Poetry By Eric Robert Nolan | Contemporary American poet

Eric Robert Nolan

“Ode to a New Black Ballpoint Pen”

Black liquid silk, bleed out

from onyx talon-tip:

like spilled obsidian liquor

indelibly defacing lace,

like a gleaming needle leaves

glissading sable scars of curling script,

let slip the sliding

black racer snakes to trace the page.

“Like White Plumeria Petal”

Your face will occasion the spaces

wherever I delay – prosaic places:

the sofa, the hall, the breakfast table

when slow new sun ascends in palette

of light against dark, you are with me,

observing the glowing morning,

sipping and smiling over coffee.

You, My Love, are always near,

for you are ever in reverie here.

Your arrival surprises me

at market among the rows

of pears and bright strawberries,

crates of crimson radiance,

and the hard and fragrant weights of apples,

their round and reddening-ember

emblems of autumn in bins.

You offer to buy some for me.

The curve of your hand falls over one

like white plumeria petal.

Unpredicted you appear,

For you are ever in reverie here.

When I pause at the park’s entrance,

piqued by inscrutable sculpture there,

you are on my arm again,

curious also at its

strange silver spades and towering contour,

the upward angled language of it,

its high iron hieroglyph.

You draw me close and joke

of Freud in girlish murmurs, your

quickened persistence of whimsy.

Your drollery will still adhere

For you are ever in reverie here.

Ever lovely, ever dear,

are ruminations I revere;

senses of you persevere,

for you are ever in reverie here.

“Hardy Orchids Haiku”

In estranged gardens

are nourished hardy orchids —

cold opal blossoms.

BIO: Eric Robert Nolan’s writing has appeared throughout over 65 periodicals in 11 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.  His work was also selected for 26 anthologies, three chapbooks and six novelty mini-books.  Eric’s more than a half-dozen award nominations include a 2018 nod for Sundress Best of the Net.  He is a past editor for the British and American science fiction journal, The Bees Are Dead.  He was entered in 2022 into the national Poets & Writers Directory.