This week’s poem of the week is a poem for New Year’s Eve about loneliness and freedom.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
New Year’s Eve is hard to spend alone
Even when one wants no company,
Willing to be lonely to be free,
Yearning for a life pared to the bone.
Even so, one feels an inner tug
As hope curls over memory’s undertow,
Roiling the restless tidal flow,
‘Mid well-worn thoughts, a longing for a hug.
So does the heart respond to holidays,
Embracing what the mind would else ignore,
Vividly in search of something more
Enduring than the self, which time betrays.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/newye3.html . For more New Year’s poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas love poem to a wife.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Merry Christmas to my darling wife!
Enduring love makes much of holidays,
Rituals that mark the grace of life,
Refrains of old, familiar roundelays.
Years fall into rhythms that repeat,
Creating opportunities to dance.
Hard as life might be, the hour is sweet,
Returning us to choreographed romance.
In this moment of expected cheer,
Still in love, I tell you once again
That I am ever blessed to have you here,
My partner in our journey to the wind.
Again, again, the season has its way,
Singing what I else too rarely say.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/christmaspoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Happy Holidays poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a Season’s Greetings poem about ancient and modern miracles.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Saviors seldom surface nowadays,
Even though they're needed just as much.
Although a suffering population prays,
Salvation rarely is revealed as such.
Only long ago did miracles
Numb the vocal chords of disbelief.
Signs and wonders turned to canticles,
Giving souls some spiritual relief.
Rest assured, saviors still surround us,
Each a bit of light, though little known,
Each a sign of miracles around us,
The wonders we must seek out on our own.
In our time, yes, the fuel-less flames still burn,
Not least within our temporary urn.
Grace still comes to us on every morn,
Still a miracle, of our love born.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Hanukkah about the menorah as a symbol of love.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Hanukkah menorahs are like love:
Alive with light, dancing, yet serene.
Now you light the candles one by one,
Undoing all the anger in your soul.
Kindle, then, like candles thoughts that prove
Kind and generous, and words that seem
As sweet as silver songs, and when you're done,
How beautifully your burning heart will glow!
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Hanukkah poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Thanksgiving about the need for gratitude.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
There is no substitute for gratitude.
Here or there, the gift is just the same.
A joyful life depends on attitude,
Nor does one need a giver or a name.
Knowledge is not needed, nor is faith,
So long as one is struck by being’s beauty,
Going humbly, as the preacher saith,
Immersed in the minutiae of one’s duty.
Vast the suffering and fierce the pain.
In life is death; in every moment fear.
Nonetheless, one would one’s life sustain,
Grateful for the gift of being here.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Thanksgiving poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more political poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a Veterans Day poem about keeping sane after discharge.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Veer off into the sunset when you’re done,
Embracing ordinary life again.
There is no better antidote for pain.
Each normal day’s another battle won.
Remembering is good, reliving bad,
As what one buries tends to haunt the night,
Nor will it rest until it’s bathed in light,
Soaked in tears, and then in clear words clad.
Do not relive the past, but honor it.
As you move on, let go, but don’t forget.
You lay your wreathes to music, sweet but sad.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Veterans Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a Halloween poem about the plight of lost souls.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Hollow, hollow Halloween,
All hollow at the bone
Like a loud but silent scream
Long entombed in stone.
O hollow, hard, unhallowed souls
Wandering the night:
Ever weep on daylight’s shoals
Even as the matin tolls,
Never reaching light.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more Halloween poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary poem about the music of love.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Harmony comes wholly from within,
Adding voices to life's melodies.
Perhaps at times life sings in minor keys.
Praised be those who find the grace therein.
Yet love's a counter melody to sin,
An inner voice creating harmonies
Now spilling round the roots of ravaged trees.
Now borne like bliss upon a gentle wind.
In us there is a harmony well honed,
Voices that for years have sung in tune,
Each supporting each through passages
Rich with the complexities of life.
Sing, then, of the concert hall, a domed
Atrium on a golden afternoon,
Resonant with musical messages
Yielded by the love of man and wife.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html . For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a Columbus Day poem about the allure of discovery.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Consider all your just considerations:
One lives for the sweet salience of surprise,
Looking at the world with naked eyes
Unencumbered by routine relations.
