The morning thrush and lark, which greet the dawn
or make it, sing no matter who is there
to hear. When that resilience is gone
and nature herself starts to disappear
another Coming will be under way
where souls of things and beings shall impart
new traits to old forms to attend the day-
song; air shall grow ears; soil, assume a heart;
tongues, noses, fingertips and eyes shall be
affixed to blades, leaves, lakes, florescences,
clouds, mist: that all, in all humility,
shall listen, taste, feel, savor all that is
and its anthem, the morning call of birds,
long after you and I are gone, and words.
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
