Poem of the Week

December 31, 2009 #562

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

Here's to health and happiness!
A toast to the New Year!
Peace and joy to all of us!
Prosperity and cheer!
Years come and go, some bad, some good.
New years provide the space,
Each to fill with what one would,
Windows onto grace.
Years come and go, yet still we toast
Each one, for each one seems
As though it were a new-found coast,
Rich with hope and dreams.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 24, 2009 #561

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

Make not much of what you're missing;
Each gets gifts as they come due.
Rest assured, regarding wishing:
Riches are reserved for you.
Years of want require wanting;
Christmas gives what one receives.
Happiness ought not seem daunting,
Renting space in what one grieves.
In your heart is all you need,
Sustained by giving it away.
Though you burn and break and bleed,
Mere suffering's no place to stay.
As you are is as you will,
Sure of winds that wish you well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 17, 2009 #560

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Season's Greetings 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

Sense makes little sense this time of year.
Each has reason to dispense with reason.
As darkness soon descends, the festive season
Shines out upon vast rolling fields of fear.
Old customs still survive, long loved and dear,
Now bought and sold, it's true, as is the fashion,
Still filling faith with poetry and passion,
Giving to dark days a touch of cheer.
Reason says there's little cause for worry:
Electric lights have long since tamed the darkness;
Even winter doesn't wish us harm,
Taught to be a nuisance well contained.
In our hearts, though, time still stirs the slurry;
Now the dark stokes fears of nothingness.
Gifts mean more, and love becomes the warm
Sanctum in which hope can be sustained.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 10, 2009 #559

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

Candles dance on their menorah,
Happy to be burning bright!
All the children dance the hora,
Nimbly leaping with delight!
Understand the miracle
Kindled by a match that sings,
A cantor with his canticle,
Here to give the moment wings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 3, 2009 #558

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 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

Years turn the pages; the book remains.
No one can see the life it contains.
The story is over; it sits on a shelf
Outside of time, complete in itself.
Ah! Could we know! But never we will.
Now it is sealed, silent and still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 26, 2009 #557

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 hope without the help of grief.
Hope is kindled from a bed of ashes,
A history of holocausts and lashes,
Needing anguish to persuade belief;
Kindled only by a desperation
Strong enough to dry a pelting rain,
Grace that is the apogee of pain,
Intending more than personal salvation.
Vested in each sorrow is a dream,
Innocence surrounded by despair;
Nor are we grateful just for what is there,
Giving thanks for what we would redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 19, 2009 #556

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

I do not understand why you don't love me.
You loved me once. What changed? What did I do?
Your eyes are mirrors in which I can't see me.
Your lips are closed, a door I can't pass through.
For years we shared our bodies, thoughts, and lives.
Now we lie at night encased in stone.
Something's turned the simplest words to knives.
I live with you, and yet I live alone.
I do not want to be the one who leaves.
After all, I'm not the one who changed.
But dead is dead, and for the one who grieves,
The loved one should be gone, not just estranged.
You say that nothing's wrong and all is well,
But I well know the truth you will not tell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 12, 2009 #555

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

You live in the world you choose.
Each act is a creation.
The evil and the good
Combine in just proportion.

What you see and know,
What you think and feel,
What you are and do --
All are by your choice.

Choose love, and you'll be loved.
Choose hate, and you'll be hated.
Everything you choose,
You'll see in others' eyes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 5, 2009 #554

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Veterans 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." 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

Very soon I'll hear the victims' screams,
Even in the midst of my content,
The end not quite enough to quell the means,
Each nightmare not exactly what I meant.
Recruited in a time of peace, I went
Abroad to serve more adolescent dreams,
Not unaware, of course, I might be sent
Someday to where the widow wails and keens.
Dumb ignorance! For now I must repent
Aberrations no regret redeems,
Yet hounding me like dogs on mayhem bent.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 29, 2009 #553

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.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hobnob with the hobgoblins
And gather with the ghouls!
Let the monsters in your heart
Loose to run with wolves!
Open up your happy Hell,
Window on your weir!
Even as you know quite well
Each demon from your dungeon will
Not ravish long your fear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 22, 2009 #552

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a set of proverbs.

