Poetry from Scott Thomas Outlar

Reaching Beyond

…;

spiral out

beyond containment,

beyond constriction,

beyond restrictions,

beyond the veils

of illusion

that bind

our broken minds

with gilded chains

holding back

the path of progress,

the process of evolution,

the forward march

that can set

the initial spark

toward renaissance

and revolution

upon the earth;

spiral out

beyond the limitations

of what once

was thought

to exist

in this temporal masquerade

of purgatory induced

time and space;

spiral out

with Brougher

to find

that the future

has become imbibed

with a heady drunkenness

of creativity

let loose

to roam

in spaces

of higher truth

beyond the earth;

 

Of Sound and Form

Words are fire erupting from our blood, a volcano amplifying in the mind, an explosion from unknown subconscious realms that sends the psyche spinning in a swirl toward new ideas.

Words are the garden of Eden, the tree under which the Buddha sat in silence, the lotus that grew from Vishnu’s navel, the path of Tao, the power of every mystery experienced internally that finally finds expression in the world through language.

Words are crushing blows dealt to the heart when love is not enough, the ecstatic euphoria when romance is born anew, the quiet contemplation and meditation during moments in between.

Words are the resonance of primal emotions that reverberate through auditoriums, amphitheaters, classrooms, community centers, bookstores, sound stages, open lots, attics, and basements around the world wherever poetry is being recited.

Words are the first breath that escapes lungs as a baby is spit forth from the womb, the sacrificial wound, the last gasp that escapes a chest riddled with cancer. Words are angels and demons and the Devil and God.

Words are the sighs between silk sheets as sweat pours in the steamy night, the fever dream visions of madness, the hallucinations of shamans in the forest as they recite prayers to mother nature.

Words are electric neon pulse rays of Logos, vibrant prisms made manifest through mere thought, ideas passed down through generations, ancestral DNA decoded and unleashed upon a sleeping species.

Words are renaissance and revolution and rebirth through the grace of absolution. Words are salvation experienced in the split of a single second, the shattering of an atom, the mission to space, the galactic Big Bang.

Words are karma and fate and faith and destiny and free-will and determinism and science and religion and philosophy and spirituality.

Words are shape and form and sound and color and kaleidoscopic spirals of kinetic energy. Words are multiplied and triangulated and exponentially evolving into whatever utterance we humans create next to bring this existential paradox of life out of the swirling chaos and into a singular order of higher light.

 

Scott Thomas Outlar lives and writes in the suburbs outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys spending time with the trees alone in silent thought, and also loves attending festivals where the voice of humanity can be heard in full throat. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Outlar guest-edited the 2019 Western Voices Edition of Setu Mag, and was a recipient of the 2017 Setu Mag Award for Excellence in the field of literature. He began hosting a radio podcast, Songs of Selah, in autumn 2018. Links to his published poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, reviews, and books can be found at 17Numa.com. His sixth book, Of Sand and Sugar, is forthcoming in April 2019 through Cyberwit.