Wholly Spirit – a poem by James B. Nicola

Wholly Spirit

One tale from so-called Scripture daunted me 
as deeply as a passage from the Tao
until I learned that Myths, like poetry,
use metaphor to help a mind grasp how

one God, or The Divine Soul, from some Higher 
Realm, or Heaven, thought of as above,
descends, from time to time. One Way is Fire.
Another, paradoxically: The Dove.

A forest burned makes fertile soil, however,
as does volcanic ash when cooled at last.
And after World War One, the world said never
again, as some, after The Holocaust.

Some, not all. Is The Dove returning, then?
Or will The Flame be visiting again?

James B. Nicola is the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award. He has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller’s People’s Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful. A graduate of Yale, James hosts the Writers’ Roundtable at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins are always welcome.