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Welcome to the Guild of Outsider Writers!
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The Naked Opinion
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Posted by Pat King
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007
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On a mountain in Alabama, the first Outsider Writer meetup took place. It was the first week of August and it was hot and humid. Not quite the best conditions for sitting on top of a mountain in Guntersville, Alabama, drinking Coors Light and shooting the shit. But a tree provided shade and the horse pasture seemed to stretch limitlessly. And everything felt just fine.  Comments (5) |  Add as favourites (3) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 77 | E-mail
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The Naked Opinion
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Posted by J. D. Finch
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007
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Through the last (X) years I have compiled, collected and filed. I have learned (from other writers), while avoiding all intellectual commitment in my 9 to 5 working life: to the extent of doing nothing more taxing than counting ball bearings and packaging nuts and bolts -- all so I had enough mental and emotional energy left over to pursue my own course. I have gotten innumerable writing projects underway and have, in fact, carried enough of them to completion to be satisfied. I have had countless ideas, duly set down in personal journals. I have read classics including F.S. Fitzgerald, Cheever, the Beats, etc., etc., as well as a bunch of postmodernists, many of whom I found unsatisfying. Needless to say I have read a lot of outsiders like our own McGinnis, Koweski and Drehmer, who I have found just great, thanks. Comments (2) | Add as favourites (2) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 60 | E-mail
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Lit Circus
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Posted by Michele McDannold
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007
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raspberry lemonade
i cut fresh yellow lemons
with a dull serrated knife
pick out the slimy slippery seeds
and squeeze the tart juice
it gets into tiny cuts on my
hands and burns, burns
the sadness from my mind
that is a revolving door
of thoughts on chemo, him,
paperwork, damaged nerve
endings but not of life
adding red, ripe raspberries
make lemonade sweet
make love under fragrant
sheets free from toxins
his hands as soft as cotton
i dream while drinking raspberry lemonade
Judy L. Brekke lives in Minnesota.
Please visit Juice Press at www.juice-press.com/poetry .
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Lit Circus
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Posted by Michele McDannold
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Sunday, 12 August 2007
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In This Place,
Poverty Falls
In this place night falls with Linda.
Wrinkled life, wrinkled wishes
race across her face.
Torment bristles with each morning;
nailed to a cross within her house,
Linda lives.
Everything is a cycle,
a charity or gifts.
Poverty is an odor,
it is a smell her
nose itches with.
In the yard, poverty grass,
near the old car, poverty grass.
Poverty tastes like copper
metal on her tongue.
On her this journey with no applause,
no gas, Nicor shut that off.
No money honey, laziness shut that off.
Her house is full of bills & debris.
With no relief a few dollars
shrink in her hand harmlessly.
Rest, wait in welfare lines,
manipulate the coin machines
and the local pharmacy drug store.
Electric heaters keep the old house
warm and the multiple pets alive.
The microwave heats the plastic
salad bowl filled with water
for sponge baths.
The left over water mixes with hydrogen
peroxide that brushes her teeth.
Her body pale and spirits bail out with pills.
Groceries are checks
Nourished by food stamps.
Walls come closer in at night.
The wind outside roars
with stolen property inside.
Dreary days, step
into depression’s chamber;
a slice of her mourning
pronounces her dead.
Michael Lee Johnson lives in Chicago, Illinois.
You can visit his lulu storefront at http://stores.lulu.com/poetryboy .
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Lit Circus
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Posted by Aleathia Drehmer
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Sunday, 12 August 2007
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Aleathia Drehmer: The other day I was contemplating the reason why so many people in the general population do not read books anymore. I began to wonder if it had to do with poverty or other social conditions that seem to be deteriorating in this country today. I did a bit of research and found that in 1993 they (the all mighty "they") did a study about the literacy rate in this country. The numbers are staggering. There were 90 million citizens that held jobs below the poverty level due to lack of education. Many of this lot of people do not have a vocabulary beyond the 4th grade, are so functionally illiterate that they cannot hold a job (and live off government funded programs that comes out of our taxes), and many of these people will never read another book after leaving school. A follow-up study was done in 2006 and it was found to have little to no statistical changes in the 13 years showing that 46% of the 51% maximum adult population read so poorly they cannot even obtain employment.
The Cuban literacy rate is only 1% lower than the literacy rate in the United States.
So, my question for all of you is "What do you think it will take to regain literacy in this country? What kind of message as writers do we have to try and put out there that will jump start the younger generations of this country into enjoying reading again?" Comments (2) | Add as favourites (4) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 66 | E-mail
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Reviews
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Posted by Michael Grover
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Sunday, 12 August 2007
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Numbskull Sutra/S.A. Griffin/Rank Stranger Press
Reviewed by Michael Grover
This book should establish Griffin as a great American poet and storyteller (Though he already is to many.). Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (4) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 63 | E-mail
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Lit Circus
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Posted by Michele McDannold
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Friday, 10 August 2007
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Shoppers Dodge You
That’s how the mind works
he says
unwinding a twisted up plastic grocery bag
and fading away, into returnables
translucent flap curtains
tumble in his wake
the image is framed
by the coffee grinder to the right,
high shelves of tea to the left,
heavy fluorescents in heaven
and the yellow tile earth
You feel as if you are in
someone else’s body,
because you aren’t sure what’s happening
or how you got to be here
The world is rocked by a massive BING,
then a nasally voice: 0-1, please attend to the fire in meats,
once again, fire in meats, 0-1
And suddenly you are injected with dread,
running to the exits, which you can’t find
The Management loves
watching you run in circles,
which you do
for the duration of the night shift
Shoppers dodge you
and don’t complain
READ MORE ...
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Lit Circus
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Posted by Michele McDannold
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Wednesday, 08 August 2007
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the american way
after another night
of stumbling done-in
down metropolis streets
too fucked-up to fly
superman lies
eyes closed
still under the influence—
naked in the space
between night & day
conjuring pathetic
x-ray visions
of a spent comic book hero
too tired
to walk through walls
or leap tall buildings
with a single bound
too strung out
to keep it all
from falling down—
dead certain
that truth, justice
& the american way
are no longer worth
the never-ending battle
so,
for the sixth time tonight
the frustrated
man of steel
grabs the .38
from the bedside table—
puts it to his head
& pulls the trigger
DB Cox is from South Carolina, USA.
You can reach DB by email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
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