Poem of the Week

December 27, 2012 #717

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here again we have a new beginning,
An old refrain to start a brand-new verse.
Perhaps the belly droops, the hair is thinning;
Perhaps each year the memory gets worse.
Yet new beginnings always start with hope,
Needing hope to nurture innocence,
Endeavoring to find a way to cope
When nothing deeply thought about makes sense.
Years come and go; Eden doesn't change.
Each new year we toddle forth again,
Afoot into a world that's ever strange,
Restored by some great turning tide within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

Poem of the Week

December 20, 2012 #716

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Angel horses flap their wings
High above the winter night.
Far below an angel sings
Of peace and joy, of love and light.

Down, down, down the horses fly,
Down through stars, across the moon,
Down through clouds and cold, dark sky
To where the angel sings her tune.

And there the angel horses wait,
Listening to her song of love,
Far from home and Heaven's gate,
Far from sweet green fields above,

Listening to the angel's song,
So beautiful it makes them weep,
Hovering over us all night long
While we are fast asleep.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

December 13, 2012 #715

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Should one see darkness or the turn to light?
Each sees with the heart more than the eye.
As winter looms, the sun starts towards its height,
Slightly higher in each noontide sky.
One finds in this a useful metaphor,
Neatly rendered in the holiday.
Since ancient times, perhaps since long before,
Glad tidings came as Earth in darkness lay.
Remember always how the seasons turn:
Each solstice of one's sorrow is a sign,
Even if not easy to discern,
That in that hour the sun begins to climb.
In joy and laughter, fellowship and praise,
Now sing of sanguine winter holidays --
Grace amid the darkness, dawn at night,
Songs of birth and bounty, love and light!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

December 6, 2012 #714

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an acrostic sestina for Hanukkah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Break upon the cold, white sands of darkness!
O oceans, come and break, and break again!
Need, desire, hope, and anger break!
None but God can light from darkness make.
Immensities, come break, come break within!
Each heart must at its heart find emptiness.

Sing, then, as you rise towards emptiness.
Each wave must break, must break upon the darkness,
Then gather itself back to swell within,
Heave up against the sand, and break again.
All rise and fall from nothing, nothing make,
Nor render aught but beauty as they break.
Do not dread the shore on which you break.
Eight days the light burned, fueled by emptiness,
Light that only miracles can make
In you, as God has fashioned it from darkness,
Zero – not just once, again, again,
As consciousness comes forth to reign within.
Break, then, with no sorrow! Break within!
Elevate your longing and then break!
Take in the undertow and break again,
Having filled your heart with emptiness.

Granted that we all are bound for darkness --
All we are and do, and all we make.
Be humble, then, in all you do and make,
Rising like a wave to break within,
Immensity that breaks upon the darkness,
Easing back again to rise and break,
Life so full of life, then emptiness,
Knowing that the wave will break again.
Embrace the light, embrace the dark, again
Needing, knowing, wanting, longing. Make
No protest as you rise towards emptiness,
A wave that sings to harmonies within.

Even as we know that we must break
Like waves upon the cold, white sands of darkness,
Longing fills the emptiness within,
Each, each time again prepared to make
No imprint as we break upon the darkness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

Poem of the Week

November 29, 2012 #713

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for AIDS Awareness 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

AIDS is a preventable disease.
It enters through delight and stays to kill,
Dependent on a lack of word or will,
Sustained by cultural pathologies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

Poem of the Week

November 22, 2012 #712

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank You for the gift of being thankful.
Here is one gift we can both enjoy.
A gift that can at will my spirits buoy,
Needing only will to yield a heartful.
Knowledge won't engender gratitude;
Some may know a lot and yet feel little.
Grace comes hot and hearty off the griddle;
In some, though, there's no hunger for such food.
Voices sing of paradise at will.
I hear them when I start to sing alone.
Nor do I cease to hear them when they're gone,
Glad to be alive and thankful still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

Poem of the Week

November 15, 2012 #711

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let your love lie easy on your heart,
Like sunlight on a field of wildflowers.
Enjoyment is a much-neglected art,
Since people would take profit from their hours.
Do not set your timer to a goal,
But find your wealth within the time you waste.
Years contain more riches than your role,
And food is not for health alone, but taste.
The love you feel for life is just like music,
Filling every moment with its beauty.
You can have contentment if you choose it,
And dance through every gesture of your duty.
Love easy, then, and let life come to you.
You welcome more, the less that you pursue.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: A poem of mine, The Seven Deadly Sins, has been set to music by Michael Isaacson, a noted composer and conductor. If you would like to hear his choral setting of my poem and other choral pieces by him, performed by Counterpoint, a chorus conducted by Robert DeCormier, you can purchase a CD at http://www.michaelisaacson.com/recordings/anamericanhallel.html .

