There've Been, of Course, Many Holocausts

 

A poem for Holocaust Remembrance Day:

 

There've been, of course, many holocausts.
How come only one gets to be "The"?
Each equally horrific, though some are lost,
Hard to tally, or ancient history.
Only one was just pure genocide,
Lacking any other conceivable aim.
Obliteration, total and worldwide,
Could be the only goal that might explain
A factory of death, efficiently
Unloading loved ones from boxcars to be gassed,
Shoving them naked into ovens, routinely
Turning millions into heaps of ash.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther52.html. For more poems for Holocaust Remembrance Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewishpoems.html .

Maybe Racial Hatred Is Baked In

 

A poem for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday:

 

Maybe racial hatred is baked in,
A trait evolved through natural selection.
Remember the doctrine of original sin:
That cleansing of the soul requires salvation.
If racial territoriality,
Not at home except with one's own kind,
Looking, staring at others resentfully,
Unwinding zero-sum games in one's mind,
Takes conversion rather than conversation,
Human nature being tribal still,
Even in a multi-nation nation,
Reason rarely touching deep-down will:
Knowing this, what happens to my dream?
Individual souls can be reborn.
Need faith a whole society redeem?
Given time, can humanity reform?
Just remember: Though dreams may light the way,
Real change, in fits and starts, comes day by day.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Renaissance Castle. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mayber.html. For more poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

Sing of Marriage and of Loves That Last

 

A 17^th anniversary poem:

 

Sing of marriage and of loves that last,

Each year again a cause for jubilation,

Voices and arms raised in celebration,

Elevating either gloss or glass!

Nor can one find one's way across the vast

Time 'twixt birth and death without relation,

Ever the locale of one's location,

Ever the love that binds one to life fast.

Nor ought one be a tree without deep roots,

Yielding to the next fierce hurricane,

Ever fearful of each gathering storm.

A self and soul work best when in cahoots,

Rationale and rational the same,

Singing with full throat a joyful song.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allemande. By Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing24.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

Every Road Is Headed for Damascus

 

A poem for Epiphany about the burden of an epiphany:

 

Every road is headed for Damascus.
Pick any one you like, or randomly.
Intent on getting somewhere? No one asks us,
Preps us, points us towards epiphany.
How will you respond? What will you see,
Accosted by that vision? Will it task us,
Name us, seize us, scar us permanently?
Yet how, yet how unwitness what just passed us?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever15.html. For more poems about Epiphany, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .

How Beautiful the Turning of the Year

 

A New Year’s poem about the artificial beauty of the border between one year and the next:

 

How beautiful the turning of the year!
A moment artificial yet profound:
Point upon an arbitrary chart
Passing like a breath upon the heart,
Yearning with anticipation wound,
New hope new harbored in old-fashioned cheer.
Even when the boundary line is clear,
We recognize the oneness of the ground.
Years, like circles, do not end or start
Except we lay across their truth our art,
Adjusting dates as they go round and round
Revolving to a tune long sung and dear.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howbea.html. For more poems for the new year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

Make Time, Make Time to Listen to Your Heart

 

A Christmas poem about the benefits of putting reason away for the holiday:

 

Make time, make time to listen to your heart!
Empty out your thoughts and then just listen!
Reason can't compete with faith and art.
Resist it! It will go into remission.
Yes, listen to the arguments of grace,
Clarifying mysteries no word
Has ever plumbed: the source of time and space,
Reality, Being, you, me -- all absurd.
If everything is equally a miracle,
Sing carols on a cold, crisp winter night,
Taking on the inexplicable,
Making it as lyrical as light.
Although your reason may not wish to stay,
Sing with the angels! Sing! It's Christmas Day!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: The Beauty of Love. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maketi.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

Given That There Is No Explanation

 

A Chanukah poem about how Creation is equally a mystery to those who turn to reason or faith for an explanation:

 

Given that there is no explanation,

And that the provenance of the Creation,

Belief or no, remains a mystery,

Regarding how the whole thing came to be,

It makes no sense to squander sense on it.

Enjoy the candles, and when the last one's lit,

Love their loveliness, however lit.

 

Even so, one seeks an explanation:

Like one for Being, though there's none for it;

Like one for the creation of Creation,

Eternal Being bringing all to be.

Nor would no cause be less a mystery.

 

So faith and reason end in mystery,

Equally ignorant of what lit

The light from which all beings came to be,

Having no conclusive explanation

As to the existence of Creation,

Nor hint of what might be the cause of it,

Despite the tangibility of it.

Even so, the veil of mystery

Leads one to imagine the Creation,

Inventing how and why the void was lit,

Zealous for an ethical explanation,

A myth that makes love be the cause of be.

 

But one need not believe a myth to be

Open to the loveliness of it,

Nor need a theological explanation,

Nor care to solve a meta-mystery.

It might have been a miracle that lit

Eight days the lamps, as some say at Creation

A voice out of the void called forth Creation,

Needing out of love for us to be,

Demanding out of love our souls be lit,

Choosing not to be alone. It

Acts as fair use of a mystery,

Repurposing the role of explanation,

Making explanations of Creation

Exquisite art, that mystery might be

Not claimed by faith, but by the lamps it lit.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Heart Strings. By Coyote Hearing. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/given4.html. For more Chanukah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .