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.

Valentine’s Day Card, circa 1903

New York Public Library.

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“Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.”

“Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.”   

— Edmund Burke

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Portrait of Burke by Joshua Reynolds, circa 1769

“Afectos en Pandemia,” Hilda Chaulot, 2020

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“I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.”

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why – I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.

— Tom Brown, circa 1680 (apocryphal)





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Chromolithograph of the Hall of Christ Church, Oxford, from the book Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal, and Popular Antiquities (published by Charles Knight and Co., London, 1845)

(Your guess is as good as mine.)

Does this cozy Southern house

harbor an audacious mouse?

Because heaven only knows

what just ran across my toes.





“The Merchant” from “Basel’s Dance of Death,” Hieronymus Hess, circa 1849

Lithographic plates. After Matthaeus Merian’s 17th century drawings.

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(What would the costume even look like?)

There is a mourning dove on the telephone wire out front just staring through my window at me.

This might mean I need to become a mourning dove-themed superhero a la Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One.”

Figures I’d get the depressing #@&* instead of a falcon or an owl something.



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Cover to “Detective Comics” #648, Matt Wagner, 1992

DC Comics.

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Dead Letter Radio Features “March Midnight Window”

I’m honored to share here that several of my poems have been selected by the Dead Letter Radio podcast!  “March Midnight Window” was the first last night to be read and interpreted by host Taize Jones, who brings a relatable and sublimely empathetic voice to his program.  My poem is the sixth and last piece to be read on Episode 10, “Eisegesis” (at about the 18:02 mark).

You can listen to the entire episode right here.  Dead Letter Radio is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and over at Listen Notes.

I really recommend that you check out Taize’s show.  It’s a truly unique online venue — giving listeners the feel that they are reacting to poems with a trusted friend.  (I’ll bet that its style of presentation successfully engages many new readers of poetry.)

Thanks again, Taize!



Cover to “Detective Comics” #649, Matt Wagner, 1992

DC Comics.

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