Poem of the Week: January 2018

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a thank-you anniversary poem from a pregnant wife.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for being the love of my life,

Half of the child asleep in my womb,

A husband whose husbandry made of his wife

Near as blissful a blossom as ever did bloom!

Knight of my nights and dance of my days,

Yours are the eyes in which I am most me.

Only with you will I wend through my ways

Unburdened as heaven, unscathed as the sea!

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/than19.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

Here We Have Two People Much in Love

January 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 9^th anniversary poem about the need to say I love you.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have two people much in love,

A fact not celebrated every day,

Perhaps because more words would less convey,

Perhaps because more fuss would little prove.

Yet love’s a word one should make time to say.

Now’s the time to celebrate your love

In annual honor of your wedding day,

Needing just this moment to convey

The feeling that the everydays will prove,

Here, now, when the words are there to say.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/herew5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

Monday, January 29, 2018

Until We Met I Didn't Know

January 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a first anniversary poem about happiness realized.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Until we met I didn't know

How light a heart could be;

How, chained to one by bonds of love,

I still could feel so free.

I didn't realize that my dreams

Could ever be so real;

Or when I had all I could want,

Exactly how I'd feel.

This year of love has brought me through

A long-awaited door:

Were angels parked along our skies,

I could not love you more.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

Today’s poem is an 11^th anniversary poem in which the day becomes a still lake mirroring the couple’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy eleventh anniversary!

All those years distilled into one glass!

Praised be those who will the things that last,

Pausing to renew them annually!

Years are music to which all must dance,

Ever changing, ever just the same,

Lending love a moment that remains

Embedded in the rhythms of romance.

Volumes can be captured in a word;

Empires, in a logo lifted high.

Nestled in this moment is the sky

Trembling, as two lovers might observe,

Heaven in one blue, reflective eye.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ82.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Tarrah and Serrin Have Not Passed Away

January 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a name poem about the death of two children in which the dance is not yet over.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tarah and Serrin have not passed away.

A dance is not over when dancing is done.

Remembering them is like feeling the sun

As the moon turns to silver the black-bordered bay.

How can one ferret out words that might say

All the truth of the truth that two children are gone?

Not just the meaning but also the song,

Deepening what no dissent can delay.

So may we linger with them for a while,

Each moment a moment of beauty and pain,

Restoring a sense that makes no sense at all.

Reason alone cannot sponsor a smile.

In faith and desire we see them again

Nearby, still dancing beyond a glass wall.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/taraha.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 27: Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

January 28: Tarah and Serrin Have Not Passed Away

Friday, January 26, 2018

Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

January 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a love poem about a love that needs to dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Our love has slowly gone downhill,

Heavy with mundane demands,

The dregs of days spent dutiful

While hunger goes to sleep unfed.

We love each other still, of course,

But love is listless, fretful, tired,

Pining for the potent word

That comes from angels in the heart.

Oh, say it, Love, and I will, too!

And time will wait for us to dance,

Touched by one another's grace

To give what we so long have sought.

There is a passion undismayed

That lives throughout the long, gray days

Of work and worry, knowing that

Our patient love awaits our will.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ourlo3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 27: Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

Thursday, January 25, 2018

So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a Seasons Greetings poem in which one dances to the rhythm of the year.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So shall the changing seasons mark the year,

Earth tilted at an angle towards the sun,

As all dance to that rhythm, everyone

Singing down the days, sun-drenched or drear.

One needs holidays to make things clear,

Needs rhythms to reveal how time will run,

Singing as the cycle’s almost done,

Glad still to be although the cold winds near.

Remember that this time of celebration

Endures within the vestibule of winter,

Endures because one’s joy in life requires

That one undo the dark with inner light.

It needs an unremitting affirmation,

Not least because the season can be bitter,

Grace consuming one’s lifelong desires,

So beautiful one dances into night.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/sosha2.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a love poem expressing regret for not having danced awhile before heading for bed.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

It all went far too quickly when

We started our romance.

We went right for the Broadway stage

Before we learned to dance.

Naturally, we shared the fear

Of intimate intimacy,

And scared to stay while loath to part,

We both longed to be free.

Ah, me! Well, now we're separate

To see how we might feel.

And then perhaps we'll try again.

Our love, I think, is real.

But this time we'll go slow and ask,

Before we head for bed,

If we might try some artful grace

And dance awhile instead.

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a birthday poem for children in which dinosaurs dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dinosaurs will dance all day

If you let the music play.

“Happy Birthday!” they will sing,

Crashing into everything,

Crushing cars and trucks and trains,

Bicycles, bridges, buses, planes,

Houses seven stories tall,

A factory, a shopping mall,

Having lots and lots of fun!

