Poem of the Week

December 31, 2008 #514

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a New Year's poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Note: I will be away from Jan.1 – Jan. 11. The next poem of the week will be emailed on Thursday, Jan. 15.

Hope is not a harbinger of peace
As countless holocausts have made quite clear.
Perhaps the unsolved problem is that fear
Prevents the heart from seeking its release.
Years pass; we come no closer to the good,
Nor do we better understand why we
Each year have hope to live in harmony
While watering our fields with tears and blood.
Yet hope remains, and love, that hope revives.
Each knows well that hatred is insane,
And hates and fears and loves and hates again,
Resolving ever to keep hope alive.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 25, 2008 #513

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Merry Christmas to my love!
Enjoy the holiday.
Revel where the angels move,
Rejoice in what they say.
Years burn life down to a stub;
Christmas comes and goes.
Happiness lies at the nub,
Refuse of one’s woes.
Inside the husk there is the seed,
Shivering with glory.
The midnight cold, the dire need,
Mere setting for the story.
All the labor, loss, and pain
Sings of beauty born again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 18, 2008 #512

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Cheerful lights dance within your window,
Happy to dispel a bit of darkness.
As you display your faith, remember when
No light was light enough to light the wind.
Underneath our joy there must be sorrow
Kindled by a willing act of witness,
A turn to share in love again, again,
Horrors that we would not leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 11, 2008 #511

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a holiday poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays are memories in waiting,
Amply fitted out to linger long.
Perhaps it is the food, the gifts, the song;
Perhaps the love that keeps the light from fading.
Years pass, traditions blend, people change;
Holidays endure, each generation
Offering its own fond re-creation
Lest the next find such sweet labors strange.
In memory the secret’s repetition:
Delight anticipated is delight
Approaching a predictable condition,
Yearly replicating a rendition
So that on holidays each note sounds right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 4, 2008 #510

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an Eid-al-Adha poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even sacrifice may not be pure,
Intended for the eye and not the heart.
Do, then, out of love make sacrifice
As Abraham once offered up his son.
Love of Allah is what will endure
As fire consumes each lacerated part,
Devouring all but love, that will suffice
However long the sacrifice goes on,
As years and lives through time's cold fingers run.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 27, 2008 #509

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Thanksgiving Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no joy that does not speak of longing,
Having come a long, hard way to love.
All happiness is earned, all bliss belonging,
Nor can one be alone, though lonely prove.
Kindness is a kind of gratitude,
Sign and source of pleasure in one's being,
Giving thanks by giving, as the shrewd
Invest in what they have small chance of seeing.
Very little time is spent in singing.
Instead, we speak of what we want or need,
Not knowing every moment we are bringing
Gifts to those whose music we might read.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 20, 2008 #508

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The whole point of being is
There is no point to being.
Is just simply is
Forever, outside time.

The nothingness you see
Is something you're not seeing.
No thing is ever nothing.
We move, the stars align.

Time is just our motion,
And death, time's timely end.
We remain as is;
The others must move on.

The swiftly passing moment
Is something we transcend,
For all that is just is,
And nothing's ever gone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 13, 2008 #507

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a political poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

OBAMA/OSAMA

Obama meets Osama,
Brandishing a word
As deadly as the sunlight,
More potent as more heard,
As true as it's absurd.

Osama meets Obama;
Suicide meets life.
As certainty meets hope,
Meaning meets the knife.
Absolutes need night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 30, 2008 #506

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Halloween poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

Note: I will be away most of this coming week, so the next poem of the week will be sent out on Thursday, Nov. 13.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Have a look in the mirror of your dreams:
All the horrors that you see are real.
Lest you think the world is as it seems,
Let your skin crawl, your frozen blood congeal.
Of fear and fantasy now take your fill.
Wells of sorrow lie beneath your feet.
Each sun-drenched field you mercilessly till
Endures to see your ultimate defeat.
Now let yourself let go your last conceit.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 23, 2008 #505

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about politics.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lest there be lingering doubt, let me assure you,
I don't believe the half of what I say.
The point, after all, is winning, so I tell you
What you want to hear from me today.
Oh, yes, I have a point of view, and visions
To push for once in office, if and when.
But if I lose, then all my vain ambitions
And dreams will go the way of mice and men.
So I promise this and promise that
I'll spend and cut your taxes and the debt,
And pay for it by cutting just the fat.
You'll have your cake and eat it, too, I'll bet.
And yet and yet and yet and yet and yet ...
This is how the world is, isn't it?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 16, 2008 #504

NOW, AT LAST, THE TIME OF RECKONING

Now, at last, the time of reckoning.
It had to come. You knew that, didn't you?
After all, nothing can't be something
Even when its stock is on the rise.

