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Let me take the more recent of these books by Tim Nolan first. While he initially trained as a poet, taking his MFA degree at Columbia University, he had also married and knew he\u2019d need a good job. His father was a lawyer back in Minneapolis and that seemed a good profession, so the newly \u201cminted\u201d poet returned and entered law school across the river in St. Paul. Along the way, he and his wife Kate became the parents of three kids \u2013 and so his law practice has provided a comfortable life over the years. Nolan\u2019s poems were not gathered in book form until he was fifty-three \u2013 and then again more recently when he was a few weeks shy of fifty-eight. His observations are consistently fraught with the knowledge that we are capable of goodness as well as mistakes, that truisms reminding us we are only visitors on earth are still vividly, punchingly, true \u2013 and not without pain, longing, and inevitable sadness.<\/p>\n
Nolan takes mixed joy in these pictures from memory. Here is the poet remembering his father in old age:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
DAD<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have become him<\/p>\n
for mine<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And he is gone<\/p>\n
I continue<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At least for awhile<\/p>\n
until someone else<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Will be him<\/em>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just a way station \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This turning over \u2013<\/p>\n he was a definite \u2013 he \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0Himself<\/em> \u2013 himself alone \u2013<\/p>\n just like me<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t burden<\/p>\n anyone with being \u2013 him<\/em> \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s just that someone<\/p>\n must \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One critic, Brett Ortler, observed that Nolan uses lots of dashes as if to re-energize the poem, leaving the reader to accumulate meaning more easily. Other poems are denser from line to line but usually quite clear in intent, bringing celebration of ordinary things to an almost magical tone. For example, while his daughter plays the piano, he offers her a piece of freshly baked bread. She says Yes<\/em> and continues her music: \u201c. . . . . … .There is \/ no ulterior motive to bread, other than \/ growth<\/em> \u2013 from the yeast, to the smile \/\/ of your daughter, to the breaking off \/ of the heel, which you love best, \/ the rounded end, the way it comes around.\u201d (\u201cBread\u201d)<\/p>\n Throughout his poems, Nolan tackles small pleasures as well as not-so-pleasant realities \u2013 such as winter (\u201cCold Night\u201d), the mild contrariness of an elderly bachelor uncle (\u201cCleaning My Uncle\u2019s Gutters\u201d), and memories long ago of a childhood illness leaving his mother to worry (\u201cFever\u201d). With both commiseration and straight talk without unnecessary harshness, these poems are at once comforting and a reminder that nothing was ever promised. And Then<\/em> is a disciplined performance, one I enjoyed from page to page, lingering here and there \u2013 and then rereading the book just to make sure of my first impressions. To say the least, I wasn\u2019t disappointed \u2013 and wondered why I hadn\u2019t seen his poems much earlier.<\/p>\n Nolan\u2019s first book, The Sound of It<\/em>, is a precursor, of course, to And Then.<\/em> A few prose poems are included, as well as recurrent themes of family life, memories before marriage, his children growing into young adulthood, as well as the odd celebrity appearing without warning \u2013 here is the entirety of \u201cOnce in New York\u201d:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I spoke to Greta Garbo \u2013 I said \u2013<\/p>\n \u201cGood evening\u201d \u2013 she said \u2013 \u201cGood evening.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was a young man \u2013 she was an old lady \u2013<\/p>\n but she was beautiful in her actions \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n rushing across the lobby \u2013 she was as fleet<\/p>\n as a doe \u2013 turning in the dark forest \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n wary of everyone in the woods \u2013 but not me \u2013<\/p>\n she was not wary of me \u2013 I was harmless \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then I knew the quick connection to something<\/p>\n rare and passing \u2013 the only living example \u2013<\/p>\n Helen \u2013 long after the Greek men found their way<\/p>\n home \u2013 and tried to remember her voice again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This reveals something about both people. Again, Nolan\u2019s dashes move the reader\u2019s eyes along quickly and back again.<\/p>\n \u201cDiamond Lake Bowling\u201d recalls his parents bowling with friends, the atmosphere both nostalgic and detailed, as if through these crisply depicted three-liners, his parents might return as they were years ago \u2013 but no, the business of a poet is to be evocative yet clear-eyed. Another instance of this is when his growing children are watching Citizen Kane<\/em>, Orson Welles\u2019 cinematic masterpiece filmed in his mid-twenties, never quite surpassed the rest of his career. (Welles died a quarter century ago suddenly at 70.) \u201cThe Kids Watching Citizen Kane<\/em>\u201d is one of many \u201cbest\u201d poems in the book. More of this vibrancy is shown in \u201cCuttings\u201d as the poet recalls a job he had in high school working at a hardware store. Again, dashes help convey energy. (One cannot help but wonder if Nolan uses as many dashes when writing a legal brief or a motion before the court.)<\/p>\n What sum? Tim Nolan\u2019s poems are refreshing, energetic, and carry nostalgia frequently but as a light burden. Both collections display a superb command of craft and sensible portrayals of mortal limits. Indeed, after The Sound of It <\/em>appeared in 2008, the few critics on duty were similar in response. \u201cWhat seems on the surface a random collection of poems, daydreams, and reflections,\u201d observed Keith Wain in The Corresponder <\/em>(Fall 2008), \u201cis really a collection of poems that portray the subtle mental maneuvers we all perform to keep from losing ourselves in the whirlwind of life.\u201d I\u2019d only add that not having a first book published until well after one\u2019s fiftieth birthday (something I know about first-hand) isn\u2019t such a bad thing. In both The Sound of It <\/em>and And Then,<\/em> the distilled essence of Tim Nolan\u2019s poetry is a richly gathered beauty with mere words, the essential tools of the writer\u2019s craft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Both books are published by New Rivers Press, and are available here<\/a> and here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let me take the more recent of these books by Tim Nolan first. While he initially trained as a poet, taking his MFA degree at Columbia University, he had also married and knew he\u2019d need a good job. His father was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4352,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions\/4352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}