New Poetry by James B. Nicola

Parents, Poets, and Jokers

 

All three erase the grave

before the grave:

 

Poems are sons,

with name attached,

and in formative years

they’re disciplined and revised

until the dangerous day

of their release;

 

Jokes are daughters

to be tweaked, tucked

and husbanded

by those who’ll not even cite the name

of who dreamt the crazy thing up

in the first place.

 

And so we joke, and pass on jokes;

turn a phrase and jot it down;

as we love and touch,

that the world not be

so Godforsaken,

so barren, so absent of issue.

- © James B. Nicola 2021

James B. Nicola’s poetry has garnered two Willow Review awards, a Dana Literary award, seven Pushcart nominations, and one Best of the Net nom. His full-length collections include Manhattan Plaza, Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater, 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). A Yale grad, he also has enjoyed a career as a stage director, culminating in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award.