Now the panic after the delusion,
The great big yawning pit within the heart.
One sees disaster happening and wonders,
Regrets, resolves, recriminates, sits tight.

O Lord, what will happen now? The hunger,
People on the streets and on the move.
The last depression blossomed into Hitler.
What flowers will this rain of terror bring?

One thing now we know for sure – again:
That greed unfettered is a luxury car
Without a steering wheel, a mighty engine
That moves us forward into death and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 9, 2008 #503

YOU'D LIKE A SHOT AT SERIOUS REDEMPTION

You'd like a shot at serious redemption,
Only, like us all, you have no clue.
Mostly satisfied, you leave your pew
Knowing that you've satisfied convention
Instead of being some more painful you.
Perhaps there is no other truth than this;
Perhaps the yearning must be unfulfilled.
Unredeemed, you pay your debts as billed,
Returning to a bliss that dreams of bliss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you liked this poem, vote for it on Yahoo Buzz by clicking on the icon below.

Poem of the Week

October 2, 2008 #502

GREED GRIPS EVERY HEART, NO LESS THAN LUST

Greed grips every heart, no less than lust.
Reason drowns in fantasies of power.
Even though the journey ends in dust,
Each finds ample cravings in the hour,
Destined to dark seeds that root and flower.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you liked this poem, vote for it on Yahoo Buzz by clicking on the icon below.

Poem of the Week

September 25, 2008 #501

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revelation leads to revolution,
Or isn't much of anything at all.
So must faith evolve into religion,
Having need of hands to break its fall.
Here we have a chance to reconsider,
As we go through rites as brisk as breath,
Salvaging a soul that else were bitter,
Here alone, for nothing else but death.
All our love and wonder needs a Name,
Not least to be the witness of our shame
As we recite our sins again, again,
Hallowed by our passion and our pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 18, 2008 #500

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy second anniversary!
A time when marriage seems to settle in,
Perhaps no more remarkable than sunlight,
Perhaps no longer noticed more than trees.
Years lie ahead like roads that go cross country.
Songs of love now nestle safe within.
Even dreams are fast asleep by midnight,
Cradled in the heart like unshelled peas.
On such sweet silence let there now shine moonlight,
Neither shuttered out nor breaking in,
Descending like familiar ecstasy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 11, 2008 #499

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about 9/11.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So did you die of history,
Each innocent of dogma dead,
Purloined to play in some fool's head
The drama of his destiny.
Even in your hapless herds,
Miracles to men unmoved,
Being loved as you were loved,
Even thus, you were but words.
Reason seeks what reason knows.
Each alone must bridge the gulf,
Loving all as if oneself,
Else blood with reason endless flows.
Vanquished, you must still live on,
Each murdered soul a monument,
Nor what you mean be what you meant,
The private to the public gone,
Held long as letters carved in stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 4, 2008 #498

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The world is one gigantic jam session,
Each instrument improvising madly
On traditional themes. Everything one is,
Or thinks, or says, or does, adds or detracts
From the beauty of the music. Listen:
What you hear is yourself, a solo against
The continuo, or perhaps just a single note
That waters well your desert eyes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 31, 2008 #497

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Labor Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Note: I will be away for the month of August. The next poem of the week will be emailed on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Let the market set the price of labor!
And who would want to vote for such a life?
Because we live in a democracy,
Our policies are shaped by peaceful strife,
Rewarding those who fight for what they favor.

Despite the logic, what fool would agree,
Alerted to his interest, to turn over,
Yielding neck to economic knife?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 24, 2008 #496

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about death.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You were for us not only love, but bread,
Our source of sustenance as well as joy.
Now not grief but hunger mourns the dead.

We must content ourselves with what we beg,
The bitter gifts no kindness can alloy.
You were for us not only love, but bread.

We miss you, but our hearts have turned to lead.
We cannot one sweet pang of pain enjoy.
Now not grief but hunger mourns the dead.

Nor have we any tears that we might shed
For you, nor thoughts that might grief buoy.
You were for us not only love, but bread,

And so there are no dreams of you in bed,
Nor memories with which my mind might toy.
Now not grief but hunger mourns the dead.

No room, no room, but emptiness instead,
A need that does all other need destroy.
You were for us not only love, but bread.
Now not grief but hunger mourns the dead.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 17, 2008 #495

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-eight has come to a decision,
Weary of the unrequited years.
Eventually one tempers one’s ambition,
Nullifying fantasies with fears,
Trading passions for secure careers,
Yet retaining rights to one’s old vision.

