Thursday, January 29, 2009

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

Thursday, January 22, 2009

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

Thursday, January 15, 2009

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