Clear Away the Cobwebs of Convention

October 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on the evening of September 29. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a philosophical poem about the eternal nature of the past.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Clear away the cobwebs of convention!

Atonement’s not as simple as it seems.

A deed, once done, is stone, beyond redemption,

More absolute than anyone might dream.

Oh, yes, one still should pray to be forgiven,

And try with all one's love to make things right.

But what one does, by faith or passion driven,

Becomes a stela in the morning light.

The past cannot be changed – it is forever,

Eternally defining who one is.

Time may seem as fluid as a river,

But once past, is a graveyard sunk in mist.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

September 25: Holiness and Faith Are the Rewards

September 26: How Might I, in Faith, Do as You Ask

September 27: You’d Like a Shot at Serious Redemption

September 28: You Are Not, Will Not, Do Not What You Dream

September 29: You Cannot Be the Person You Might Wish

September 30: I Sing to You When Words Are Not Enough

October 1: Clear Away the Cobwebs of Convention