Celebrate National Poetry Month — here, suggested by a friend, is Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost, 1874 – 1963
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
So if you prosper, suspect those bright
Mornings when you whistle with a light
Heart. You are loved; you have never seen
The harbour so still, the park so green,
So many well-fed pigeons upon
Cupolas and triumphal arches,
So many stags and slender ladies
Beside the canals. Remember when
Your climate seems a permanent home
For marvelous creatures and great men,
What griefs and convulsions startled Rome,
Ecbatana, Babylon.
— from W.H. Auden’s “Alonso to Ferdinand,” in “The Sea and the Mirror”
Celebrate National Poetry Month — here is a link to my most popular poem to date, “Confession,” which was published in Dead Beats Literary Blog in October 2013. So many readers liked this one. Just last night I was chatting with a friend in Las Vegas who is a voice actor — he told me that he is actually making a recording of the poem, and will share his own reading of it when he’s created a recording that he’s happy with.
I was initially surprised at the positive reader feedback for “Confession.” The first people I’d shown it to after writing it disliked it; the first publisher to which I’d submitted it emphatically rejected it. Its critical message and sexual imagery are not for everyone.
I remain grateful to Dead Beats for sharing it, and to their readers for letting me know that this piece indeed has a receptive audience. (Dead Beats is such a terrific publisher for edgier or darker poetry.) And thanks, of course, to the generous readers who occasionally drop me a note to let me know they liked the poem.
http://www.deadbeats.eu/post/63481494199/confession-by-eric-robert-nolan
Because just once I want to call her cell, not get her, and leave her a voicemail message in my best Darth Vader voice:
“I FIND YOUR LACK OF FAITH DISTURBING.”
Celebrate National Poetry Month — here is another great piece by a talented friend of mine across the pond.
Enjoy “Parched” by Mr. Sean Macro:
http://www.deadbeats.eu/post/35280130351/parched-by-sean-macro
Badass Wiil Graham, corrupted Will Graham, dire wolf references, nightmares haunting Hannibal for once, wonderful acting, Psycho Tony Stark Werewolf, MASON VERGER REFERENCE, Uppham from “Saving Private Ryan.”
Nice one, NBC. This latest episode was wonderful, even despite the glaring absence of Dr. Alana Bloom.
Poetry is taking life by the throat.
— Robert Frost
Celebrate National Poetry Month! Head on over to Stanley Anne Zane Latham’s blog, “Surfacing Stanley,” for some amazing work. And be sure to visit my favorite piece of hers, “Roller Girl.”
Shown below is the pedestrian bridge over Route 1 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, linking Mary Washington College’s main campus with … a student apartment complex now? There are those of us who remember when Giant Supermarket occupied that space, along with a huge crafts store that was popular with the girls, and a Domino’s Pizza managed by none other than my great old friend and alumnus, Sanjeev Malhotra.
You know what makes a guy feel old? Seeing photos of his alma mater and noting the bridge and buildings that he cannot recognize because they have been erected in his absence. Thank you, Janet Walbroehl Winston and Russell Morgan, for adding to my insecurities by sharing these pictures.
The second photo down is of Virginia Hall, which housed Freshmen women when I attended school. I and my friend Jeff once went Christmas caroling there … in April. “Milwaukee’s Best” beer was a contributing factor in our holiday spirit, which was lively and well intentioned, if not timely. If that cheap beverage was truly Milwaukee’s best, I shudder to think of what the city’s worst might have tasted like. Hell, even its average might have been poison.
The third photo down is of Trinkle Hall. It is here where I took Philosophy 101 with Dr. Cynthia M. Grund, an immeasurably talented educator who often employed science fiction films and books as a starting point for discussing philosophical concepts. I first read Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep” under Dr. Grund’s guidance, and watched and first gained a genuine understanding of Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner.” The class was pure fun, enhanced by a wonderfully creative educational approach — it was one of my favorites.
Dammit … now I am hungry for Domino’s Pizza.
The bridge over Route 1.
Virginia Hall.
Trinkle Hall.
Ball Hall.
Chandler Hall with Virginia Hall at right?
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 