Each moment of one’s life still sings its song
In harmony enduring with the whole.
Gifts of love will last one’s whole life long,
However much one shifts one’s glance or goal,
The organ tones beneath one’s dancing soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 10, 2008 #494

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an epitaph for a cat.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe I was skittish among strangers:
Only you, my loved ones, owned my heart.
Racing into hiding, I would know,
Given time, the foreigners would go:
Here was home, in which they had no part.
As though I knew my fate, I dodged all dangers;
Nor could I alter it, for all my art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 3, 2008 #493

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Independence Day (USA).

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fantasies endure the test of time.
Out of myths emerge identities.
Underneath the prose there is the rhyme,
Revealing what was not and could not be.
There is a well-worn scrim across the past,
Hard to see through, absent light behind:
Old, self-serving stories made to last,
Fictive landscapes painted on the mind.
Just listen to the songs of who you are:
Underneath your words are melodies
Long rehearsed, the bedroom door ajar,
Years ago, when truth was meant to please.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 26, 2008 #492

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have a little bit of Eden,
An innocence deliberately detained.
Praised be love, that holds the heel of heaven,
Preserving what would else escape from pain,
Yet now renews the heart again, again.

For love depends upon a tended garden
Older than the myth of Adam’s fall,
Underneath the usual confusion
Resisting the implacable illusion
That makes of love a dream beyond recall:
Here it lives within the garden wall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 19, 2008 #491

Dear Subscriber:

This week's poem of the week is a graduation poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Given that we're happy to be here,
Remember what we're gaining and we're losing.
Admittedly, the moment is confusing,
Demanding sad farewells and well-earned cheer.
Underneath the moment is the motion,
A silent passage out to open sea,
Taking place regardless what may be
In front of us, a ritual commotion.
Of what we are, but little will remain,
Nor will we ever come this way again.

Copyright: Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 12, 2008 #490

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Father's Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How might a sacrifice seem like a gift?
Altruistic pleasure comes from love,
Plumbing depths within which monsters move,
Piercing hearts within which demons drift.
Yet love comes naturally, as one might shift
From darkened fields one’s gaze to lights above,
Astounded by a wonder that will prove
The bridge across one’s first, most wrenching rift.
How might one live insatiably with joy,
Each moment filled with grace one knows is true,
Reasoning from premises that were,
‘Ere life on Earth, deep-rooted in the soul?
So like the sea will love one’s spirits buoy,
Doing what no self alone can do,
As monsters still the ancient waters stir,
Yearning, yearning ever to be whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 5, 2008 #489

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The things we least imagine are what happen.
The memory is so unlike the dream!
Love, pleasure, pain, the sadness of life’s passing
Are strangers that we met along the way.

And we ourselves are nothing like the selves
We were and thought, perhaps, we’d always be.
Somehow we got turned into our parents,
Failing neither more nor less than they.

Still we dream and hope for something better,
And pray that no catastrophe comes near,
Knowing that it will, and we will suffer,
And be ourselves far less than we would wish.

This, at least, we know: that disillusion
Is not the quiet ending of the dream.
For dream we must, but, with an inner smile,
Embracing both the nature and the need.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 29, 2008 #488

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an epitaph.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All of you must know how much I loved you.
Never did I stint on saying so.
In death you were the song that let me go
To sleep in beauty, dancing as I sang you.
And though I'm gone, don't think that I'll forget you.
Just think of me as waiting, even though,
Agnostic or believer, you may know
No certainty beyond what love can tell you.
Each of you still lives within my heart.
Though I am not, I am. So is the truth
Opposed to sense, more relevant than thought.
What is, is often what could never be.
Nor need you grieve, though we may seem apart.
Sing with me, as we look back with ruth,
Each the source of what sweet balm we sought,
No mother and children more in touch than we,
Deep within life's unsolved mystery.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 22, 2008 #487

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Memorial Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there's a good excuse for fighting;
Every era has its righteous wars.
Maybe wrongs require bloody righting,
Or self-defense gives warriors just cause.
Remember, though, the legacy of pain,
Intense and passionate, a world of wounds,
Agony unveiled again, again,
Livid in the light of lonely rooms.
Death is a relief, but think of those
Alive with grief, whose loved ones lie in rows,
Youth on youth in neat, well-ordered tombs.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 15, 2008 #486