Make room for wonders rising from the sea!
Beauty is more beautiful unframed,
Unclassified, unvetted, and unnamed,
Solely what it seems or it might be.
Discovery requires ignorance
As one sets sail beyond one’s common sense,
Yearning to unveil a mystery.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about the need for friends.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Factor in each falsehood, failure, phantom;
Reckon with each righteous, rash rebellion;
Implicate each ill-conceived intention;
Evoke each eloquent equivocation;
Number well each nugatory notion;
Deplore each driven, desperate deviation;
So you will see the need for having friends.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Adha about self-sacrifice and eternal love.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Each of us must sacrifice our selves
If we would hope to know eternal love.
Deep within the spirit that rebels
Abides a moment time cannot remove.
Leave your self behind in prayer and be
A willing servant in your master’s hands,
Devoted to good deeds and faithfully
Holding to the life Allah commands,
And love will fill your silence like a sea.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more poems for Eid al Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems . For more Islamic poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html . For more religious poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur about the relationship of the individual to the community.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
You wish to live a long and healthy life
On friendly terms with everyone around you,
Married to a lovely, loving wife,
Knee deep in the good causes that surround you.
In truth, however, you’re not in control,
Planted where you are by wind, not will,
Placed where sun and shade might shape your soul,
Ultimately child of the whole,
Repenting for us all, for good or ill.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week a poem for Rosh Hashanah about worshipping a God you don’t really believe in.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Revelation strikes you as absurd,
Out of whack with what you think you know.
Still, you love the beauty of the words,
However much you mind the undertow.
How might you participate in prayer
Absent faith in God? It makes no sense.
Still, the urge to cleanse the soul is there,
However unappealing the pretense.
A world of unsolved mysteries surrounds you,
Nor can you shake the spirit that confounds you,
Aware of truths that cannot be expressed,
Here so beautifully in scripture dressed.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html . For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is poem for Labor Day about the importance of a living wage.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Let every worker earn a living wage,
And every family have enough to eat.
Better bellies full of bread than rage.
One finds no better peacemaker than wheat.
Really? Can we get around inflation?
Demand increases; what about supply?
Affluence reduces population.
Yet some prefer to see poor people die.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html . For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more birthday poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html . For more poems to children, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more psychological poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number poem about the nature of happiness.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
The only hope for happiness
Has neither eyes nor ears.
Instead it sings a melody
Reason rarely hears,
The descant of its gratitude:
Yearning, love, and tears.
For it, all things are equable
In Being's golden light,
Vast as everything that is,
Embracing bloom and blight.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a name poem for Adeline, who likes old-fashioned things.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Adeline likes old-fashioned things:
Dirt roads twisting through hand-tended fields;
Eggs from hens that strut across the yard;
Long wooden tables, faded, pocked, and scarred;
In steel containers, milk that butter yields;
Night unlit, that far-flung glory brings;
Ebullient day, that buzzes, chirps, and sings.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more name poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about happiness written to a couple on their fourth anniversary.
Yours,
Nick Gordon Happiness comes wholly from within,
A gift of wisdom, temperament, and love.
Praised be those who know what is worthwhile,
Pleased to find their pleasures in the heart,
Yearning for a beauty that is theirs.
For them, good feelings aren’t hard to spin.
One can care for life despite one’s cares.
Underneath the feeling is the art,
Returning grace for grace and smile for smile.
They bear their riches on an inner wind,
Holding course for lands that blessed will prove.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Fitr, the feast at the end of Ramadan, about the beauty of both sensuous and spiritual experience.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Elegance and grace and lustful pleasure;
Intimacy, love, scent, color, longing;
Dreams, jewels, dawns, the sheer delight of dancing;
All the goods of daily life we treasure:
Love them well, but leave them all behind
For just one holy month of ardent prayer,
Intent on being nothing more than there,
The faithful servant in both heart and mind,
Returning then in peace to humankind.
Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more Ramadan poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Bastille Day about the virtue of compromise.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Blessed are those who compromise their visions
And share their power with the other side,
Substituting faith for fratricide,
Trading principles for joint decisions.
Instead of blood, their battles will yield laws,
Less just, perhaps, than those they would have wanted,
Less brutal than the crimes that would have haunted
Each of them and undermined their cause.