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 UNCERTAINTY OF CERTAINTY

1. If you're sure you're right, you're probably wrong.

2. What one needs to believe is precisely what one needs not to believe.

3. Certainty is a wall one erects around doubt. The stronger the doubt, the stronger the wall.

4. The most consistent source of error is not ignorance but knowledge.

5. What we know is like a flashlight on a moonless night -- essential for getting around. But often it is better to turn the flashlight off and let our eyes get used to the dark.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 15, 2009 #551

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 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

Forty can't believe that she is forty.
OMG! Already? It can't be!
Recently seems much more recently.
Though centuries ago, when she was thirty,
Years stretched ahead as far as she could see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 8, 2009 #550

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Columbus 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

Clear away the cobwebs from your eyes --
Old ways of thinking, doing, wanting, dreaming!
Learn that present truths are future lies,
Undone by what is now well past redeeming.
Make of life a vast experiment
Blessed by passion, toil, terror, pain,
Unafraid to scuttle what you meant,
Sure only that no failure is in vain.
Do this, and you will have a chance to be
A sailor at the edge of what you see,
Yet yearning for what no one can attain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 1, 2009 #549

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a congratulations poem for a new home.

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

Home is the habit that dwells in habitation.
Out of the familiar comes the longing,
Making place a matter of belonging,
Enduring urge that hungers for relation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 24, 2009 #548

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur.

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

You are not, will not, do not what you dream.
One accepts that one cannot be pure.
Moreover, there are sins you would redeem,
Knowing that your world remains secure.
In you there is a longing to be known,
Peered right through, as sun lights up a room,
Perhaps just as you promise to atone,
Understood and loved by One whose doom
Remains wet, not yet hardened into stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 17, 2009 #547

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Fitr.

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

Erase my soul and let me be
Invisible as air.
Detain me in Your emptiness
And let me be just prayer.
Let my passion disappear;
Focus well my mind.
Immerse me in infinity
Till at peace I turn to see
Ramadan behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 10, 2009 #546

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 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

Happy sixth anniversary!
As years pass, the coating wears away,
Perhaps revealing more than one can see,
Perhaps revealing more than one can say.
Yet what one feels is more than ecstasy.

So is love far more than one can bear --
In grace, in truth, in sacrifice, in power.
Xylophones play on unheard, the air
Tingling somewhere deep beneath the hour,
Heaven within the heart that seeks it there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 3, 2009 #545

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Labor 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." 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

Labor is a blessing and a curse,
As one must work to live and live to work.
Better jobs to get up for or worse,
On the whole, with none you'd go berserk.
Remember, then, that dignity requires
Doing, working, laboring – a role
As giver, as attendant to desires
You recognize within some common soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 20, 2009 #544

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love poem. I will be leaving on vacation from August 21 – August 31. The next poem of the week will be sent out on September 3.

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

Once more, with feeling, please! I've had enough
Of lubricated passion come and gone!
Years and years and years and years of stuff
Squirting, squirting, squirt – and then it's done!
With feeling, please! Companionship, affection,
Shared pain, shared joy, shared silences, shared thoughts.
Not ecstasy fast moving towards rejection,
Frantic with the fear of time and loss.
Slow down, life! Slow down, and be content
Just to be awhile, and let love grow
Or not, as seedlings by the wind are sent
To find their bit of fertile earth, or no.
Let there be no ecstasy until
The plant has been well tended by the will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 13, 2009 #543

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 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

Happy third anniversary!
A time for celebration and reflection.
Praised be those who live as they believe,
Pursuing through each act some deep connection.
Years refine what none can grasp or see.