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a graduation poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The years of getting ready are now over.
On you now lies the burden of your life.
The teachers that await you will be tougher,
Having need to use you for their wealth.
Even so, you stand upon tall shoulders,
Granted the sweet chance to be prepared,
Ready to assume the work of others,
Anxious for the wind that bears your word.
Do well, my dear one! My love goes with you
Underneath the rhythm of your day,
An organ tone that will not wane or waver
Though you run through the gates that mark your way,
Exultant in your work as in your play.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 8, 2008 #484

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Mother's Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

You can read my Mother's Day stories at http://www.poemsforfree.com/fmoth.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy Mother’s Day to a dear aunt,
As loving as a mother ought to be,
Pleased to act when parents won’t or can’t,
Pleased to act when moms go out to sea.
Yet yearning cannot make an aunt a mother,
Melding aptitude with milk and blood.
One finds joy in giving joy to others;
The other has her joy, if she but would.
Heaven knows the way across the darkness,
Enduring through all manner of regret,
Returning, turning to the fount of stillness
‘Mid mountains of accumulated debt.
So may you this day be satisfied
Despite the grace that fortune has denied,
Alive with love, both given and returned,
Yet blessed with nothing less than you have earned.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 1, 2008 #484

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem to a mother.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe time is like a snowdrift. Spring
Opens up its secrets. And perhaps
There you find what you’ve been looking for.
Harsh winters wait, of course, but there are more
Ecstasies than sorrows under wraps,
Retained in drifts till their awakening.

© by Nicholas Gordon

April 24, 2008 #483

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Stirling is our little star,
The princeling of our skies,
Infant on a throne of love,
Ruler of our dreams!
Long may he reign! For such gifts are
In lieu of paradise:
Notes that do all music prove,
Grace that life redeems.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 17, 2008 #482

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Passover poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have a story for the world,
A tale of justice served and freedom won,
Principles of goodness, universal,
Printed out on stone by God's own hand.
Yes, the past was bloody, and the old
Promise was by faithlessness undone.
And wonders ceased, memories turned brittle,
Shadows fell, and love turned into land.
Still, the story breathes the air of words
Old and new, a tale not writ in stone,
Vast as the hard history of a people
Ever changing, ever one, a grand
Recital running through time's glass like sand.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 10, 2008 #481

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty doesn’t feel at all like sixty.
Instead, it feels like forty-five or fifty.
X-tra years were added!
The numbers just seem padded!
Yet there it is – unreal but real – too swiftly.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 3, 2008 #480

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com. Please note, however, that comments will be moderated and that not all comments will appear in the blog.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy sixteenth anniversary!

After all these years, still in love!

Perhaps not more or less, but differently,

Perhaps because we know what time has proved.

Years flow past our bit of riverside

Singing inconsolably of beauty.

In sympathy, we watch the boats go by,

Xeroxing our poems in praise of duty.

There is in home an antidote for time,

Even as love lasts beyond a life,

Each passion pressed into a paradigm

New realized in the grace of man and wife.

The love that lasts is stubborn, tough, and strong,

Having need to need, both plain and long.

Poem of the Week

March 27, 2008 #479

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I want you, but I don’t want you to know.
I fear the loss more than I trust the gain.
You are my love. I will not let you go.

Nor do I have the courage to bestow
My love on you, that you might see me plain.
I want you, but I don’t want you to know.

I fear your presence like an undertow
That drags me out unready, trite, inane.
You are my love. I will not let you go.

And yet when you are near I feel your glow
Like sunlight dancing through my windowpane.
I want you, but I don’t want you to know.

Empty but for you, I cannot show
You anything of interest I contain.
You are my love. I will not let you go.

I am a box within a box, safe so.
Sealed from self, I hide from your disdain.
I want you, but I don’t want you to know.
You are my love. I will not let you go.

Poem of the Week

March 20, 2008 #478

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an Easter poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here are festive flowers for your room,
A spray of springtime on your bare night table:
Placed upon a place within your view;
Placed where best to light your harried heart.
Yet my blossoms can’t dispel your gloom,
Even were they many times more able:
All that gifts from loving friends can do
Sings just one unaccompanied inner part.
The music cannot come from aught but you,
Evangelist beside the empty tomb
Rejoicing with all innocence and art.

Poem of the Week

March 13, 2008 #477

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a St. Patrick's Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seriously, nothing would surprise me.
The land we loved is turned into a store,
Prettied up for foreigners, while we
Are salesclerks and waitresses, no more
The warriors of old, the priests of passion,
Royalty of tongue, the banshee dancers.
Instead, we have become the latest fashion,
Cheapened by the sale itself, the prancers
Kindled by a check to do their chore.

Poem of the Week

March 6, 2008 #476

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty has her husband, child, home.
On her rests much, but she is light of heart.
Rewards are filtered through the clouds of stone,
The merciless routine in monotone
Yielding to her patience, will, and art.