Poem of the Week

November 8, 2012 #710

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Veterans of wars unjust or just
Equally deserve consideration,
Their anger, hatred, fear, and livid lust
Equally in service to their nation.
Remember that the battlefield remains
A place where murder is one's daily duty.
Nor can one be so brutal without stains
Seeping into one's one well of beauty.
Do, then, pay them homage due, for they
Are heroes, though their bitter battles may
Yield nothing but their bitterness for booty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 1, 2012 #709

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Election 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Elections bring regime change, even though
Little seems to change but the regimes.
Energetic leaders come and go.
Change is far more daunting than it seems.
This is due to what elections do:
In counting votes, they sum not some but all,
Of which no cook could make a tasty stew,
Nor architect an arch that would not fall.
Demands of opposite intent demand
A compromise constrained, complex, and bland.
Yet such will ever violence forestall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 25, 2012 #708

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Horror is less horrible than life.
At least for most of us, it's an escape.
Let the nightmares out! Let squealers quake!
Let them safely fear the fictive knife!
Open up the Hell of undreamt dreams!
Wake the monsters lurking in the heart!
Exercise our frenzy with your art,
Else dormant in a world of in-betweens,
Not fit for those whose longings haunt their means.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 18, 2012 #707

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a grown-up child.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Face the fact that you are still a child --
Older, yes, of course, but a child still,
Remembered, valued, loved unceasingly
Though far away and wholly on your own.
Years pass, yet that identity remains.

So you may recall how once we smiled
Each time you tested out your fledgling will,
Voicing an assumed authority
Eventually becoming yours alone.
Nor can one tell the losses from the gains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

October 11, 2012 #706

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Alejandro finds his pleasure in parades,
Liking most the tumult and the noise,
Excited by the close-packed crowds he craves,
Jostled to and fro by burly joys.
A quiet moment is too much to take --
Not too empty, but too full of being.
Depressed by so much existential weight,
Restless in the presence of his state,
Out he runs, in search of what he's fleeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Poem of the Week

October 4, 2012 #705

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Columbus 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Can one ever see what lies beyond?
One cannot help but sail for shores unknown,
Leaving everything one loves behind.
Ultimately, one must live alone.
Maybe that's OK. One needn't weep.
Blessed are those who sail willingly,
Unafraid to lose what they can't keep,
Singing to the silence of the sea.
Do, then, dare to choose your mortal state
And relish the adventure of your fate,
Yearning only for the grace to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

September 27, 2012 #704

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for autumn.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Autumn is a sentimental season,
Undoing with nostalgia summer's dreams.
The sun slants southward, sending golden beams
Underneath the cobalt of one's reason,
Magical among the dying leaves.
Nor can one hold the sweet delight one grieves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Poem of the Week

September 20, 2012 #703

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You cannot be the person you might wish,
Opening the door to who you are.
Morning comes alike to fowl and fish,
Kindled by a mystery from afar.
In you there is a music all your own
Pouring through the sluices of your heart,
Passionate with love as you atone,
Unmoored from self by ritual and art,
Restored to some bright whole not yours alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Poem of the Week

September 13, 2012 #702

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Remember as you scour your soul for sin,
Opening the doors behind your lies,
Searching every room with ruthless eyes,
However much you see, there's more within.
How might you else then but through faith atone,
Aware not every debt will be repaid,
Suspecting with good cause some were mislaid,
Harboring some that aren't yours alone?
All sins belong to all, as well to you,
Nor can you cleanse yourself in isolation.
All are good or evil in relation,
Having all to pay what debts accrue.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 6, 2012 #701

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Nineteen years now we have been together.
It's been a long apprenticeship in love.
Need endures, regardless of the weather,
Ever one thing we are certain of.
Time turns into space, as though the years
Evolved into a country all our own,
East of troubles, faults, frustrations, fears --
Neighbors we must face, but not alone.
Yearning is a kind of innocence,
Even as the world gives up its glow.
All the wisdom of experience
Refrains from censuring this common sense,
So beautiful one cannot let it go.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 30, 2012 #700

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let unions bear some blame for their demise.
All were not corrupt, but far too many
Blessed the criminals and kissed their rings,
Organized to serve only themselves.
Remember what is lost when something dies
Despite the need for it. There isn't any
Alternative to what true union brings –
Yearning that with shared resolve rebels.