Democracy requires compromise
And sometimes letting fools outvote the wise.
Yet some prefer the righteousness of wars.
Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-kxMVUYKU2Q. For more Independence Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about corruption for Independence Day (USA).
Yours,
Nick Gordon
In politics corruption is the norm,
Nor can one wield much power without its aid.
Democracy demands that minds be swayed,
Eviscerating efforts at reform.
Perhaps in tyrannies corruption’s worse,
Existing without recourse or restraint.
Not even when the ruler is a saint,
Devout and good, can one stamp out this curse.
Each country has some white knights still unstained,
Nor can idealists long remain in power.
Corruption simply waits until their hour
Erodes once their energy has waned.
Depending on its character and press,
A nation might be more corrupt or less,
Yet underneath the law the blight remains.
Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/TVoNe-fLyhE. For more Independence Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
BRIDE OR GROOM
Live with me and be my love,
My lifelong friend and lover, too,
My confidante, my counselor,
And I will be the same to you.
GROOM OR BRIDE
Live with me and be my love,
My partner in this venture new,
My paramour, my pleasure toy,
And I will be the same to you.
BRIDE OR GROOM
Live with me and be my love,
My mentor and my witness true,
My second self, my family,
And I will be the same to you.
GROOM OR BRIDE
Live with me and be my love,
And live not just for one but two;
Be for me my home, and I
Will gladly be your home for you.
TOGETHER
Love’s a song that we will sing,
A dance that we will dance together,
And though in time our time must end,
A love for life will last forever.
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/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Fantasies find flower in what's real –
A wife and children waiting at the door.
Though there is much, perhaps, one would repeal,
How sweet it is to know what one is for.
Enduring love is like an organ tone
Resounding 'neath the restless notes of home,
So beautiful one could not ask for more.
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/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Graduation grabs you from behind.
Reality seems suddenly unreal,
A timeless moment somehow trapped in time,
Drowning in a feeling you can’t feel.
Ultimately, when the day is over
And you are left alone with who you are,
The moment will be something to remember,
In which you feel your feelings from afar.
Only now too much is happening.
Nor can you keep your heart from wandering.
This week’s poem of the week is a thank you poem to school bus drivers and attendants.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
We put our greatest treasures in your hands,
And watch the yellow buses pull away,
And turn back to the purposes and plans
That tend to take up much of every day.
How strange! Our scattered lives depend on trust.
We give our children up into the care
Of people we don’t know because we must,
Because to do our jobs we can’t be there.
How strange! For life to work we all must be
Dependable and good at what we do.
But children must be handled lovingly,
And therefore we are grateful to have you.
The work you do requires skill and art,
But most of all it needs a loving heart.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about charity written for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Let there be joy, always joy in giving,
In serving those who cannot serve themselves.
There is no better gift one gets from living
Than that sweet will that from the heart upwells.
Let there be pleasure in giving others pleasure,
Enjoyment in giving others joy,
Sheer happiness, beyond all one might measure,
In toiling in a loving God's employ.
So may we be the instruments of love,
The flesh of God's will working in the world,
Each a thread within the banner of
Redemption, to the winds of time unfurled.
Sacrifice is then no sacrifice,
Obligation then no obligation,
For what is gained has neither peer nor price,
There being none remotely in relation.
How might one find sanctity in service,
Each menial task a grateful act of prayer?
Perhaps if one believed that life was senseless,
Old folk were simply woe one wouldn't share.
Only love gives dignity to all,
Restoring faith in those who heed its call.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Memorial Day about the joy and pain of memories.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Memories evoke a painful joy,
Evoke a harsh and bitter tenderness.
Maybe that’s the price of happiness:
One loves what time or tempest will destroy.
Remember, then, those whom you have loved
In mingled joy and sorrow. Sing a song
As beautiful as is your love, and mourn
Like one who is by some chance blessing moved.
Days of mourning are a celebration,
A dance whose healing grace sustains relation,
Yielding grief that will redemptive prove.
This week’s poem of the week is a college 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/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Glad to graduate and sad to leave.
Ready and not ready for what’s next.
Afloat on buoyant dreams and deep in debt.
Determined both to give and to receive.
