Poem of the Week: March 2018

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 31: Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

April 1: Believe, Believe, in the Power of Love

Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

March 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about changing generations within an unchanging ritual.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Pour yourself like wine into the glass,

A liquid shaped by glass blown long ago,

Singing every year the words you know,

Songs that do not change as your years pass.

Old glass, new wine; new matter, ancient form;

Vintages that burst with life and joy;

Enduring hope no horror can destroy;

Ritual that makes a faith a home.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/pouryo.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 31: Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about a Jew’s ambivalent urge to live in Israel.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Why do I remain in exile?

I say, "Next year in Jerusalem!"*

Seders come and Seders go.

I feel the pull but not the pain.

I say, "Next year in Jerusalem!"

I do not mean it, not for real.

I feel the pull but not the pain.

My anguish must be self-imposed.

I do not mean it, not for real.

I mean it in my Jewish bones.

My anguish must be self-imposed.

I lie becalmed, and wait, and wonder.

I mean it in my Jewish bones.

Seders come and Seders go.

I lie becalmed, and wait, and wonder:

Why do I remain in exile?

*The traditional cry at the end of every Seder.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/whydoi.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Enduring Does Not Lead to Happiness

March 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is an Easter poem about the proper way to sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Enduring does not lead to happiness.

A person ought not suffer out of duty.

Some choose to sacrifice under duress,

Taking as cruel chance what could be beauty.

Each ought to give for love, as did the Lord,

Reckoning the grace as the reward.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/enduri.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Easter Is a Time of Love

March 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is an Easter poem about the redemptive power of human love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Easter is a time of love,

A time of grief and pain undone,

So we may know the power of

The love that lives in everyone.

Each love we feel, each love we know,

Redeems what would to darkness go.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/easter.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

Monday, March 26, 2018

Passion Is the Wine, and Love, the Glass

March 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about how ritual shapes and enriches life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion is the wine, and love, the glass,

As ritual reserves the times for drinking.

So life gathers dignity and mass,

Sustained by scripts that free the mind for thinking.

Our love waits upon the white-robed table.

Vintage holy fills our hearts with joy.

Elijah* comes, that wanderer of fable,

Restoring what the wide world would destroy.

*Jewish legend has the prophet Elijah wandering the world to protect Jewish households. At the Seder, a glass is filled with wine for him and the door is opened while the celebrants sing his song.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/passi4.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Enter Now the King, All but Insane

March 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is about the evolution of sacrifice through Greek myth, Passover, and Easter.

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

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.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/entern.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Just as a Wave Is Lifted by the Shore

March 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem lets a friend know that you are there for them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just as a wave is lifted by the shore,

Then breaks across the slowly rising sand,

So as I watch you weep my feelings pour

Across the wash of what I understand.

I wish I could just take you in my arms

And all your pain could melt into my chest,

And all the violence of passing storms

Could pass through me and finally come to rest.

No words can set things right or presence lend

A miracle to light your darkened way,

But there is solace in a loving friend

And comfort in what I don't have to say.

Whatever circumstance you cannot bear,

Just turn to me, and you will find me there.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/justa2.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

March 24: I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

March 25: Just as a Wave Is Lifted by the Shore

Friday, March 23, 2018

I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

March 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the extreme isolation of a life without God or friends.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I sometimes think that I could be alone:

Really alone, with neither God nor friends.

The people near me then might well be stone:

Just faces on a frieze that never ends.

And I would travel in my mind towards death,

A world within a world sealed like a tomb.

My thoughts would be as silent as my breath,

And, like my breath, expire at my doom.

Such thoughts would make me shudder, were not you

A world where I may enter and find rest.

A rock gives way within, and I walk through

To be in laughing eyes a welcome guest.

Thank God I have you, friend, that I might stay

And be as I could be no other way.

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

March 24: I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

Thursday, March 22, 2018

I Don't Understand What Happened to Us

March 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem asks why a friendship ended.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don't understand what happened to us

Or why you have turned away.

Of course you are free to do as you like,

But first I have something to say.

To me it had seemed we could go on forever,

So close were our hearts, and at ease,

So much did we share, yet the words never faltered,

So I thought as time did as it pleased.

Whatever I did that has made you unhappy,

Or am that is not to your taste,

Or would be were I to return to your graces,

Or won't be if I am replaced:

I want you to know that your friendship is something

I treasure, and would not now end.

