James B. Nicola
The Older You Get
(Cubist Sonnet)
The older you get, the more books you might know;
But the more, racked on your shelves, or stacked, there are;
So the chance that, when you tease one from a shelf,
It will betray some dim light of your Self,
Might be about the same. As when a star
Burns through a night cloud: Blazing where it was
Or is, but where it is or was is far,
So cool to you now, here.Even so,
You smile at stars, and tickle tomes, because
Each twinkling word, each sparkling dark, was lit
By some past deed, misdeed, big bang or thought;
And though you may not be consoled by it
Today, the amusement makes your cheektops wet,
Your heart hot,
happy you did not
forget.
Bio
James B. Nicola's poems have appeared in Shot Glass, the Antioch, Southwest and Atlanta Reviews, Rattle, Tar River, and Poetry East. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His first full-length poetry collection is Manhattan Plaza (2014); his second, Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater (2016). A Yale graduate, James has been giving both theater and poetry workshops at libraries, literary festivals, schools, and community centers all over the country.