Here We Are Again, Another Year

December 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is New Year’s Day.

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

A Happy New Year poem about making resolutions year after year:

Here we are again, another year!

Another chance to change, to do things better.

Praised be those who still believe and care!

Praised be hope, that would the will unfetter.

Yes, we know we’ve been through this before,

New Year after New Year. Yet we still

Endure in our desire for something more,

Wind-borne across bare treetops, bleak and chill.

Yes, we know our resolutions are

Easy to make and break, and still we make them;

And still pursue our dreams beyond the bar,

Resolved as ever, never to forsake them.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herew6.html. For more New Year poems go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Year’s Day

12/31: Here We Are Again, Another Year

I'm Your Christmas Tree, All Brightly Lit

December 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem to a child from his or her Christmas tree explaining its symbolic meaning:

I'm your Christmas tree, all brightly lit,

Hung with angels, colored balls, and elves.

Underneath my boughs your presents sit,

If you've behaved yourselves.

Why must we wait till early Christmas morn

To open up our brand-new games and toys?

Why gifts for us the day that Christ was born

If we're good girls and boys?

Now listen to your Christmas tree: I'm wise

In all the ways of faith that you must know.

I'm here because of what I symbolize:

Green through ice and snow.

There is a world beyond what we can see

Where, by grace of God, we can receive

God's greatest gift: to live eternally,

If only we believe.

Eternal life is what God gave to you

By sending down His son to live on Earth.

This was His gift, so Santa brings gifts, too,

To celebrate Christ's birth.

The baby Jesus got gifts on this day

Because, like any child, He loved to play.

And so God wants to share this special joy

With every girl and boy.

Believe God loves you as your parents do,

And takes great joy in giving gifts to you.

Live well and love, and evergreen like me,

You'll live eternally.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmastr.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

12/28: Cheer Is Not What You’d Expect from Christmas

12/29: Cold Comfort in the Chastity of Sorrow

12/30: I’m Your Christmas Tree, All Brightly Lit

Cold Comfort in the Chastity of Sorrow

December 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about the need for faith if one is to find true comfort in life:

Cold comfort in the chastity of sorrow,

Having turned in pain towards innocence,

Reaching through the madness for the marrow,

Intent, for once, on yielding all pretence;

Sensing the necessity of love

Though feeling none but hunger well within,

Meaning nothing more than one might prove

As one finds little proof in death and sin:

So it was one night in Bethlehem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/coldco.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

12/28: Cheer Is Not What You’d Expect from Christmas

12/29: Cold Comfort in the Chastity of Sorrow

Cheer Is Not What You'd Expect from Christmas

December 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about how love survives the hassles of Christmas:

Cheer is not what you'd expect from Christmas:

Headaches are more like it, lack of sleep,

Raw nerves, rough words, waits to make you weep,

Irritable hours, days, intense, relentless.

So much money, time, so many dreams

Tied to one quick wanton winter's morning,

More an orgy than a merry dawning,

A ritual divorced from what it means.

Still, each year the love within it gleams.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/cheeri.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

12/28: Cheer Is Not What You’d Expect from Christmas

Can the Wind Across the Snow

December 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about returning to childhood hope and love at Christmas time:

Can the wind across the snow

Howl enough of frozen pain?

Return to where the children go.

In love and hope begin again.

So did Christ return to Earth

That lovers might renew their love.

May all your longing bring to birth

A passion that no wind can move,

So strong no wind can stronger prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/canthe.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

December 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which was celebrated yesterday, December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem to his or her family from someone who will miss the celebration:

Can anyone explain the glow of Christmas?

Holidays are candles in the night.

Rebirth comes from family and friends

In one bright blur of food and talk that ends

Still burning as a peaceful inner light.

There is no way to substitute for Christmas.

Miss it and no circumstance feels right.

All my heart's with you, yet I must miss this

Season thick with love and rich delight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/canany.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

December 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated today, December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem to a child about angel horses on Christmas Eve:

Angel horses flap their wings

High above the winter night.

Far below an angel sings

Of peace and joy, of love and light.

Down, down, down the horses fly,

Down through stars, across the moon,

Down through clouds and cold, dark sky

To where the angel sings her tune.