And before your birthday’s done,

You should dance and sing like them.

Well, maybe not just like them!

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

Monday, January 22, 2018

Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem compares death to a dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death can also be a dance.

Each must grace its final steps.

A life immersed in pain, perhaps,

Too much controlled by circumstance,

Has one more leap to come to rest.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathc.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Kaylee

January 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a name poem about a woman who, unknowing, dances the dance choreographed by her lineage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Kaylee cannot her antecedents trace.

Awake within her day, she feels quite free.

Yet she is but a dancer in a dance

Long practiced and perfected in advance,

Emerging from her will spontaneously,

Exquisite in its unsuspected grace.

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Love Engenders Love

January 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

Today’s poem reflects Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of non-violence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love engenders love,

Hate engenders hate.

When words descend to blows,

Both lose the debate.

The means become the end,

Regardless of the goal.

The foe you hate becomes

The mirror of your soul.

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

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

January 21: Love Engenders Love

My Face Is an Icon, My Life a Scrim

January 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the way his fame has distorted the truth of his life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My face is an icon, my life a scrim

Alight with meaning, my words inscribed

Reductively in stone, a hymn

To dreams annually revived.

In me you found a founding father

New, like Lincoln a colossus

Late arrived: righteous Other,

Unavenging nemesis,

The token nigger of American

Heroes, aggrieved but restrained,

Engaged but non-partisan,

Radical but house-trained.

Know that I still believe in you,

In spite of what you've done to me.

Nor can a holiday a truth

Give flesh long flayed by memory.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/myface.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., urges the reader to go beyond knowledge and reason.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meaning is a morning song,

A dawn, a dance of light.

Reason merely sings along

To get the lyrics right.

In what you know is what you are,

Not what you'll become.

Let not sight your vision bar,

Undone by what is done.

To love must be to hope, for love

Has far too much to lose.

Embrace the good you're wary of,

Refusing to refuse.

Knowledge is as knowledge does.

It so quickly turns to was.

Now is ever when

Grace will come again.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani3.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on what in life might mean more than life itself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there is more to life than living.

A person is a ripple in a stream,

Roiling the waters with a dream,

The revelation that makes life worth giving.

In love one finds a reason for believing,

Needing love to make life more than seem,

Love that makes the mundane moment gleam,

Undoing fate with faith, and death with grieving.

There is no love but at the risk of death,

Having valued something more than self,

Embracing what gives life to life, and grace,

Replacing fear of death or loss with joy.

Know then that the dreaded end of breath

Is not the end one ought to aim for, else

None would speak to fortune face to face,

Granted life no bullet can destroy.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe6.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the election of Barak Obama to the Presidency of the United States.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://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.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe5.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on what he was unable to accomplish.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe more than love was needed.

All my love was not enough.

Reason is but rarely heeded.

Talk means little at the trough.

Icons look good on the wall.

Nothing changes but the names.

Love is merely protocol.

Undiluted fear remains.

The life is fast, the changes slow.

Hope must be its own reward.

Eventually, the undertow

Returns, returns towards times untoward.

Kings build castles in the sand.

Infinity awaits the tide.

None can settle on the strand.

Grace must live with fratricide.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybem.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Maybe It's a Little Strange that I

January 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which is celebrated today, January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., wonders why his birthday is still celebrated and not Washington’s or Lincoln’s.

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

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.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe9.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty2

January 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is for a singer/songwriter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no greater passion than for beauty --

Ecstasy distilled into a song --

Nor calling more exquisite than the duty

To make our own the truths for which we long.

Here's to you, then! And for what you've done

To be the muse who mirrors well our hearts,

Restoring the lone many to the one

Common love that underlies all arts.

O love of being, bearer of our pain!

Well might we praise the gardeners who bring

Our passions into bloom, that we again

Might hear the sunlit bird within us sing.

Long may you ply what practices you've learned,

Profiting all by artistry you've earned.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther27.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

January 13: For You, Life Has Its Own Internal Music

January 14: There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

Saturday, January 13, 2018

For You, Life Has Its Own Internal Music

January 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a number poem about a composer’s inner music.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For you, life has its own internal music,

One symphony with many variations.

Remember, then, to listen and to hear

The melody, resistant to notation,

Yearning with such grace you can’t refuse it.

Emotions are its subtly blended colors,

Intended to be more than you can bear,

Glory draped in pain, delight in fear.