There is in every love not two but three:
Happiness requires consecration,
Requires some sweet angel both conceive
Equally, the child of their relation,
Elf of the heart, who binds them spiritually.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 6, 2009 #542

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a set of proverbs.

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

ON MARRIAGE, SEX, AND LOVE

1. One needs always to remember that the point of marriage is not sex but love.
2. Love, like the air, is often taken for granted. But a happily married couple both know that they need love and are grateful to have it.
3. Sex brings ecstasy and then satisfaction. Love brings grace and then fulfillment.
4. One can enjoy both sex and love, but one cannot pursue both. For the pursuit of sexual ecstasy is self-centered and tends towards isolation, whereas the pursuit of love is other-centered and tends towards communion.
5. Marriage is difficult and requires constant compromise. One cannot share a life without losing autonomy, but what one gains is well worth the loss.
6. The only way to be completely autonomous is to be completely alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 30, 2009 #541

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 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

Seventy-nine has just one working kidney.
Even that one doesn't work so well.
Vast domains of knowledge, passion, pleasure,
Eagerly await his ample leisure,
Nor have they aged, as far as he can tell.
The problem is he's in such pain he simply
Yearns for moments peaceful, clear, and still.

Needs are hopeless mountainsides, nor is he
Interested in digging deep for treasure.
Now it is enough each day to fill,
Enduring grace too bountiful to measure.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 8, 2009 #540

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a political poem. I'm sending it a day earlier than usual because I'm leaving on vacation from July 8 – July 27. The next poem of the week will be sent out on Thursday, July 30.

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

Utopians are unrepentant monsters.
The perfect is the perfect rationale.
O send us serial killers, rapists, gangsters,
Preferably to “should” becoming “shall”!
In those who seek to make their visions real,
A rage becomes the furnace of their zeal;
Nor can they love, who would impose their will,
Sure enough of paradise to kill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 1, 2009 #539

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Independence Day (USA). I'm sending it out a day earlier than usual because I'm taking a long weekend. The next poem of the week will also be sent out on a Wednesday rather than a Thursday because I'll be leaving on vacation from July 8 – July 27.

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

I wish there were a Washington
For every failed state,
A Jefferson or Madison
To guide them through the gate.

I wish there were a Lincoln
For those now ripped apart,
A Roosevelt or Kennedy
For those that have no heart.

I wish each had the fortune
With which we have been blessed,
And found in their own founders
Fit heroes for the quest.

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,
But such things none can will.
One can only plant the seeds
And shape the soil well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 25, 2009 #538

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about love and lust.

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

Lust is no more physical than love.
Feeling is the fuel that feeds that fire,
A flame that might, controlled, pure pleasure prove.
The language of the psyche is desire.
One is dragged towards ecstasy by need:
For power, vengeance, salience, self-esteem.
One wants sometimes to make one's landscape bleed,
To penetrate the borders of the dream.
Lust's a fantasy, sometimes made real,
Oft sustained by willful ignorance.
The more one sees, the more one's apt to feel
A need for what the love of others grants.
Within love's bounds, lust can be a joy;
Outside of love, it is a child's toy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 18, 2009 #537

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 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

Forget the fear of loving ill,
And give yourself away.
The more you love, the more you will
Have reason to obey.
Each has will to happiness,
Retaining rights to be,
'Mid a world of more or less,
Satisfied and free.
Deeper still lies what one would
Align with some eternal good,
Yielding unity.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 11, 2009 #536

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Somewhere there are seraphim
Singing night and day
Ecstatically, eternally,
In their seraphic way.

Somewhere there are seraphim
Singing songs of praise
To God, Who sits upon His throne
In glory as they gaze.

Somewhere there are seraphim,
Trillions, quintillions strong,
A masterful mass madrigal
Arising from the throng.

