Charles D. Tarlton
Thēsauros
I thought today I would try to harvest some of those ideas that are sticking to the bottom of the box.
When I reach in there for a word or a story, I normally take one from near the top.
The result is that some of the oldest ones that have fermented slowly are overlooked until they're
completely out of date. Like eggs, you want the ideas that keep you afloat in the normal fracas as fresh as possible.
Still, from time to time, one of these riper, thicker, smellier, and agéd inklings can be scooped
out and will fit the bill perfectly. Here's what I mean: take synesthesia; see red 7's tumbling
among sky-blue 3's, and that dark black 1 perched on a dead limb.
Bio
Charles D. Tarlton is a retired university professor now living in Northampton, Mass.,
and writing poetry and flash fiction since 2006. His poems have appeared in:
Jack Magazine, Shampoo, Review Americana, Tipton, Barnwood, Abramelin, Simply Haiku, Haibun Today,
Ink, Sweat, and Tears, Atlas Poetica, Blue and Yellow Dog, Shot Glass, Sketchbook, Skylark,
Six Minute Magazine, Cricket Online Review, Red Booth Review, Linden Avenue Literary Journal,
Inner Art Journal, Prune Juice, Rattle, and Blackbox Manifold.
He has also published a poetry e-chapbook in the 2River series, entitled, "La Vida de Piedra y de Palabra"
(a free translation of Neruda); a tragic historical western in poetry and prose,
"Five Episodes in the Navajo Degradation;" in Lacuna, and "The Turn of Art", a short poetical drama
pitting Picasso against Matisse, composed in verse and prose, which appeared in Fiction International.