How beautiful! Too delicate to share,

Though bits and pieces may be heard by others.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/foryo8.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

January 13: For You, Life Has Its Own Internal Music

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Charles

January 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a humorous, philosophical name poem about the common error of thinking you are in control.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Charles undoes his silver studs.

He then rolls up his sleeves

And waves his arms as honking swans

Rejoice at his decrees.

Long may he wave, the swamp frogs rave,

Each joining in the din,

Singing just for him!

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

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Hrithik

January 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a superstar.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hrithik lives inside a superstar,

Resolutely relishing his role.

Intensity pours out from every pore,

The screaming fans demanding ever more.

Habit turns charisma into gold.

In every moment Hrithik plants a bar,

Knowing well what goods ought not be sold.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/hrithi.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a Hanukkah and name poem about making one’s living in the theater.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So you want to make your living in the theater!

Easier to burn without oil for eight days!

The point of Hanukkah is that God has his ways.

However ...

And what kind of miracle are you looking for, anyway?

No miracle is going to give you back your life:

Days of dreams, days and nights of despair, years and years

and years of hope...

Living at the heart of creation;

Of all the dry movement, flakes of dead talk,

Retakes, rituals, favors for the files,

Rendering one perfect, sparkling scream ...

A miracle takes a lot of rehearsal.

In between, one works and wonders, wonders and counts the days.

Nodding from exhaustion, one says yes, yes, yes,

Even this, yes, even this ...

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/theate.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

Monday, January 8, 2018

Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is about how actors reveal themselves while pretending to be someone else.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Actors wear a special mask:

One that's most revealing.

When they pretend they're someone else

They hang themselves to dry.

The tears and screams they've made their task

Leave nothing for concealing.

Each wound must bleed again, or else

The audience won't cry.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/actors.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how actors might convincingly capture a character’s feelings.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Feelings are not easily counterfeited.

In each there is a telltale watermark.

Faces may emote, the tense brows knitted,

The eyes and anguish may be finely fitted,

Yet audiences sense the missing spark.

The trick is not to be, but to become,

Here within a moment yet to be.

Remember that the whole is not the sum.

Each soul has depths no character can plumb;

Each word's a window onto mystery.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/feelin.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphany, both for the holiday that was celebrated yesterday, January 6^th, and in the sense of any sudden insight or perception of meaning.

Today’s poem is a number poem about epiphanies that seem to come from an alien voice within.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fly upon imaginary wings

Over every dark and windswept storm.

Rise above all turbulence and harm

To where the white-robed angels praises sing,

Yearning for eternal peace and joy.

Even as the winds your worlds destroy,

In you there is an alien voice, and calm,

Giving forth the word that rapture brings:

Holy, holy is all life and death!

There is a paradise within each breath.

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

This week’s theme: New Year’s/Epiphany

January 1: Happiness Is Something that One Settles for

January 2: Joy Leaves a Bit of Wonder in Its Wake

January 3: There Is Much Pleasure in the Love of Learning

January 4: Cyberspace, Silent Space

January 5: You Think You Can Just Dive into the Sky

January 6: Each Year Again the Gifts Are Given Gladly

January 7: Fly upon Imaginary Wings

Each Year Again the Gifts Are Given Gladly

January 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphany, both for the holiday that is celebrated today, January 6^th, and in the sense of any sudden insight or perception of meaning.

Today’s poem is a poem for Epiphany about the meaning of gifts.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each year again the gifts are given gladly,

Perhaps because one wants to be a gift.

In goods there can be good, yet sometimes, sadly,

People get the thing but not the drift.

How could the wise men come without a token,

A gift to give the child, new born a king?

Nor could their words speak as their gifts had spoken,

Yielding love incarnate in a thing.

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

This week’s theme: New Year’s/Epiphany

January 1: Happiness Is Something that One Settles for

January 2: Joy Leaves a Bit of Wonder in Its Wake

January 3: There Is Much Pleasure in the Love of Learning

January 4: Cyberspace, Silent Space

January 5: You Think You Can Just Dive into the Sky

January 6: Each Year Again the Gifts Are Given Gladly

Thursday, January 4, 2018

You Think You Can Just Dive into the Sky

January 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphany, both for the holiday that falls on January 6^th and in the sense of any sudden insight or perception of meaning.

Today’s poem is about the wonderful arrogance of thinking you can have epiphanies.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You think you can just dive into the sky,

Wake up bluebells with a sunny smile,

Explode like a nebula, devour light like a black hole.

You think, just because you are motionless,

Time falls through you,

And your imagination has the reach of God.

You think, whirling like a meteorite towards death,

Incandescent with the loveliness of an April morning,