© by Nicholas Gordon

August 23, 2012 #699

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about angels and 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My father's angel is 21 years old.
Not that it matters – angels have no age.
Even so, I wonder: What is he thinking?
What is he seeing? What does he remember?

Perhaps he is clairvoyant. Perhaps the old
Man whom I saw through the Buchenwald of age
Is now pure soul, beyond the need for thinking,
One with One, with nothing to remember.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 16, 2012 #698

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment equally is holy.
In Ramadan, we recognize it more.
Days of fasting preach throughout the body;
Appetite obeys a higher law.
Let us now return to the mundane
Fortified by what we have enjoyed,
In lives neither prophetic nor profane,
Toiling daily, gainfully employed,
Restored by holiness, our spirits buoyed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 9, 2012 #697

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an angel, number, and 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing as though a choir of angels near
Immersed you in the beauty of their song!
Xylophones accompany the throng,
Though trumpets might be easier to hear.
Yet we must use the letters of the year.

Fear not that your voice will be too strong!
Offer them your music, loud and clear!
Understand that angels hold you dear,
Rejoicing as in joy you sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 2, 2012 #696

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For the lucky ones, life is full of love.
One hears its music through both night and day,
Returning in the darkness to its beauty.
The work is just as joyful as the play,
Yielding pleasure that resilient proves.

One dances through the doldrums of one's duty,
Not only for the ends but for the moves,
Each a kind of worship, prayer, praise.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 2, 2012 #696

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For the lucky ones, life is full of love.
One hears its music through both night and day,
Returning in the darkness to its beauty.
The work is just as joyful as the play,
Yielding pleasure that resilient proves.

One dances through the doldrums of one's duty,
Not only for the ends but for the moves,
Each a kind of worship, prayer, praise.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Agostino has been touched by grace,
Giving him the gifts of faith and love.
Of him it can be said he lives in joy,
Singing thanks and praise beneath each breath.
To see him is to be in his embrace.
In him there is a love no loss can move,
Nor passion still, nor evidence destroy,
Only peace along the edge of death.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 19, 2012 #694

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Ramadan.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Religion must touch more than mind and heart.
A living faith must be a way of life.
Mundane tasks done righteously are prayer,
As outer harmony heals inner strife.
Devotion must not be a thing apart,
Applied when turned towards Mecca. Everywhere
Needs passionate delight and humble care.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 12, 2012 #693

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Bastille 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before the terror comes the tyranny.
A bloodstained flower has roots in bloodstained soil.
Some would steal the fruit of others' toil,
Then claim it as a right of property.
In revolutions, though, if chaos reigns,
Legitimacy is lost, and many will
Look back with less distaste at former ill,
Eager more for order than for gains.
Days of terror yield dictators new,
As the many yield power to the few,
Yearning for the clarity of chains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 5, 2012 #692

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For you there is no more enduring passion
Or salient presence in your inner rooms,
Realizing the hopes of brides and grooms,
The deepest bonds that separate souls can fashion.
Years accumulate, the leaves turn ashen,
Forests stand naked as the winter looms.
On frigid mornings, on golden afternoons,
Underneath the roots love finds its ration.
Ravenous once, you now have long been sated,
Yearning still, but from a place called home,
Embracing what you have as what you are.
A choice was made, of course, but now seems fated,
Rendered as a fable writ in stone,
Signaled at your birth by some bright star.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 28, 2012 #691

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In every heart there is, of course, corruption.
No one is immune from lust and greed.
Democracy accommodates this need,
Embracing what might else lead to destruction.
People cannot people an ideal.
Equality's a myth, has always been
No more than something to put favors in,
Dependent on the lie that it is real.
Each decision is a battlefield,
Not of ideas but interests, yours and mine,
Calculated shrewdly to define
Exactly what advantage each might yield.
Do not be discouraged: Evil is
As much a part of us as love or bliss.
Yet what is not a wound cannot be healed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 21, 2012 #690

