Tag Archives: Roanoke

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Publication notice: Poetry Pacific features three poems by Eric Robert Nolan

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I’m honored to share here that the Vancouver-based Poetry Pacific published three of my poems today in its biannual issue: “This Windy Morning,” “Redbud Leaves,” and “Delaware Sheets.”  You can find all three at the link below.

“This Windy Morning” envisions a ghost story for my adopted city of Roanoke, Virginia.  “Redbud Leaves” is a very short nature poem I wrote while I lived among the hills of Northern Virginia, and “Delaware Sheets” is a short love poem that  wrote a few years back.  This third piece was published previously by Every Day Poets, Dead Snakes and UFO Gigolo.

I’m quite grateful to Editor-In-Chief Yuan Changming for selecting my work for publication.  The Autumn Issue features outstanding work from 73 poets and three visual artists.

http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2017/11/3-poems-by-eric-robert-nolan.html

 

 

 

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Piper at the Gates of Nolan

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Here’s one for my to-do list — I need to learn the flute, call upon my Irish heritage, and then lead all the skunks out of Roanoke, in the same manner as St. Patrick led the snakes out of Ireland.  (He used a flute, right?  And is this basically the same story as the Pied Piper? Is one derived from the other?)

Dear God, the smell of those skunks is categorically toxic.  It is quite possibly the only downside of living here.  That odor is one problem that my native New York does not have.  Hell, I’m willing to bet even New Jersey doesn’t have it.

 

 

 

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Ouchey Mountain Town Flora.

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This happens from time to time.  I’ll be out walking, and I’ll inexplicably return covered with these — which is weird, because I don’t remember brushing up against any plants.

They get into my bed, and they’re actually sharp — creating the very real danger of injury to my unmentionables.

 

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Eric Robert Nolan reads “Roanoke Summer Midnight “

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I was especially honored to see one of my recordings featured at today’s launch of the Peeking Cat Anthology 2017.  The poem I’m reading is “Roanoke Summer Midnight,” the same that was selected for the annual collection.

The video is below.  There are five poets featured reading their work; I am the fifth.  Mine is maybe a little harder to hear than the others, although it seems perfectly audible over headphones.  (My recording equipment here at home is truly rudimentary.)

I believe this is the first time I’d recorded myself reading my own work.  I hope that you enjoy it, along with the excellent other poets performing here.

 

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Today is the launch day for the Peeking Cat Anthology 2017!

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If you are inclined to peruse some of the year’s best indie lit, you can find a link to ordering information here.  (The anthology is available in hardcover and softcover, as well as in Kindle format.)  Be sure to check out my poem, “Roanoke Summer Midnight,” as well as poetry, prose, art and photography from 70 other contributors.

Editor Samantha Rose was also kind enough to interview me; you can find that right here.

Thanks, Sam, for the opportunity to see my work featured in this terrific independent literature anthology!

 

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Pumpkins for sale in Roanoke, VA, October 2017

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Why do I have a weird thing about rainswept tunnels?

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No Freudians need respond.

 

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Northern Virginia Rainstorm, August 2016

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I took this video a year ago today.  It seems like another age.  So much has happened between then and now.  It’s feels surreal how our perceptions of time can be so subjective.

This was one hell of storm.  Summer thunderstorms in Southwest Virginia seem absolutely commonplace.  It is an extraordinary experience watching them roll in over the mountains, each of them a rapid fog ragnarok — and then moving on just as swiftly.

I don’t think I’ve seen a storm around Roanoke yet that can match the wet armageddon below, though.

 

 

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Throwback Thursday: Mary Washington College Spring Break 1994!

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This is a shot of me and my alum Dave at the site of the “Lost Colony of Roanoke” during Spring Break 1994.  A bunch of the seniors at Mary Washington College’s New Hall trekked down to North Carolina’s Outer Banks that year; this is one of the places we stopped along the way.

Dear God, that was one of the most enjoyable trips of my life.

What the hell were Dave and I doing below?   Performing a skit?  I can’t remember.  I was a really, really weird kid, and Dave was also pretty out there.

 

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The buzz around Roanoke.

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This is a terrible picture, but … you see those tall, dark shapes ascending from the high, bare branches like grotesque, upright fruit?  Those would be buzzards.

Or … turkey vultures.  To be honest, I don’t know if there is any difference between turkey vultures and buzzards.  I’m from New York.

 

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