Somewhere there are seraphim
Singing each its part.
Where? Why here! Can't you hear?
Deep within the heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 4, 2009 #535

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Wilderness is anything but wild.
It is an artifact of modern life.
Longing for innocence, we are beguiled,
Determined to re-virginize our wife.
Eons of humanity were there,
Resident in each ecology.
Nor can we go back further, for nowhere
Exist the plants and creatures we would see.
So we create what never was, a place
Set aside as a reserve for grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 28, 2009 #534

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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

WEDDING VOWS

BRIDE: I vow to love you all my life,
In sickness and in health,
And share your journey through this world
In poverty or wealth.

I vow to give myself to you,
To trust you with my life,
To be your source of happiness
As lover and as wife.

GROOM: I vow to give you all my love,
To be your lasting friend,
To care for you and comfort you
Till time and toil end.

I vow to share your happiness
And sorrow, joy and tears,
And be for you the one true thing
That lasts through all your years.

BOTH: These vows we make not knowing what
Good times or ill may come,
But knowing well what good we want:
A joyful, loving home.

These vows we make of our free will
Before you all, that we
Might know the grace of love that comes
To those who loving be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 21, 2009 #533

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 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

Maybe grief needs ritual, as music
Embraces rules that turn sound into song.
Maybe if one trusts that one won't lose it,
One can turn away, though grief be strong.
Reserve, then, days for rituals of mourning
In which one may allow the flood of grief
Again to inundate the heart, restoring
Life to deserts thirsting for relief.
Dance depends on choreography
As pain declares its sovereign right to be,
Yet performs with grace restrained and brief.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 14, 2009 #532

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 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

Congratulations on your graduation,
Opening a door not easily reached!
Now go through it: on the other side
Great mountains become hills, and then just fields
Rolling eastward towards a rising sun.
All now is success and celebration,
The music of deeds done and barriers breached.
Underneath, uncertainties still glide
Lean and hungry as the sweet day yields,
And golden moments through your fingers run.
The rock on which you stand is your creation,
Illustrating what your teachers preached
Of learning and the provenance of pride.
Nor need you fear the wind, as knowledge shields
Such as earn it from what storms may come.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 7, 2009 #531

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Happy Mother's Day from far away!
As love has wings, it flies across the sea,
Passing seraphim alight with glee,
Placed in nooks on clouds along its way.
Years cannot such innocence betray,
Morning's holy light perpetually
On fire within the heart, a pillar we
Then follow through the desert night and day.
Here, then, is my love, and as it lands,
Exchange it for a pigeon of your own,
Returning through the heavens what I once,
'Ere you were born, delivered to your door.
So are we eternal, though the sands
Demand of us that piece that is on loan,
As love renews, renews the ancient dance,
Yet dancing though the wide world be no more.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 30, 2009 #530

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about both terrorism and health.

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

So may a tiny, clever enemy
Wield more power than the greatest states.
Inventive, mutant, merciless murderers,
Now they plot as the world prepares and waits,
Each moment shadowed by catastrophe.

For us, the only road to victory
Lies through the valley of the sufferers,
Unified in love till death abates.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 23, 2009 #529

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 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

Ah, the temptation
When one can print money
To print it and print it --
As much as one needs!

Ah, for one moment
The outlook is sunny:
Wealth is restored!
The project succeeds!

People are working,
Beginning to spend;
Credit is flowing,
The market is pleased;

Banks once again
Have money to lend;
One has a sense
That the moment was seized.

The problem is nothing
Can never be something:
Money just printed
Was not bought or sold.

There was no exchange
Of one thing for one thing:
Something produced,
Like laughter or gold.

And so we've increased
Our money without
Increasing the value
Of what it can buy.

The outcome must be
Without any doubt,
According to laws
Of demand and supply.

When there is more money
In relation to things,
Prices will rise
In response to demand.

Since just-printed wealth
No exchange for goods brings,
The goods stay the same
As the dollars expand.

Prices rise quickly,
Leaving us nothing
More than we had
When we first began.

And so we learn nothing
Can never be something
The hard way -- again --
As we sink in the sand.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 16, 2009 #528

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Earth 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." 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

Each of us is like one drop of rain,
A single splatter on the thirsty sand.
Remember, though, that drops fall not alone,
The products and producers of a grand
Harmony that waters well the plain.

