The Room of Dark and Light
By James B. Nicola
She’s been relieved of burden
and now her lot is light
responsible for nothing
but purposing her room
and now her lot is light
responsible for nothing
but purposing her room
plus pleasing her new Warden
who blankets her in night:
a peaceful undertaking,
the purpose of a tomb.
James B. Nicola’s six full-length poetry collections are Manhattan Plaza (WordTech Communications, 2014), Stage to Page (WordTech Communications, 2016), Wind in the Cave (Finishing Line Press, 2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (Shanti Arts, 2018), Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (Cyberwit.net, 2019), and Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense (Shanti Arts, 2021). His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance (Applause Books, 2002), which won a Choice award.