If you would be willing to turn to embrace me,

You'd find in me still a good friend.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frien3.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

Friends Are Where One Offloads What

March 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about what friends are for.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends are where one offloads what

One cannot bear alone --

Spoiled goods that jam the gut,

Sorrows turned to stone.

Why does the act of telling friends

One's troubles ease one's pain?

Nothing changes, nothing ends,

Yet one can cope again.

It's not that one is looking for

Advice or sympathy.

One has pent-up words to pour

Into reality.

A friend is like a field on which

Such feelings can find air.

The point is not to say too much,

But simply to be there.

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

March 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the universality of personal experience.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forgive me if I come into your bed,

Open wounds to read therein your shame,

Remove your skin to gaze on naked sorrow,

Tear out your heart to substitute my name.

You wish, no doubt, to keep your personhead.

One we are, and one will be tomorrow;

No one is ever utterly unwed.

Even strangers are one flesh in joy and pain.

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a friendship poem about breaking out of the prison of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For most of us life passes like a dream,

Revealing only what is on our minds.

Inside the prison of the self we see

Each object as a shadow on our wall.

Nothingness awaits, as sure as night.

Did I not have you, dear friend, I might,

Shadow on a shade, not be at all.

How much we need a word beyond our sea:

In love and laughter, thoughts of different kinds,

Perhaps, with luck, unraveling a seam.

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Courtney

March 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for an excellent friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Courtney is an all-embracing friend,

Open to the winds of whim or need.

Underneath her smile is a smile

Radiating outward like a sun.

To her the joys of friend and self are one,

Nor is her cheerful deference a style:

Each moment is a perfect book to read,

Yet not with any passion for the end.

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

March 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which was celebrated yesterday, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem with a more secular view of selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Souls and selves are organ tones and tunes.

The soul is deep, unchanging, it abides.

Placed in time, but not of time, it rides

Above the silence, alike in graves or wombs.

The self is full of feeling as it croons,

Restricted to a shallow range, but wide.

In constant flux, it flits from side to side,

Changing as it nears its bliss or doom.

Know that soul and self sing one sweet song.

‘Mid sense and sentiment, eternity

Sings the deepest organ tone of being.

Do, then, bound for death, please sing along,

A chorister transfixed by beauty, singing,

Yielding to the rich, full harmony.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/soulsa.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 18: Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

Friday, March 16, 2018

Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated today, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick about the difference between selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,

As what might change is never what must be.

In one we find pure light; the other, coals,

Now burning, now burned out, now memory.

The self is something that can grow and change,

Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,

Alive to faith or innerly estranged,

The lonely witness to what one has been.

Remember that the soul is also you,

Is what is, which is eternal love,

Called to love by love you know is true,

Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/selves.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is spoken by St. Patrick about relinquishing personal ambition.

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

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.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/somew3.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day to the descendants of Irish immigrants.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the home that you have never seen,

The place your ancestors once called their own!

Play the music of that island green,

And dance the dances dear to those long gone!

Time again to fill their dancing shoes,

Reawakening the ghosts within,

In touch with some incendiary muse,

Channeling the beauty that had been.

Knowledge is not merely of the mind:

'Tis of the arms and legs, the throat, the heart.

Sing, that you not lose your soul to time!

Dance, that you might nurture it through art!

As all your passions quickly become past,

Yet you may give life to things that last.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo4.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day about how Ireland, like the rest of the world, is becoming multi-racial.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of Ireland, that salad bowl!

The greens are tossed with bits of yellow and brown.

Perhaps the tossing might make some folks frown,

Although the taste be tangy to the soul.

There is no past for which the bells don't toll,

Regardless how its ways are handed down.

In time its heroes, once of great renown,

Come faded to the fun house of the whole.

Know, then, that the Ireland of old

'Ere long will be what none alive remember,

Save for remnants treasured by a few.

Deep within the heartache that takes hold,

An ancient ecstasy becomes an ember,

Yielding over years to Irelands new.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo5.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

Monday, March 12, 2018

Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day about the commodification of popular culture through tourism.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seriously, nothing would surprise me.

The land we love is turned into a store,

Prettied up for foreigners, while we

Are salesclerks and waitresses, no more

The warriors of old, the priests of passion,

Royalty of tongue, the banshee dancers.

