Midst purgatory’s weedfields sprouts one clover.
On blinded shelves, between the pulp and pap,
a dashed and stashed encryption offers sight
as fortitude is found in looking over
the life of Job, the context of mishap.
And even the most sweat-sopped marish night
about to drown you in its sea of horror
dissolves in dawn: The dark defines the light.
So if I’m looking at a fun-house mirror
or through a curved perverted looking glass
to spot a glimmer through a pane of terror
of what you say shall never come to pass,
it could be that you aren’t looking right.
The dark of sunspots, after all, is bright.
About James B. Nicola
James B. Nicola is a frequent contributor to Wild Violet. His six 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 decades of working in the theater as a stage director, composer, lyricist, playwright, and acting teacher culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award. A Yale grad, he hosts the Hell's Kitchen International Writers' Roundtable at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins welcome. Website: <a href="James B. Nicola is a frequent contributor to Wild Violet. His six 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 decades of working in the theater as a stage director, composer, lyricist, playwright, and acting teacher culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award. A Yale grad, he hosts the Hell's Kitchen International Writers' Roundtable at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins welcome. sites.google.com/site/jamesbnicola
One Comment
Terrific poem–thanks for giving us a glimpse of light from your dark night, to make us forge ahead
in our own despair–Lee