Guest-Editorial: Scott Thomas Outlar

Scott Thomas Outlar

Seven Koi in Pisces

I’d been living 

out of a suitcase

deep and wide

until the apples

from the shared dream

she masterfully weaves 

daily in our hearts

found shape 

with new eyes

Holds me steady

in spaces

unfamiliar 

at first

but becoming

more well-groked

with every spiral

around the city

we spin through

together

…

Freedom will prevail. The bell tower rang out with three manic signs of harmonized sound, promising with a sacred vow that all was taking place right on time. Despite our inclinations to try and control life, it’s undeniably true that intuitively aligning with its inherent creative desires and synching up in perfect tune to its divine connection with the holy flow’s vibration will allow your collective experience of consciousness to feel more rewarding than any individual psychic achievement ever could.

Sacred Frequency of (Happy) Unification

Within two miles of my new home in Frederick, Maryland, I am in walking distance of a creek, waterfalls, two parks, a library, a downtown scene (as yet unwitnessed), a police station, an amphitheater, an outdoor pavilion, an art center, a prayer house, restaurants aplenty, several cemeteries (including Francis Scott Key Memorial), and a more than ample amount of park benches providing comfortable spaces that help the soul mellow out in such a way that’ll be ideally conducive to hammering a few thousand poems into notebooks (though a couple more tables scattered here and there out in public could prove useful). This spot on the globe pulses with an excitedly interesting energy that has me lit up with infinite possibilities and a fiery phoenix fit of inspiration that I have never felt at this specifically honed and disciplined degree. 

At the moment, I'm in the living room, steadily approaching the noon hour on February 21st, 2023, classical music playing on Spotify, patchouli incense burning, looking out full glass windows that display a slice of the city from the third floor of our apartment, sipping on orange, pineapple, ginger juice laced with probiotics, sitting at an antique table from my Dad's side of the family tree that was recently moved here from my birthplace of Georgia, typing on a laptop that was gifted from an angel. Assorted notebooks are spread out beside me along with a sheet of loose white paper I wrote upon earlier this morning at the park as ideas for an essay to properly introduce the Setu Mag Western Voices edition were pouring through my head near the flower garden and under an awesome sun that belched light upon my shoulders. 

I am at peace, and I am in love.

…

Time and space

between each note

melodies that hum

despite winter’s static

I’ve heard a thousand cliches

about how the suffering of this world

is supposed to press you down

through all its days of gravity

and how even the roses

will pluck and peck your eyes out

along with murderous crows

who care only about their treasures

Though that might just be 

the buzzing of fog through life’s filter

the splash of a windfall

creates rapid and furious currencies

There are always mountains in the distance

but be rest assured by fate

that whatever ground you’re standing upon

during any given moment of this dance

has been leveled off and balanced 

in perfect design for your next step

…

And in one age

we might appear

as a sniveling worm

without a single tool

in the shed of life

with which to work

And in another

we might reign

with a crown of stars

during one turn of the precession 

as a season of sorrow

blinks out of fashion

It’s roundabout 9 AM on Saturday, February 25th, 2023…

and I have tasted the sun in such splendor

and I have bathed in your fire of lessons

and I have marveled as the sky sings with snow

All to reach this exact compass point. Forty-two and a half years spent drifting at sea to now land here (whole and healed) on this bench beside the bell tower as the water from the flowing creek glistens with fractal rays of sunlight dancing upon every ripple. Each ring in the trunk of my soul tells a story from the beginning. Of ancient calls to order and archetypes of branded chaos. Of hubris-induced falls, scrapped knees, snarling tears, and the deep recesses of sheer will and determination that demand the spirit perpetually stand back up and continue pushing along the pattern of life. 

Now and always. Grace and Beauty. My one and only.

…

Thank you to Sunil Sharma and Anurag Sharma for allowing me the opportunity to edit this 5th annual edition of Western Voices for Setu Mag. Each year of being associated with this venue that is dedicated to constructing bridges and connecting cultural ideas across continents leaves me feeling more humbled. I am grateful to the 33 skillfully polished poets who have shared their work with us. It has been a pleasure compiling the 2023 anthology. I hope you enjoy reading through the perception of each writers’ lens as much as I have. 

Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

Winter 2023

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Poetry: Western Voices (February 2023): Authors

Alan Britt Alexis Rhone Fancher Beverly M. Collins Bill Cushing Catfish McDaris Chani Zwibel Cheryl A. Rice Dee Allen Duane Vorhees Dustin Pickering Gloria Mindock Heath Brougher John Dorsey John Drudge Kashiana Singh Lady Mae Thunderbird ***

Lauren Scharhag LB Sedlacek Linda Imbler Marianne Szlyk Michael Lee Johnson Mihaela Melnic M.J. Arcangelini Ray Whitaker Robin Wyatt Dunn Ryan Quinn Flanagan Sabah Carrim Sharon Berg Sheikha A. Steve Anc Strider Marcus Jones Tekisui RC Z.T. Balian

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Setu, February 2023