All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

You write because it’s in your bones.

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Cover to “House of Mystery” #202, Mike Kaluta, 1972

DC Comics.

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Volume 2 of Buk 100 Features “Ode to a New Black Ball-Point Pen”

Airmail from Germany!

I am honored to see a poem and a photograph of mine published in Buk 100: Notes for a Dirty Old Birthday!  Like the first volume of Buk 100, Newington Blue Press created this second limited edition chapbook to honor what would have been legendary poet Charles Bukowski’s 100th birthday.  (You can order your copy right here.)

The short poem is entitled “Ode to a New Black Ball-Point Pen” and the photo appears just below it.  (I think my fellow Roanokers will recognize Shaffer’s Crossing Norfolk Southern Railway Bridge.)

Thanks again to Matthias Krueger for selecting my work for this superb recognition of Bukowski’s legacy!




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Public Health Ad on Dangers of the Spanish Flu Epidemic, 1918

“Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases – As Dangerous as Poison Gas Shells.”  Origin is possibly U.S. Public Health Service.

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“The Bold Jumping Spider” (Phidippus Audax)

How’s that for a name for a species? It sounds like either a horror story or a children’s book.

If you get a really close look at it, that spot on its back is sort of in the shape of a heart — which suggests this guy would make a pretty creative Valentine’s day present. Also — that spot ought to be orange or white, geographically speaking. The ones with yellow markings are only supposed to be found in certain parts of Florida.  Yet our friend found sunny Roanoke, VA.

Anyway … if you zoom in reaaaaaally close, you can actually see his ring of eyes.



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“Portrait de Femme de la Renaissance,” Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola

“Portrait of a Renaissance Woman.”

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Agatha Hotness, amirite?

(Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitresses.)

It actually just occurred to me that she is the only character that I’m aware of in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who’s broken the fourth wall. (Sure, Deadpool does it all the time, but he hasn’t been introduced to the MCU yet.)

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“Confused on first.”

That depressing moment when you realize that Bud Abbott was better equipped to handle a public health crisis than Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

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Cover to Richard Matheson’s “The Shrinking Man,” Art by Mitchell Hooks, 1962

Gold Medal Books.

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(They blinded me with science.)

Was gonna mask up for Covid-19, but Jess, the kitchen supervisor at [location withheld], reassured me that it is just another “flu.” (SARS, MERS and the common cold are ALL “flus,” as it turns out.)  Jess is an anti-masker, by the way.

You can find me tonight writing angry letters to the CDC, the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins for misinforming me for [checks watch], more than a year now.

SCIENTISTS SCARE US BECAUSE THEY HATE OUR FREEDOM. Our non-scientist, kitchen-supervising, common-sense FREEDOM.

And if you wear a mask, then the scientists really have won.