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Summer.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Summer shimmers in the sizzling sun,
Unbearable until one finds some shade.
Mere movement breaks a sweat, as one would trade
More daylight for less heat. Day is done
Eventually, and night comes naked, yearning,
Ravenous, its wet black body burning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 14, 2012 #689

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Father'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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forget your former self! It is long gone!
A father grows into a different person.
There is a love that lends your life its longing,
Having felt the beauty of belonging,
Embracing what would else have seemed to worsen,
Rejoicing in what else one might find daunting,
Singing as the harness is put on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 7, 2012 #687

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

No marriage is an island unto itself.
It is a piece of a mainland – of a family, of friends, of a community, of history.

Couples tend their gardens, but the water of life comes from elsewhere.
However great their efforts and their love, they cannot thrive alone.

Of each person, the boundaries are uncertain.
Lines are drawn on surfaces, but underneath roots tunnel where they will.
A marriage is but the most intimate intertwining.
So many others – even strangers – burrow into us for sustenance, or give us, unknowing, their nutrients underground.

A great love does not shine on only one small patch of ground,
Nor does love between husband and wife light only the space between the walls of their marriage.
Do not doubt that love felt in the privacy of one's heart will someday lend a bit of beauty to someone else's night.

Early in the history of Earth, the air was poisonous, and the land was sand and naked stone.
Later, living things sweetened the air and clothed the land and made it fertile.
Love also must be replenished daily, like soil, like air.
Each bit of love we feel helps all of us to breathe, enables all of us to grow.
No more than one tree can survive alone in a desert, can one marriage survive without others' love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 31 2012 #686

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Free at last! Our childhood is over!
Now we can look back with tearful eyes
And see ourselves through sentimental lies,
As though these were for us the best years ever.
Perhaps they were, but we won't know till later,
When we have seen the landscapes of our lives,
And known the love of husbands or of wives,
And tasted of our fortunes, sweet or bitter.
For now, we're simply happy to move on
Yet sad for all that we must leave behind,
Celebrating as we say farewell.
Days and years flow swiftly through the mind,
Lingering long after they are gone
As tales we cannot help but oft retell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 24, 2012 #686

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Memorial 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make a little time for public mourning,
Easing the harsh pangs of hidden grief.
Maybe ritual tears will bring relief,
Offering a role for one's dark calling.
Remember the utility of sharing,
Inviting cloistered hearts to come outdoors
And dance with us along our barren shores,
Lost within the music of our longing.
Death requires our collaboration
As we render due commemoration,
Yielding sorrow to the common cause.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 17, 2012 #685

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon.

How can I persuade you I'm sincere,
That my affection equals my desire?
I can tell you what you want to hear,
But there's no way to prove I'm not a liar.
Time may tell, but how much time must pass
Before you are convinced by what I do?
My eyes are eyes, not windows made of glass
Through which you can see clearly what is true.
Love cannot be, but at the risk of pain.
Nothing can be guaranteed to last.
Mere longing leads to neither loss nor gain.
One must bet before the dice are cast.
I know I love you, but you cannot know
My heart unless you trust that it is so.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 10, 2012 #684

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here there can be no excuse for sadness!
All must be happy on this Mother's Day!
Pleased to be, for being comes this way;
Pleased to feel the common sense of gladness.
Yet some are blighted, broken by life's badness,
Maimed by mothers battering as they may,
Owned by grief unowned, and tears that stay
Through joy and sorrow, sanity and madness.
How might such victims join the celebration,
Enduring happiness they cannot share,
Remaining, as they must, marooned outside,
'Mid memories too painful to recall?
So might there still be love in the relation,
Despite the rage that, buried, yields despair,
A longing in the child that screamed and cried
Yet strong enough to make sense of it all.

© by Nicholas Gordon

May 3, 2012 #683

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduates are people with degrees,
Rewarded with some letters by their names.
An education must be more than these.
Doubtful bosses aren't playing games.
Unless you know the things you need to know,
And have a mind honed well by what you've learned,
The piece of paper might as well be snow –
It is the least of what you here have earned.
Of what value have these hard years been?
Now that depends on how much you put in.

© by Nicholas Gordon

April 26, 2012 #682

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

ABNER/ABNER

Abner likes to do what is expected,
Being in agreement with the rules.
Now and then, of course, he feels rejected,
Even though no duty is neglected,
Restored by thinking pride is meant for fools.