Uncertain what the future has in store.
Aware of an enormous inner change
That makes these years worthwhile, a greater range
In which to ramble, seeking to learn more.
Open to a richer world of mind.
Now moving forward as I look behind.
This week’s poem of the week is a college 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/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Glad to graduate and sad to leave.
Ready and not ready for what’s next.
Afloat on buoyant dreams and deep in debt.
Determined both to give and to receive.
Uncertain what the future has in store.
Aware of an enormous inner change
That makes these years worthwhile, a greater range
In which to ramble, seeking to learn more.
Open to a richer world of mind.
Now moving forward as I look behind.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a single mother 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/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
How might I repay you for your love
And all those years of lonely sacrifice?
Perhaps no homage would sufficient prove;
Perhaps there are no words that would suffice.
Yet in my heart there’s music I can’t sing,
More beauty than my poor voice can express,
Oceans from which I these few drops wring,
Tokens of a tearful tenderness.
How did you bear those years when you alone
Embraced, supported, guided us, and not
Reproached your fate, or even in your tone,
'Mid all that drudgery, resent your lot?
So might I learn from you the secret of
Desiring what life brings to one through love,
And so, perhaps, by who I am repay
Your yearning as I could no other way.
This week’s poem of the week is a fifth anniversary poem with angels.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Happy fifth anniversary!
Angels hover near!
Perhaps you cannot see them, but,
Pleased as punch, they're here!
Yet if you doubt, just listen,
For music does not lie.
In zillions they are singing;
For you they fill the sky,
Their rainbowed wings aflutter,
Hosanna-ing on high!
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about moral ecology, or how each of us shapes the world in which all of us live.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
The sun is filtered through a canopy
High above the limits of your senses.
In cool, lush shade you live a sheltered life,
Refreshed by love, restored by child and wife,
There being little need for strong defenses.
You know, then, just how precious is each tree.
The life of each shapes all life equally.
Happiness and sorrow know no fences.
Roots serve the soil even in their strife.
Each fingered branch has larger consequences.
Each thought comes from beyond what you can see.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for both Passover and Easter about the need to respect all religions.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Praised be those who worship God with love
And set aside the enmities of old.
Salvation is a tale often told,
Sensing what one can’t be certain of.
One’s faith precisely is what one can’t prove,
Vivid though one finds it to behold,
Each touch of truth a moment wrought in gold,
Revealing what no turmoil can remove.
Even so, belief must be a choice,
As fact ought not, nor probability,
Sure only of what can be proven wrong.
The muse of faith requires an inner voice
Emanating from a soul that’s free,
Respecting all that each might find her song.
This week’s poem of the week is an epitaph for someone who lived a conscientious life.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Stand up for justice, but always do it justly,
Easing conscience conscientiously.
You cannot hope to render right but rightly.
Means are ends, though unintentionally.
One must be the world that one envisions,
Unwaveringly creating what one would,
Requiring that each of one’s decisions
Embody only what is just and good.
In life I tried to be my own ideal,
Careful to remain at heart naïve,
Having a good sense of what is real
Even as I lived as I believed
Life should be, leavening what I must leave.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem about love and longing.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Lovers and good friends are joined by longing,
The glue that holds humanity together.
We have an innate hunger for belonging,
Designed to make us love each other better.
So do not think dependence is a failing.
It is inseparable from who you are.
You might have a yen for solo sailing,
But loneliness still haunts you from afar.
Allow yourself your weakness. It’s a strength
To have the courage to accept your needs.
Lovers find that courage, or at length
Find, as passion fades, that love recedes.
Passions are tides that, restless, come and go.
But love is a spring that draws from deep below.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mothering Sunday (British Mother’s Day) about non-birth mothers.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Mothers are not only of the womb.
One can mother children not one's own.
The love one gives makes gardens out of stone,
However one is kindred to each bloom.
Even as we render tribute due,
Remember that it also is for you,
Song to one who would the task assume.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Purim about why Palestinians and Jews must share their land.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Purified of Arabs or of Jews,
Until the phantoms fade the land will scream,
Remembering the slaughter of the dream,
In which dark deeds that only madmen choose
Made room for those no blessing could redeem.