Instead, we have become the latest fashion,

Cheapened by the sale itself, the prancers

Kindled by a check to do their chore.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/seriou.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day about the nature of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Self becomes less self the more self-served,

As who one is arrives from parts unknown.

Identity is never one's alone,

Nor can one learn unchanged a single word.

Thus the self by nature is a part,

Present in the body of the whole.

A healthy arm or leg is not a goal

That one pursues regardless of the heart.

Remember, then, that one is more or less

In common with the boundaries one draws,

Choosing or not the love that sings and soars,

Knowing or not what brings one happiness.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/selfbe.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Birthdays Do Not End with Death

March 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a birthday poem for a deceased loved one at the gravesite.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Birthdays do not end with death,

But last as long as love,

A feeling that remains alive

And grateful grief still moves.

And so we celebrate your day

By visiting your grave,

A place that you have left long since,

But is all that we have.

Dear spirit, come and join us here,

Your loved ones by your stone!

Come sweep across the barrier

To claim us as your own!

Happy birthday, dearest one!

Oh, happy, happy day!

Not even the most bitter night

Can take this joy away!

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 10: Bobbie Jo Can’t Be with Us

March 11: Birthdays Do Not End with Death

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Bobbie Jo Can't Be with Us

March 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a deceased friend on her birthday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Bobbie Jo can't be with us

On this, her special day,

Because, although she fought like hell,

Bobbie could not stay.

If love can reach across the void,

Each of us will let her know

Just how much we treasure still

Our time with Bobbie Jo.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 10: Bobbie Jo Can’t Be with Us

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is from a mother to her children, all of whom died in a fire.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Where did you go, my lovely ones?

Where did you go, my babies?

Where did you come from, where did you go,

My gentlemen and ladies?

Where are you now, my lovely ones?

Where are you now, my babies?

I sing to you, but do you hear,

My gentlemen and ladies?

Where can I turn, my lovely ones?

Where can I turn, my babies?

I cannot live, I cannot die,

My gentlemen and ladies.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

Our Grandson Tyler Was Just Over Seven

March 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the dead coming back to visit the living.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Our grandson Tyler was just over seven

When he died while eating supper in our home.

Two weeks earlier he'd talked of heaven,

And of how after death we're not alone.

His best friend said a prayer when he was buried,

And just as if he'd answered from the dead,

We heard the drone of planes high up, unhurried,

And saw the "missing man" fly overhead.

He left behind his mom and little brother,

Pappy, Emma, Uncle Bubba, too;

And ten months old, his baby cousin Jordan,

Who now does all the things he used to do.

We see him in her smile, her hands, her shoulders;

He quiets her and makes her more serene.

He comes to her at night, and to his brother,

And tells them of the wonders he has seen.

He tells them of a paradise of angels

Filled like a billion suns with love and glory,

And of the many souls arranged on stages

Waiting for the end of history;

And of the recent dead, who can return

To tell their loved ones what death has in store,

Who hang around that little ones might learn

The secrets of "life" on the other shore.

Is all this true? And are the dead still living?

Can our love persuade their souls to stay?

I only know that Tyler is still with us,

Though long since his flesh has passed away.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

I Think of You as Watching from

March 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the emotional need to believe in an afterlife.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I think of you as watching from

A time and space beyond the sky,

A place where we might someday come,

Alexis and I, and we three some

Sweet moments share. Though it's a lie,

I think of you as watching from

This place, and know you're gone, but numb

With grief, I cannot let you die.

There is no place where we can come

Together once again. It's dumb

To think so. Yet when I cry,

I think of you as watching from

A happiness I cannot plumb,

More real than real, more want than why,

A place where we might someday come,

Alexis and I. No heart can sum

The measurements that yield goodbye.

And so I keep you watching from

A place where we might someday come.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Monday, March 5, 2018

Death Is Nothing but a Moment's Rest

March 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about death as a waiting period for Christ’s Second Coming.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death is nothing but a moment's rest

Until the Second Coming of the Lord

When He shall gather to Him of the best

To take them to the place of their reward.

I've felt the power of Jesus in my soul

Shining like a golden sun within,

Melting my hard heart to make me whole,

Burning out the remnants of my sin.

I've felt Him work within me, so I know

The glory that will come when I awake.

I'll sleep just like a child who'll homeward go,

And in my dreams of love great pleasure take.

So do not mourn my death, and do not grieve.

The Lord will come for me: This I believe.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car