Do not think, then, that you're on your own,
A tiny drop upon a dying land.
You are a storm, whose green fields will remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 9, 2009 #527

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." 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

Each of us must know You personally --
As friend or father, counselor, mentor, guide --
Someone we invite to come inside
That we might be Your witness literally,
Even of ourselves, though we may die,
Resurrected only eye-to-eye.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 2, 2009 #526

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." 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

Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us – family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 26, 2009 #525

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the beginning of spring.

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

So have we survived another winter!
Pleasure once again comes out to play.
Remember when our days were dark and bitter?
In a few short weeks, warm winds have had their way,
Nestling into hollows where there lay,
Gripped by cold, winter's last white litter.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 19, 2009 #524

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Mothering Sunday, Mothering Sunday,
Oh, what gratitude --
Till Monday!
Have a bit o' bliss
Each one day
Reserved as your
Intended fun day.
Nor should a normal
Got-to-run day
Silence love
Until some someday;
Nor word not light a
Desperate glum day
As we await
Your Mothering Sunday.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 12, 2009 #523

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." 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

So let it go, that mythic Ireland!
Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!
Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --
All of it – but that was long ago.
The time when states were nations is now ending.
Races know no borders; people move
In search of life, their clothes and colors rending
Cultures that must now their presence prove.
Know, then, that not politics, but art,
'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,
Sustains a people's history and heart,
Dependent more on ritual than place.
As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,
Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 5, 2009 #522

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 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 last depression led to holocaust.
The rationale for massacre is fear.
Long before it starts, the game is lost.
The neighborhood of hate is always here.
The best place to begin is one's own heart.
There the mad dogs pull against their chains,
Lusting to tear some stranger's throat apart,
Rage that only love and patience tames.
Each heart becomes a lantern in a crowd.
Yes, people see according to your light,
As you by theirs – but speak of love aloud,
Lest other voices drown the coming night.
And do not turn away from victims' cries,
For evil's spooked by nothing more than eyes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 26, 2009 #521

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

Once a paladin
Rode into mountains
Seeking himself
Among barren stones.

He was a spring
Covered by fountains,
Or an immortal elf
In a dungeon of bones.

Long he rode weary
Through high mountain passes
And deep, lonely canyons
Untouched by the sun.

Long he rode dreary
'Mid snow-covered masses,
His dreams for companions,
And still he rode on.

Yet he found nothing
That matched his ambition
To see himself naked
Of what was not him:

That singular something
Beyond all condition,
The soul he'd forsaken
For life's daily din.

He came on a hermit
Praying in shadow,
Unmoving for hours
In the early spring cold;

His hut near a summit
In a high mountain meadow
Covered with flowers,
Red, white, and gold.

Finally moving,
He turned towards the paladin,
Blank as a snowfield,
Silent as space;

The soul simply choosing
To pass its brief time within,
Steadfastly sealed
Behind its locked face.

“Good Sir,” said the paladin,
“Long have I wandered
In search of the soul
That somehow I lost.

“My life has been sin,
My brief moment squandered,
Yet I would be whole
Regardless of cost.

“O holy man,
Show me the truth
Known to those few
At being's bright core!

“And, if you can,
Yourself be the proof,
For I would be you --
I ask nothing more.”

The hermit then opened
His eyes wide as saucers.
Behind them was emptiness,
Nothing at all.

Sheer nothingness beckoned
Like death 'neath life's wonders,
The absolute stillness
That makes the flesh crawl.

“O God!” shrieked the paladin,
“Heaven, please save me!”
And down from the mountains
He fled on his steed;

Back towards profusion,
The commerce that daily
Surrounds the great fountains
That simple springs feed.

Back, back to the world
Of passion and plunder
The paladin raced
Away from that sight

Of a self self-dissolved
In the truth that lay under
The truth – just a taste
Of the cold, waiting night.

