About Time: Poems and Other Stories

about Time: Poems and Other Stories is the first in a series of collections of works spanning over fifty years of creation by poet, novelists, singer, picker, sculptor, spirit-drummer Robert Nichols. To his readers, Robert would say, “If you don’t understand this, it isn't poetry.” He believes the artist must connect with the audience for art to happen. Thus it is that he has strived to give his stories, reflections, and musings about matters primal, personal, and Cosmic an intimate, arching leap to the universal—from one heart to all the hearts in the world. “Dear Reader, if these poems and tales don’t get you laughing, crying, and contemplating the giddy-vast sweet sorrows and joys of your own life, I've wasted my life writing them.” And, about time… Time is just rhythm, you know. / It’s hours, sun, and seasons. / The pulse of a song, / a heart, / lifetimes. // Tap you toes, / maybe dance to it. / Enjoy.

about Time: Poems and Other Stories is the first in a series of collections of works spanning over fifty years of creation by poet, novelists, singer, picker, sculptor, spirit-drummer Robert Nichols. To his readers, Robert would say, “If you don’t understand this, it isn't poetry.” He believes the artist must connect with the audience for art to happen. Thus it is that he has strived to give his stories, reflections, and musings about matters primal, personal, and Cosmic an intimate, arching leap to the universal—from one heart to all the hearts in the world. “Dear Reader, if these poems and tales don’t get you laughing, crying, and contemplating the giddy-vast sweet sorrows and joys of your own life, I've wasted my life writing them.” And, about time… Time is just rhythm, you know. / It’s hours, sun, and seasons. / The pulse of a song, / a heart, / lifetimes. // Tap you toes, / maybe dance to it. / Enjoy.

Robert Nichols is a poet. He writes novels, essays, songs, and sometime even a poem or two or five hundred. He knows more about art than most of those who claim to speak for culture in this and the last century. He knows that if nobody understands what you are trying to express with your words or music or form or touch, then you have not created art. Art is communication. Robert doesn't believe in sitting in a cave talking to himself. As he puts it, "Art does not keep secrets; Art tells them." He also knows that one of the greatest flaws in creative endeavor is a tendency to take it all too seriously. "Art, life, yourself--forget it, my friends. If we're not having some good laughs along the way, our art, our love, our prayer is a big waste of the precious gift of sentient life.