This week’s poem of the week is a name poem for Abraham, the leader.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Abraham endures, just like a mountain
Beset by storms more fierce than those below.
Resplendent in the sun, his white hair gleaming,
As he speaks, we marvel at his meaning,
Having grasped through him what we well know.
As though each moment of his life were lenten,
More than we, he feels each painful blow.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar (Chinese) New Year, the Year of the Sheep, Ram, or Goat, written from the point of view of the sheep.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Treat yourself each day to love and kindness.
Heaven is a place within the heart.
Each ritual of faith may well seem mindless,
Yet one is only whole when one is part.
Even though I may seem timid, shy,
A worrier for all who might feel pain,
Remember well the well-wrought reason why:
One gives with love what will one’s love sustain.
Faith is one’s connection to the whole,
The story that makes sense of the event.
How might the self seem separate from the soul
Except through love perceived as permanent?
So must we be filled with love that we
Have just a glimpse of what it means to be,
Embracing freely what we cannot know,
Each suffering what all must undergo,
Patient in the hands of mystery.
This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary poem about lasting love.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Happy forty-eighth anniversary!
A celebration of a lasting love!
Pleasures pass, but love remains unmoved,
Planted in a garden by the sea.
Years may be consumed by vanity
And crises one remembers little of.
No loveless passion will resilient prove,
Nor intimacy long sought long savored be.
In love alone one finds a joy that lasts,
Vested in a person, yes, but made
Eternal by the music that it sings,
Revealing depths beyond one’s western shore.
Sing, then, as the autumn sunlight casts
A touch of gold upon your green-clad glade,
Rejoicing in the happiness love brings,
Yearning, though the heart is full, for more.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for children about a friendship between a cat and a mouse.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
THE BALLAD OF PETER AND JAKE
A kitten named Pete
Just happened to meet
A baby mouse named Jake.
What friends they became!
For though not the same,
They both loved to play and eat cake!
They met on a day
When both wanted to play –
Well, every day was like that!
Jake was lonely and saw
Pete alone on the floor,
And decided to call to the cat.
“Up here!” squeaked Jake
From right next to a cake
That sat on the dining room table.
“See what I found
Just looking around
As I wandered in from the stable!”
Pete leaped right up,
Knocking over a cup,
Which fell with a crash to the floor.
So their friendship began
As together they ran
For the luckily half-open door.
Together they hid
Under the lid
Of a garbage can placed just outside.
“Isn't it fun,”
Jake squeaked, “When we run
Together someplace we can hide?”
A human came out,
Looked all about,
And then went back into the house.
Who would have thought
That the person he sought
Was a kitten and baby mouse?
Out Jake hopped,
And out Pete flopped,
Neither one smelling so good.
But Pete licked Jake
And tasted the cake,
And wanted some more, if he could.
“Great!” Jake squeaked,
Then ran over and peeked
Through a tiny hole in the wall.
“It's still on the table,
So I should be able
To get some since I am so small.”
Jake squeezed through the crack
And in moments came back
With a tiny crumb for Pete,
Who ate it and said
With a shake of his head,
“For me this is not much to eat.”
“No problem!” squeaked Jake.
“I can get you more cake!”
And he went back and forth for a while,
Bringing crumb after crumb
Until he was done,
And both burrowed into the pile.
When the pile was gone,
They heard, “What's going on?”
And the door hit the wall with a crash.
So Jake made a leap
Onto Pete with a shriek,
And Pete took off in a flash.
“Imagine that!
A mouse and a cat!”
The human exclaimed from the house.
“Who ever heard
Of a thing so absurd
As a cat making friends with a mouse?”
“Hooray!” squealed Jake.
“We ate all the cake!
Well, most of it, maybe not all.
We make a great team,
Like cake and ice cream,
Since you're big and I'm very small!”
The two friends went on
To the stable and barn
Where Jake's mom and dad had their nest.
“A cat!” they cried.
“Quick! Run and hide!”
“Oh, no!” Jake said. “He's our guest.”
“Our guest?” they exclaimed.
“He's my friend,” Jake explained
As the other mice scampered away.
“He won't hurt anyone.
He's just here for fun.
He's a friend with whom I can play.”
“A friend?” they exclaimed.
“He's a cat!” they complained.
