I’m very happy today to learn that The Roanoke Times has published my letter to the editor about the war in the Ukraine. You can find it right here:
Letter: A hopeful heart amid despair
Thanks, as always, to the editorial staff of The Roanoke Times for allowing me to share my thoughts.
Where would we go, you and I?
The sea which breathes, in aquamarine,
its rhythmic, salty epic at our ankles
and inundates a foam refrain,
over and over, in rolling green glass:
the tide — the oldest poem — an immutable meter preceding
words, or man, or even ears to hear?
The unvarying sea
takes no notice of poets —
you and I, ourselves inconsonant poems,
varying as all our kind are wont to do …
faithless at the foot of the green, returning tide,
both our lives arrhythmic and
bitter with metaphor.
Where would we go, asalam?
The staid and angled mountains, vaulting up?
Mountains are always odes. The miles of stone
which rise to cut their rival heavens
lance the air, and spin the winds to narrative.
Those winds were singing long before us,
will sing when we are gone.
The mountains will not know our names
even as we whisper one another’s,
or the rise of your breathing where we lay there —
the blithe and meadowed slope that will not blush beneath us,
where we are ribald lyrics, songs out of our lawless senses,
lascivious and nearly wordless.
Where would we go, my muse?
The river that rushes like a fugitive ghost
absconding with its own requiem?
Rivers’ roars are always dirges, for rivers run past
lives beside their banks. Lifetimes
are as seasons to them, always ending.
This timeless river
is unconcerned for poets
and will not slow to note us.
Only our own faces on its hastening, dim and opaque surface.
answer back our gaze. We are elegies, reflected
in heedless, racing waters moving on.
Stay with me, here, for now.
We have two temporary
yet temperate pages all our own
over which is the script of our ardor:
my gray-grizzled Irish cheek and your Iranian skin,
to read and study, see and know, slowly and tenderly, in this ordinary room,
in this little city, in this waning light, in this fleeting moment,
in these fleeting lives.
I am inelegant free verse, but you …
you are my perfect poem.
We will draw the sheets over us,
over our moving euphony,
and frame to evoke one another —
the rounded warmth of your white shoulder,
the cadence of my pulse.
We will hear one another, and speak
in sedulous repetition
the particular rhythm of each of our names,
measured in the meter of tremulous breath.
(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2022
Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Santorin (GR), Exomytis, Vlychada Beach — 2017 — 2999 (bw)” / CC BY-SA 4.0
Italian sausage toasted sandwiches give me nom-nom-nomicron.
The CDC recommends Heinz ketchup.
Hey, guys — remember I told you how I just discovered that Dark Horse Comics quoted me in promoting its amazing 2019 “Grendel” series (right under Alan Moore, no less!)?
It turns out that some major entertainment news sites featured the entirety of the company’s promotional materials, so the quote was carried in tripwire magazine, Broken Frontier and Pastrami Nation.
I’m still honored that I was even quoted at all, in connection with an iconic comic character that I’ve loved since I was a kid. This is a fan’s dream!
This is actually a pretty accurate depiction of my writing process.
I was so pleased this morning to see that The Roanoke Times published my letter to the editor about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. You can find it right here.
I’m honored that my thoughts about the occasion appear to have struck a chord with people. This same letter was featured first on Wednesday by New York’s Newsday (with a weekday circulation of 437,000), and then here in Virginia by The Bristol Herald Courier (with a circulation of 39,000). As The Roanoke Times has a Sunday circulation of 85,000, this would mean that the letter was distributed to 561,000 readers.
Here’s a big word of thanks to the editors of The Roanoke Times for allowing me to communicate with with my neighbors through such a superb regional newspaper.
More good news — The Bristol Herald Courier also published my letter today about the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. (This is the longer version of my commentary that originally appeared here at my blog.)
You can find the letter right here: “Your View: Wounded, unified America we discovered after 9/11 seems long gone.”
Thanks so much to the editors at The Bristol Herald Courier for allowing me to share my thoughts through this leading regional newspaper in southwest Virginia.
[UPDATE: You people DO realize this is s a joke, right? I am not actually seeking the role of Wolverine.]
Wish me luck. Below is the full text of my e-mail to Kevin Feige:
*****
SUBJ: Eric Robert Nolan *IS* Wolverine!!!
Mr. Kevin Feige
President, Marvel Studios
Dear Mr. Feige:
I am writing to you today about an immeasurable benefit that I can bring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a definitive silver screen interpretation of Marvel’s iconic character, Wolverine. Behold, please, the photoshopped image of me attached to this e-mail, which shows that I am uniquely suited for the role. (To fully appreciate my uncanny likeness, Mr. Feige, I must ask you here to vocalize the classic sound effect “Snickety-snick” when viewing the photo.) Although my body at age 49 might look slightly different than conventional representations of the character, I feel certain that modern CGI could remedy this.
I studied extensively with the Mary Washington College Drama Department between 1991 and 1994. I studied comic books at the same time — outside of an academic program but with an unbridled enthusiasm I never showed any of my formal studies. I also periodically defeated my formidable classmate John Matthias in debates about whether Wolverine could beat Silver Surfer — and even wrestled him about it in the lobby of New Hall before the 1994 Fall Formal. (I surprised him with the classic tactic with which you are doubtlessly familiar, Wolverine’s roaring, berserker leap.)
There are other benefits as well, should you choose to employ me for this role — I am highly skilled with puns, free-verse poetry, and deconstructing arguments made by Donald Trump supporters. I feel certain that all three of these skills would promote an enlightened and entertained workplace. I will contact your office next week to determine whether an audition can be arranged.
Kindest regards,
Eric Robert Nolan
Roanoke, Virginia
ericrnolan@gmail.com
https://ericrobertnolan.com/
P.S. — You did an outstanding job with “What If …?,” by the way! It’s truly amazing stuff!
So tell me these aren’t the coolest themed birthday gifts ever. An amazing lady gave me the complete Sherlock Holmes library in beautifully bound collector’s volumes, a can of Victorian London Fog tea, and a magnifying glass for investigations of my own (because I’m on to you people).
What you see up top is a wool herringbone flat cap of the kind Watson would wear. (My benefactor here wisely deduced that Holmes’ deerstalker cap would look funny on me.)
Another pal of mine (and an MWC alum) made me homemade pizza yesterday too — complete with herbs from his own garden. (No, not the extralegal kind — we’re talking basil and stuff.) I truly am surrounded by the best people in life.
Great news! I’m honored to share here that Newington Blue Press will feature a flash fiction story of mine in the third and final volume of “Buk 100.” The publisher is based in Germany, and produces the “Buk 100” commemorative chapbook series as an homage to German-American writer Charles Bukowski. The first two volumes were beautifully crafted and filled with outstanding contributions from around the world. Thanks once again to Matthias Krueger for including my work.
The story is entitled “Bill and I,” and is my stab at spinning a Bukowski-esque vignette. I’ll share ordering details when they become available.
By GFreihalter – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18740517
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 