These are the last photos of 2017, I suppose. It’s nice that they are of such a beautiful place — despite those cold, foreboding gravestone-colored skies this past weekend.
Virginians are a hardy and gracious lot. And the people of Botetourt define hospitable. My friends there showed me terrific time when we celebrated the holidays.
And check out the second-to-last shot below. Those are the world famous Llamas of Botetourt County.
This is one festive town. It seems like there is a parade every five minutes. Last night it was the local high school boys; they’d won their fifth state championship for … something or other. Football, given the season?
They waved and shouted “Merry Christmas,” so I responded in kind to be polite. Then a particularly friendly Salem woman commented to me that I must be a very proud father, and that got me feeling all weird.
A couple of the kids shouted, “Support Net Neutrality!” That’s some nice work there, Salem.
I’m including a picture of me here to show off an early Christmas present from an amazingly talented poet friend — a monogrammed, handmade scarf. I only had errands yesterday in the town, but I threw on my dress overcoat and pretended to be Bruce Wayne.
Even though you actually can’t tell from this picture, which I now realize. Dammit.
Use your imagination.
That last shot you see is of people on their way to line up in the Christmas Parade.
Not all of these shots are great — obviously. The last two, though, I’m kinda proud of.
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
Salem, Virginia, November 2017.
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.
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!
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 