“Get him out! Get him out of our house!
Who ever heard
Of a thing so absurd
As a cat making friends with a mouse!
“To him you're a treat,
Just something to eat,
Not a friend with whom you can play.”
“Please,” said Pete.
“Jake's my friend, not a treat,
Though I see now I must go away.”
As Pete turned to go,
Jake said, “Oh, no, no!
If he goes then so must I.”
“We can't have a cat
In our nest, and that's that!”
Said Jake's dad. “So I guess it's goodbye.”
Sadly they went
On their way, their heads bent,
But soon they were happy again.
They played by a lake,
Pete the kitten and Jake,
Stopping to talk now and then.
“We could,”said the mouse,
“Go back to your house,
And stay with your parents awhile.”
Said Pete, “I'm afraid
That the friendship we've made
Wouldn't make my parents smile.”
“Now why is that?”
Said the mouse to the cat.
“Why does everyone say
That we shouldn't be friends?”
“I guess it depends,”
Said Pete, “on how much you play.”
So they played and they played
Till the light turned to shade,
And the sun went down at last,
And then made a nest
And lay down to rest
On a bed of fur and grass.
In just a while
The moon with a smile
Shone down on the friends fast asleep,
And seemed to say
As it went on its way,
“Sleep well, for angels watch keep.”
As they slept, they dreamed
Of a world where it seemed
That friends could just simply play.
And no one would care,
And no one would stare,
If they did things their own special way.
In this world of their dreams
Beneath the moon's beams,
People would let people be.
And all would be friends
'Cause friendship depends
On being both loving and free.
At last the sun rose
And tickled their toes,
And poured golden light on their heads.
As they awoke,
A deep, loud voice spoke,
And this is what the voice said:
“Imagine that!
A mouse and a cat!
Asleep in their snug little house.
Who ever heard
Of a thing so absurd
As a cat making friends with a mouse?”
“We're not asleep!”
Jake cried out with a squeak,
“And what makes you say things like that?
What's it to you
If I do what I do,
And make best friends with a cat?”
“And why,” asked Pete,
“Do you have to repeat
The same words that others have said?
Have you no more
Than what's been said before
Bouncing around in your head?”
“And why,” squeaked Jake,
“By this beautiful lake,
Do you want to make others feel bad?
Would you like us to
Make such fun of you?
Is it nice to make someone else sad?”
“OK,” said the voice.
“I guess it's your choice,
And nothing to do with me.
Come, let's all play,
For just as you say,
People should let people be.”
So they played with that moose,
And later a goose,
A beaver, a turtle, a frog,
A baby raccoon,
A lark and a loon,
A chipmunk, a deer, and a dog.
How lovely to play
Through a beautiful day,
The mouse, the cat, and their friends!
For all can be free
If they let others be.
And this is how my story ends.
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about never reaching the promised land.
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Moses never reached the promised land,
And I, too, died upon that distant mountain,
Resting on the laurels of my dream.
There is no end to struggle, no safe refuge
In which one can say, yes, I have arrived,
No longer feel the guilt of privilege,
Let go the fierce anxiety for justice,
Untie the knots of conscience in one’s soul.
The promised land’s a vision, not a place,
Held within the unrelenting heart.
Each generation must behold its beauty,
Reach for its uncompromising goodness,
Know that its long looked-for realization
Is in a time zone one will never see.
No matter. There’s a joy in going forward
Greater than the joy of going home.
This week’s poem of the week is a play on Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
Go gently, gently into that good night.
Let the sunset crown the end of day.
Do not rage against the dying light.
Wise men at their end know dark is right,
Life and death one blessing, and so they
Go gently, gently into that good night.
Good men, looking back upon the bright
Dream that kept their inner brute at bay,
Do not rage against the dying light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
Then grieved it as they danced along its way,
Go gently, gently into that good night.
Grave men blessed by love with blinding sight,
Knowing too much beauty to be gay,
Do not rage against the dying light.
And you, dear reader, when you reach that height
And look down on the abyss with fear, I pray,
Go gently, gently into that good night.
Do not rage against the dying light.
I am a poet and webmaster of Poems for Free (http://www.poemsforfree.com). All of my poems may be used free for any personal or non-commercial purpose.
