can’t shake

If you want Light
I can flash these shining sirens
but, sadly, most choose to fall back asleep

Scott Thomas Outlar spends the hours flowing and fluxing with the ever-changing currents of the Tao River while laughing at and/or weeping over life’s existential nature. His words have appeared recently in venues such as Dissident Voice, Mad Swirl, The Fat Damsel, Yellow Chair Review, and RASPUTIN. Links to his published work can be found at https://17numa.wordpress.com.

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