James B. Nicola

---

 

I know you have not said that

I know you have not said that you love me
yet, any more than I've said I love you
directly, only anonymously,
in verse. You might suspect it isn't true,
unless you knew you knew me. Those who do,
know me most truthfully through poetry,
that harmless artifice that sets us free
of fears from any truths that might ensue:

Love may (1) sprout like weeds that know no blossom,
as short-lived as a gusty wind, or lust;
or (2) like friendship, spread as swords of grass,
each God-grown, but too green to be called awesome;
or (3) spring—here—where all that comes to pass
will grow, like poetry, because we must.

James B. Nicola is a frequent contributor to Shot Glass Journal. His seven full-length poetry collections (2014-22) are Manhattan Plaza, Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater, Wind in the Cave, Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists, Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond, Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, and Turns & Twists. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His work has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller's People's Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and ten Pushcart nominations—for which he feels both stunned and grateful.