Abner likes to do the unexpected,
Being in rebellion against rules.
Now and then, of course, he feels neglected,
Even though no outrage is rejected,
Restored by thinking most of us are fools.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 19, 2012 #681

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each must save the Earth in multiple ways.
A vote can cut more carbon than a bulb.
Rules, like acid rain, can span the globe,
Taking aim at those whom blight won't faze.
Hard as many try, it will not do.
Development devours their mite and more.
An equal sacrifice requires a law.
Yet laws are passed by those obliged to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 12, 2012 #680

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eighty has good reason to be grateful.
If being is a gift, then he's been given
Gift enough to compensate for pain.
Happiness depends on being thankful,
The sense of grace that makes the moment heaven.
Years come and go – the longing stays the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 5, 2012 #679

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Passover and Easter.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Enter now the king, all but insane,
Accompanied by his daughter, who would be
Sacrificed to calm a raging sea,
The start of much bad blood, revenge, and pain.
Enter now the ram, who would retain
Remnants of that ancient agony,
Put in place of the child the father would free,
As God would not require a child again.
So enter now the lamb, a sacrifice
Self-sought to still that ancient desperation,
One that would turn the lust for blood to love.
Vengeance and desire turn hearts to ice
Even as the soul looks for salvation,
Restored by rites that would a god's heart move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 29, 2012 #678

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a psychological 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I NEED TO TALK TO YOU

PARENTS:

I need to talk to you, my dear,
Of many, many things:
Of what I wish and what I dream
And what my silence sings;

Of all the things I want for you
And all the things I fear,
And all the things I try to say
But never can make clear.

I wish that you could know me, yet
I'm glad that you do not.
Sometimes I see in you the unformed
Person I forgot.

I wish I could protect you
From all that conquered me,
And make of you a mirror of
The self I could not be.

CHILDREN:

I need to talk to you, right now!
I've got a lot to say
About the way you handle me
And why I act this way.

I know you love me, though sometimes
Your anger's all I see.
But if I do just what you want,
Then I'll be you, not me.

I need to get you off my back
And also have you near.
I need to learn the limits of
My courage and my fear.

I need to ramble on my own
And sometimes, yes, get lost,
And touch the heart of ecstasy
Regardless of the cost.

GRANDPARENTS:

I need to talk to all of you,
I am so much alone.
I hope that you can spare for me
Five minutes on the phone.

My life was once so full of life,
So packed with toil and love.
Now it's full of memories
That dance but do not move.

You do not know me really now --
To you I'm mainly old,
Befuddled, frail, incompetent,
A child you have to scold.

But inside I'm still mainly me,
The one who made you, you,
Now a husk without a seed
And little left to do.

ALL:

I need to talk to you, I need
All of you to know
The me I think of as myself,
The me I rarely show.

By those I love the most, I find
That I'm most often seen
Through acts I would undo and words
I do not really mean.

I need to tell you everything
That bursts within my heart,
Simply, just the way it is,
With neither craft nor art.

I need you all to see me
With love and sympathy,
And so I need to talk to you --
You need to talk to me?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 22, 2012 #677

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Spring surprises us, no matter how
Prepared we are to revel in its bloom,
Returning far too late yet far too soon,
Instantly from bud to blossoming bough.
Nor does it wait for us to take it in,
Gone to green before it well has been.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 15, 2012 #676

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for St. Patrick'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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would satisfy their utmost longings,
Always reaching for what lies beyond.
I know well the soul has no belongings,
Neither short-term lease nor long-term bond.
Though I long for You, I know You're with me.
Peace comes through delivery from desire.
All Your love for all burns right through me.
There is nothing left that I require.
Rich in faith, I can be poor in fashion,
Intending but to be Your instrument.
Called to this green land, I preach Your passion.
Kings come to me through You, their crowned heads bent.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 8, 2012 #675

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Purim.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

“Purim” means “lots,” which wicked Haman drew,
Understanding thus the gods would choose,
Regarding when to massacre the Jews,
Ignorant of whose intent was whose,
More God's lot than any lot he threw.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 1, 2012 #674

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poems of the week are a modified form of sijo.

You can hear me read the poems and listen to the music for them at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

SIX MODIFIED SIJO

1. The air is sheer perfume! At last it's spring!
Roses bloom late, after the azaleas.
Already, with regret, I fear the fall.

