Four Poems

 

James B. Nicola

 

 

 

 

Resilience

 

 

This will

     be

What was

 

 

      *

 

 

What was to

     be

And came to

     be

This is.

 

 

      *

 

 

What was to

     be

And never came to

     be

Is Naught

 

UnLess

     it

Might

 

 

      *

 

 

What will

     be

And what is not to

     be

That is

     what

Might

 

All of This

     and

All of That

More or Less

 

Start

 

Right

 

Now

 

 

 

 

 

On the plane from Telluride, or,

On the plane to Telluride

 

 

Returns

 

 

visits to

chapters of what

agos

 

 

past

tailings of what

was open

 

 

while noticing

the close.

 

 

 

 

 

the length of a line

 

 

before

you

I

believe

I was

not

I

then I was

before you

I believe

I was

not

I before you I

believe I was not I then I was

before

you

I

believe

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know how

 

 

I don’t know how

but know

I’m going to die.

 

It won’t be now

but then.

While some might cry

 

of course I won’t be there

to see the tears

if any,

but try

to live so there’s a chance there might be many.

 

I think that I

have nailed down when

within a hundred years

or so

 

but not quite where,

and it appears

there

will be no telling why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James B. Nicola’s poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Southwest Review, Atlanta Review, in Rattle, Barrow Street, Tar River and in Poetry East.  His full-length collections are Manhattan Plaza (2014), Stage to Page (2016), Wind in the Cave (2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (2018), Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (2019), and Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense (2021). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His poetry has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller’s People’s Choice award, and eight Pushcart nominations. 

 

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