I am thrilled tonight to see The Creativity Webzine in Germany publish my poem “Roanoke Summer Midnight.”
The theme of the May issue is “History,” and my poem is meant as an homage to the spiritual, natural and architectural history of my adopted home, rural Southwest Virginia. You can find it at the link below:
The Arts Section of The Creativity Webzine
Thanks to Editor-in-Chief Charles E. J. Moulton for allowing me to see my work showcased within this wonderful creative community.
This is probably the most visually interesting building I’ve found here in Roanoke, Virginia — the Roanoke Typewriter Sales Company on Campbell Avenue. It’s just past the east edge of downtown, on the other side of the tracks, in the shadow of the overpass. It has a quasi-wedge shape that’s hemmed in closely at the rear by adjacent train tracks, and at its top is a billboard like a great, garish tiara.
If this isn’t the setting for a short story, I don’t know what is.
(May 2025.)
Thanks to AluMeredith for the image. 🙂
People are funny. This is admittedly a terrible picture, but what you see is a nocturnal lone trombone player tonight in the parking level of Virginia Tech School of Medicine building (by Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital).
Hey, man — more power to you. Practice your art wherever you can.
I didn’t even think a lot of large brick-and-mortar bookstores like this were still around any more.
Roanoke, Virginia, April 2025. Pictured is the First Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
No, I can not hold a phone or camera steady. It will never happen.
The heavily accented guy at the bodega cheerfully informs me that “NEW CEREAL SHIPMENT COMES *TOMORROW,* SIR!”
So evidently they know me as “that cereal guy.” Not sure how I feel about that.
[Update — now all my Facebook friends are cracking the various requisite “serial” jokes. I should have seen that coming.]
Or … I will be, after I die. That is how it works, right?
And you should be one too! It’s easy if you live in a state like Virginia. You just check off a box when you apply for (or renew) your driver’s license.
Or, you can find out how to register right here with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Image credit: pd4u, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
I immensely enjoyed today’s matinee performance of Closing Arguments at The Bear Theater at 302 Campbell Avenue in Roanoke. (A caveat — I cannot offer an unbiased review here, because a great old college friend, Russell Morgan, is one of the cast.)
But suffice to say I had a blast. Closing Arguments is an engaging, thoughtful, and genuinely funny comedy delivered by a talented, energetic cast. It portrays a dysfunctional family reuniting in a small town for a funeral for one of their own, where their latent animosities and neuroses boil over.
Writer and director David Walton was on hand to introduce the performance. (And it occurs to me as a theater neophyte that there must be a benefit to playwrights directing their own plays — who better to guide actors performances toward matching the intent of the text?)
Anyway, I cheerfully recommend this. Closing Arguments’ next weekend is its last; if you are interested, you can buy tickets here.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 