2. There is no substance to my listless longing.
I hunger to be one with One, and yet
I am afraid, I am afraid of death.

3. The little ivy stretches towards the light.
It spills out sunward like a waterfall.
I turn it, turn it, shape it to my liking.

4. The red brick house is buried in azaleas.
The second floor just peeks above the blossoms.
Inside I hear an angry couple screaming.

5. The empty lot is claimed by wildflowers.
The owner waits for prices to recover.
A thunderstorm must finally drive me home.

6. I love to go to Sunday open houses,
Imagining the lives that wait within.
However, I am granted only one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 23, 2012 #673

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Leap Year 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the Earth catch up to us. We run
Each year a bit too fast, so we must wait,
Adjusting the dynamics to the date,
Pausing as the Earth spins round the sun.

Years do not line up with days, and so
Eventually summer would be spring.
A word serves just the thinker, not the thing.
Revolving Earth cares not what dates dates grow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 16, 2012 #672

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mardi Gras.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Morning will be time enough for sleep.
A person needs to revel now and then,
Returning home from passion only when
Daylight makes the ecstasy look cheap.
In sensuality there is much sense,
Gift of gods assigned to procreation.
Revelry can lead to revelation
As one for once ignores the consequence,
Selfless in the sanctum of sensation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 9, 2012 #671

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Valentine'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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Verities are strangely often true.
A lifelong love needs words, as faith needs prayer.
Let me, then, retell my love for you,
Each word alive with what is always there.
Nowhere else can passion be at ease,
Temptation without fear of consequence,
Instinct whose sole purpose is to please,
Nakedness made safe by innocence.
Even in the midst of work and worry,
'Mid doubts and disappointments, I am sure,
Surviving through the avarice and hurry,
Decent and restrained, is something pure.
As I am yours, so I know you're mine.
You are my love, my joy, my valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 2, 2012 #670

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would look for love when love is nigh,
Or fill their fantasies with love unreal,
Afraid to love, and thus afraid to feel,
Afraid to be entangled in a lie.
For love is a commitment that might tie
One to a choice one would, perhaps, repeal,
Leading to regrets one would conceal,
Since any time, it's true, one's love could die.
Simpler just to dream instead of be,
Since being is so hard, and dreaming easy,
Allowing one one's choices without choosing.
One cannot choose to love and still be free,
A gift of self that tends to make one queasy,
Not knowing what, by keeping, one is losing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 26, 2012 #669

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Winter.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Winter wills white whispers into being,
Into frigid air white dancing death,
Needles that can take away one's breath,
Thick, soft flakes preventing one from fleeing,
Ending briefly in bright drifted hills,
Returning with the churning chaff that kills.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 19, 2012 #668

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no knowledge – only good opinion.
Happiness is not afraid of pain.
Each truth is limited to its dominion.
Years sweep away one's walls again, again.
Everyone knows better in their hearts,
Although their hearts know better than to know.
Reason is a razor's edge that parts
Objects from the fullness of their flow.
Fortune is a poor excuse for failure.
The only help one needs is what one gives.
Hard work and happiness extend one's tenure,
Ever more alive the more one lives.
Death is a prerequisite of time,
Revealing far more than it ever hides.
All is limitless, yet etched in lines,
Graven images of what abides.
One dragon, yes, can harmonize a song,
Needing only dreams to sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 12, 2012 #667

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.'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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe it's a little strange that I
Am now the only one whose day of birth
Remains a holiday. I don't know why
That honor should be mine alone. My worth
Is certainly no more than Washington's,
Nor do I more than Lincoln days deserve.
Let me then suggest a change: Once
Unmoored from my name, let the holiday serve
To honor not the person but the cause,
Healing racial wounds, pursuing justice,
Examining the morals of our mores,
Revisiting the pain of prejudice.
Kings require homage; this king would
Instead be an occasion for remembrance:
Not of me, but of all who fought for good,
Giving “Freedom Day” its proper sense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 5, 2012 #666

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Epiphany.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us might follow a bright star,
Perhaps to a redemptive revelation,
Intending, then, to change the way things are,
Passionate to socialize salvation.
However, please beware of what you do:
Ambition, even selfless, can turn sour.
No truth fits all, though burning inside you,
Yearning less for paradise than power.

© by Nicholas Gordon