I wrote this short poem 23 years ago, as a junior at Mary Washington College. It was first published by The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archives in July 2013:
http://iwvpa.net/nolaner/zz-november.php
November, Blue Ridge Mountains, 1992
November compelled us to visit the hills,
Where ignorant rock and lofty pine
Were witness to our disregard
For strangeness, temptation and time.
But memories are sticky things.
Will any mountain ever let
Me dream again? Can I now
Feel rain without regret?
(c) Eric Robert Nolan 1992
Photo credit: Dave in the Triad, via Wikimedia Commons, “Rough Ride Tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” October 2008
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 
Nice one, Eric.
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Thanks, man! 🙂
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My pleasure. The confident tone of this is really impressive.
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Can I ask, Eric, what the inspiration was? I gather this is for Veterans Day? Part of its beauty is the mystery of what exactly has happened, but I am curious! But if I’m prying and knowing would lessen it, I’ll understand that as well.
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Thanks for your interest, William; it’s much appreciated! 🙂 The piece was inspired by an actual drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains with a young woman I knew during my college days. Frankly, the poem contains too little exposition; my Poetry prof and classmates at school rightfully pointed out that I should have allowed the reader to know more — maybe at some point I’ll update it.
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Thanks! I’m not sure…I could see knowing more about it, but I also like the haiku-like uncertainty or perhaps openness of it, so I’d hate to lose that spirit in any changes. Anyhow, lovely words and images. William Carlos Williams fan?
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