Nor did he ever
Recover from seeing
That vision of nothingness
At being's heart.

Alas! He could never
Embrace his own being,
And so performed graceless
His pitiful part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 19, 2009 #520

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Washington'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." 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 President was without precedent
At the time that he took on the post.
Equally homespun and elegant,
He struck the precisely right note.

Refusing the power of kings,
He yet understood that the State
Required what reverence brings:
A loyalty one can create.

And so he became The Great Leader,
The focus of wide adulation.
Yet only a one-time repeater,
He served not the man, but the nation.

He gave to the State what the states
Could only recopy writ small:
The sense of a Center the fates
Must bless for the good of us all.

He played well the hero who held
The Union together those years,
Until the still-thin mixture jelled,
And fact was more forceful than fears;

Till the other great president we
Now jam into one day for two
Kept the Union together and free,
The gift of the first to renew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 12, 2009 #519

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." 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

Some might think, perhaps, that I'm not pleased
At how you've trivialized my name and day.
In fact, I think romantic love's one way
New recruits for paradise are seized.
True, the object is the kind that's squeezed.
Very well! We're flesh, and though we may
Awaken first to lust, at last love's play
Leads us to redemption by degrees.
Each soul must find its way from love to Love,
Needing love, beside itself with need,
Though through pride reluctant to give in.
In cards and flowers, chocolate hearts, and such,
None but must recite love's gentle creed,
Each proclaiming tenderness within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 5, 2009 #518

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." 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 bond of love is not desire, but need.
Desire fades; need with wisdom grows:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

But why the need to need when one is freed
By needing less of that which comes and goes?
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

And why need to be needed? Why should one cede
What one might well enjoy for what one owes?
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Are longings of the sower for the seed,
And the seed for the sower, who whistles as he sows.
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

Love is longing, by dint of death decreed,
The beauty and the terror life bestows,
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Embedded in one's being, as indeed,
Being needs Creation, which it once chose.
The bond of love is not desire, but need:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 29, 2009 #517

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." 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

Love comes unexpectedly,
An arrow to the heart,
But stays only reluctantly
Through patience, will, and art.

The full-length version of the story
Has both joy and pain,
Boredom, lust, betrayal, glory,
Anger, comfort, shame.

It ends in grief, inevitably,
Through death or separation,
The harshness of the agony
As strong as the relation.

So why, then, love? And why persist
In love long after passion
Has gone its way? And why resist
An urge one need not ration?

The answer is in something more
Than fantasy and pleasure --
A passion passion never saw,
A hunger beyond measure;

A longing for the One in one
One longs for all one's life,
And is, and has, and will become
In time as man and wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

The Poem of the Week

January 22, 2009 #516

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar, or Chinese, New Year (Year of the Ox).

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 point is just that I don't see the point:
However much one wants to be turned on,
Ecstasy can put things out of joint;
Yearning is for what will soon be gone.
Each can choose content or discontent;
All are happy, if they would be so.
Revelation isn't Heaven sent;
Out of what you are comes what you know.
Forget, then, the pursuit of the sublime.
There is no thing that's needed – all is here.
Happiness will settle in, in time,
Enduring, though the weather may turn drear.
One must plod to plow, and plow to plant.
X marks the heart, where lies all one could want.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 15, 2009 #515

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." 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

Maybe some had thought I hoped too much
And dreamed a dream that never would come true,
Reasoning from what they saw and such
Trends as might confirm their points of view.
In dreams, however, one creates what is --
Not from what one sees but what one wills:
Like light, from the Lord's dream sprung, now All, as His
Undying Word the void unending fills.
Then look! Look! What miracles occur!
Here we have a black man judged upon --
Exactly as I dreamed – his character,
Regardless of his skin! And he has won!
Know, then, that the dream for which I fought
In time became the ground for what I sought.
New realities require dreams
Given to us not as ends but means.

© by Nicholas Gordon