Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan

(Let’s set aside the pedantree.)

A few of you dendrological-type people might notice that there are actually two trees in this picture.  (People on Facebook have pointed out that the one on the left looks like a maple or Bradford pear, while the one on the right is a crape myrtle.)  So the meme is based on a falsehood.

But I wouldn’t have known.  And the point remains important anyway.



Source: Other Perspectives on Facebook

Hershberger Road, Roanoke, Virginia, March 2025

I took this shot because it shows how mountains encircle Roanoke.  (From this one particular place on Hershberger Road, you can see them in the distance in the west, north and east.)

For newcomers hailing from a very flat place like Long Island, this can actually mess with your sense of direction — because your mind might unconsciously use the nearest mountain as a frame of reference.  (It should be noted here, however, that I have always had a lousy sense of direction.  I was legendary in New York for easily becoming lost.)



The paragon of Southern culture and the crown jewel of Hershberger Road.

Krispy Kreme.

Roanoke, Virginia.

Spillwords Press publishes “Like White Plumeria Petal”

I am so happy to see Spillwords Press today feature my poem “Like White Plumeria Petal.”  You can find it right here.

Thanks, as always, to Chief Editor Dagmara K. and the staff of Spillwords Press!



I can see!!! I can see!!!

I was at first taken aback by my need to seek (sigh) bifocals.  But that feeling was mitigated entirely by the return of … the world!!  It is rendered in such exquisite detail — even things that are far away!!  (I had no idea that I needed glasses so badly.)

Roanoke’s sweeping wooded vistas are once again completely novel to me.  It’s beauty times two for a transplanted New Yorker.  🙂



(Be a hell of a crossover, though.)

Went looking for info on “A Bridge Too Far;” I somehow arrived at info for “Bridgerton,” and those are two very different viewing experiences.



(Though some might argue it’s the space between my ears …)

Hey, it’s as good as anything else.


New(ish) train mural off Kirk Avenue.

The local artist is John Murrill; I think this was completed last year.

My photo here is terribly cropped, but I just loved those tree branches at top and wanted to keep them.

Stand in the place where you live. (Now face north.)

Check out these awesome Christmas presents I received from some totally cool Roanoke friends — bookstands for displaying some of the publications that have featured my poems.  🙂

Also among the Yuletide goodies were an Irish coin and a piece of Connemara marble — ideal for setting up beside my copy of The Galway Review 12.



Morning in Salem, Virginia, January 2025

The picture below illustrates something that I still find novel about Southwest Virginia, simply because it is so different from the interminably flat landscape of my native Long Island.  When viewed from a distance, mountainside buildings have the illusion of being at the level of treetops.

Those look like really nice townhouses, and they are indeed on level ground.  (There is a road beyond them.)  But their position at the top of that rise makes them seem a little bit like mountain fortresses to the kid in me.