Poem of the Week

February 28, 2008 #475

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mothering Sunday (British Mother's Day).

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy Mother’s Day, dear daughter!
All my love to you!
Praised be those who give themselves,
Poised to part the sea!
Years of loving need no quarter,
Making passion do,
Offering a trove of selves,
Though vicariously.
How beautiful the gift of giving
Each the unspent whole,
Returning, turning, like a tide,
‘Ere the moment wanes!
So beautiful, the act of living
Densely through a soul
Alight with wonder at the ride,
Yet soon to take the reins!

Poem of the Week

February 21, 2008 #474

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fortune is a favor to be earned.
One’s will is like a wind on weathered stone.
Remnants of one’s dreams lie all around,
The leaves that nourish well the fertile ground,
Uniting the imagined with the known.
Neither slave nor free, nor loved nor spurned,
Each borrows life and must repay the loan.

Poem of the Week

February 14, 2008 #473

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Valentine's Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Today’s the day I ought to say I love you,
Although I ought to say it every day.
But “ought” can stand directly in the way,
An obstacle to being honest with you.
Why can’t I tell you what I feel for you?
Because a feeling’s too complex to say,
Wrapped in an appropriate cliché,
Offered on the day I “ought” to tell you.
And yet this squeamishness is just a pose
Dissolved into the river of my love,
Which needs no more than one word for its name.
Beneath my wordy sophistry it flows
Like truth that one need neither test nor prove,
A happiness I need but speak to claim.

Poem of the Week

February 6, 2008 #472

Dear Subscriber:

Note: I'm sending out this poem of the week a day earlier than usual because tomorrow I'll be traveling. The next poem of the week will be emailed on February 14^th.

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar New Year.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There may be some who've wondered why the rat
Happens to be first to have a year
Exclusively devoted to his name.
Yet clever, crafty creatures never fear:
Eventually, they'll win – that's where they're at!
And this is how it came about: The rat,
Racing for the prize, fell towards the rear.
Out of breath, he thought he'd lost the game.
Fast rampaging Bull was drawing near;
The problem was: How to reach his back?
Here came by the lost, high-leaping cat.
Eureka! Up they went, the two friends dear,
Riding on the bull's back towards fame.
At the last, Rat pushes Pussy clear,
Then leaps ahead of Bull – and that was that!

Poem of the Week

January 31, 2008 #471

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Martin died at twenty-four;
A second transplant failed.
Rest in peace, my darling boy,
The lantern of my life and joy;
In death find life unveiled.
Nor can one hope for more.

Poem of the Week

January 24, 2008 #470

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a birthday poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I am four.
I don’t know why.

Perhaps I fell
Out of the sky
Four years ago.

I don’t know.

Or came like jelly
Out of Mommy’s belly.

Oh, my! Oh, my!

Poem of the Week

January 17, 2008 #469

Dear Subscriber

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King's birthday.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe more than love was needed.
All my love was not enough.
Reason is but rarely heeded.
Talk means little at the trough.
Icons look good on the wall
Nothing changes but the names.
Love is merely protocol.
Undiluted fear remains
The life is fast, the changes slow.
Hope must be its own reward
Eventually, the undertow
Returns, returns towards times untoward.
Kings build castles in the sand.
Infinity awaits the tide.
None can settle on the strand.
Grace must live with fratricide.

Poem of the Week

January 10, 2008 #468

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forget that you are much esteemed and loved
If that is not enough to bring you joy.
Forget that you are healthy and secure,
Though there must always be what will alloy
Your happiness and life’s indifference prove.

So is there nothing, nothing can destroy?
Is there grace no sorrow can remove,
Xerophyte that blooms where most endure?

Poem of the Week

January 3, 2008 #467

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an animal poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The night my heart stopped
I was sleeping with my wife
In a tent at the edge of a wood.

The Earth spun and spun.
Silent, in a cold sweat,
I felt myself going under.

I crawled out of the tent,
Careful not to wake my wife,
And onto a chaise lounge.

Under the spinning stars
My heart started and stopped,
Started and stopped, started . . .

I lay where a path emerged
From the wood, and along the path
Came a large raccoon.

He walked over to me
And raised himself up
Not four feet from my eyes.

We stared at each other
With focused understanding,
Words without words,

Eyes beyond eyes,
A giving and a taking
That stilled my raucous heart.

Satisfied, he lowered
Himself to the ground
And turned toward the wood.

“Thank you, brother,” I said,
“Thank you.” But he was gone,
Slipped back into darkness.