I Found a Way by James B. Nicola

I found a way to wonder without worry,

pursue a path to pedal free of pain.

I've learned that Godspeed doesn't mean to hurry

day after day to make the morning train.

A meditation may be transcendental;

a mirror be applied to soul and mind;

maturing may be more than incremental;

a man need not be chained as well as blind.

What happened was: I met a prince of peace.

It was at night. I thought I'd gone to bed

but am not sure, nor whether it was night,

or if it was just me. Like being dead,

the ultimate penultimate release:

Priorities get leveled by the light.

James B. Nicola's nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice magazine award. Recent nonfiction can be found on-line at Heimat Review, About Place, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Unlikely Stories and Lowestoft Chronicle; fiction, at Epistemic, 10 x 10 Flash Fiction, Neither Fish Nor Foul, The GroundUp, Sine Qua Non, and Platform Review. The latest of his eight full-length poetry collections are Fires of Heaven, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. A graduate of Yale, he has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller's People's Choice award, one nomination each for Best Microfiction, Best of Net, and Rhysling awards, plus eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels both stunned and grateful.