Continuous Present

In this collection, Continuous Present, John Michael Flynn correlates his poems to moves from his study of the Asian martial art of Tai Chi Chuan. He seeks to address and confirm the idea that it is not inaccurate to consider that the past remains illusory and cannot exist without our conception of the fleeting present. Each poem examines fluidity and is titled in a phrase written in the present continuous tense and based on an action, a moment, an observation, a mood, or an occurrence large or small. Through the examination of these connections to motion, he hopes to reveal how many of the ways we choose to behave in the present, in relation to time's passing, do not define our sense of order amidst chaos, or any one best choice regarding how to live, though they may help us learn to accept, whether accurate or not, who we think we are.