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.

“April is the cruellest month …”

“April is the cruellest month …”

— from the opening line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” 1922

 

 

Illustration of Cassandra from “The Stratford Gallery,” 1834

Engraving.  New York, D. Appleton and Co.  I am uncertain as to the artist.  It may be K. Meadows or W. H. Mote.

Cassandra_(Stratford_Gallery)

“May you live in interesting times.”

“May you live in interesting times.”

— Chinese curse (possibly apocryphal?).  There is an interesting examination of the saying’s possible origins here.

 

Story_of_stem_and_leaves

Photo credit: By Amannainani – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49701557

Cover to “Night Nurse” #3, Win Mortimer, 1972

Marvel Comics.

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“O what was that bird,” said horror to hearer.”

“O what was that bird,” said horror to hearer,
“Did you see that shape in the twisted trees?
Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly,
The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.”

—  excerpt from W. H. Auden’s O Where Are You Going?

 

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“Contagion is a Despot Poet,” by Eric Robert Nolan

Contagion is a despot poet. It
releases fatal verses from its throne.
Its alabaster palm will lean to sow
what words will wind within their binding strictures

each arriving low, in permanent cursive,
at the many nadirs of pages — each
to immutable conclusion,
to shared, indelible metaphor:

dirges upon April mornings
eulogies at afternoon
rimes to loss at rayless night, as stars,
so slowly overflying a singing, dim landscape of endowed poetry,

are indistinct, indifferent.

 

(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2020

 

Darkness_(1670488216)

Photo credit: By Helgi Halldórsson from Reykjavík, Iceland – darkness, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33782100

Poster for “28 Weeks Later” (2007)

20th Century Fox/Fox Atomic.

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Snickety-Snick.

Here’s an idea.  Since none of us are getting haircuts, we should have a contest to see who can grow the coolest Wolverine hair.

Frankly I thought I’d be much farther along — I have a long reputation for having “big hair.”  Seriously.  It’s just always been thick.

I figured I’d let you guys off the hook and not suggest a six-pack abs contest.  I’d win that one too easily.

 

“The Geographer,” Johannes Vermeer, 1669

Oil on canvas.

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