And there the angel horses wait,

Listening to her song of love,

Far from home and Heaven's gate,

Far from sweet green fields above,

Listening to the angel's song,

So beautiful it makes them weep,

Hovering over us all night long

While we are fast asleep.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/angelh.html. For more Christmas poems, go to xmashttps://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

If All Were Now as It Was When

December 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which will be celebrated tomorrow, on December 25^th. Tonight is Christmas Eve.

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

A Christmas poem questioning whether there is any difference between one’s fear of faith in Christ’s time and now:

If all were now as it was when

Christ came to save us all,

And Christmas Day were Christmas Day,

Not some day we recall;

And in the East we saw a star

Exceptionally bright,

And wondered what was going on

That ordinary night;

If God were walking in our midst,

Saying what He said,

And we were not His followers,

But trod where He would tread;

And we were witness to His word

And looked Him in the eye,

And found His message interesting

But too bizarre to buy;

If we were in Jerusalem

And watched Him bear the cross,

And suffered with His suffering

But feared to share His loss;

And saw Him die in agony,

And wondered at it all,

And this were something we ourselves,

Not printed books, recall:

What would be the difference,

Had we known Him that way,

Between the faith we feared to feel

And what we fear today?

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ifallw.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

Send a Little Sunshine to Your Heart

December 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about how the holidays are worth the effort required to sustain them, even to people who do not believe literally in their myths:

Send a little sunshine to your heart

Even as the gloomy days return.

A holiday's the work of will and art,

Sweet gift of time one nonetheless must earn.

Old memories and new combine to give

No little charm to your anticipation,

Singing of the love it takes to live

Gracefully, the light of all relation.

Reason sees the reason for the rite,

Even though the myth is mystical;

Even though a rational being might

Take exception to the miracle.

In full embrace of what the story means,

Not for what it says, but what it dreams,

Give voice to joy, and sing the festive song

Sung with such pure pleasure for so long.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sendal.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

12/21: Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

12/22: Some Would Sing a Melancholy Song

12/23: Send a Little Sunshine to Your Heart

Some Would Sing a Melancholy Song

December 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the cold, gloomy winter being as necessary a part of the year as death is a necessary part of life:

Some would sing a melancholy song

Even at this festive time of year.

After all, the frigid nights are long,

Sinking into daylight, harsh and drear.

O Earth, why do you lean away from joy?

Night rules the North, nor does the South long savor

Sunlight, as its dreams will hearts destroy,

Granting only longing for their labor.

Remember, then, that winter is a gift,

Even at this nadir of its night,

Even as the cold, white whispers drift,

Tailing into long, thin wisps of light.

In every moment everything exists,

Nor ought the mind rail, though the heart resists.

Grace is one, as life and death are one.

So sing of beauty till the song is done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somew8.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

12/21: Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

12/22: Some Would Sing a Melancholy Song

Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

December 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about how the holidays dress up the gloomy season:

Sing of simple pleasures of the season,

Each a gift to cherish and to savor!

Although we dread the winter, with good reason,

Still, we give its early days full flavor.

On every street we hear the festive music,

Never less than angels on the brass,

So beautiful that we are loath to lose it,

Given that the season soon must pass.

Radiance consumes the early night,

Each lawn ablaze, each storefront window burning,

Each main street strung with unrestrained delight,

The joyful counterpoint to year-end yearning.

In every gathering there's much to taste,

Nor do we have much toil or time to waste.

Grace comes and goes so quickly every year.

Sing, then, of gifts and love and winter cheer!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing11.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

12/21: Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

December 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about all days as holy days:

Suppose there were no special times for greetings,

Each day equally a holy day.

All things are holy just because of being

Shards of Being, lightning wrapped in clay.

One might then be merry all the time,

Needing no occasion for good cheer,

Seeing in each moment the sublime,

God born in every child throughout the year.

Reasoning thus, one need not leave bereft

Each everyday not specialized for joy.

Eden is a place we never left,

Though smoke and smog our view of it destroy.

In paradise all time is time for glory,

Nor do the angels choose one sacred story.

God is in all things with grace to be,

Shining in all seasons equally.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/suppos.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

Short Days Augur Longer Ones

December 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the time lag between the turn of a season towards light or darkness and one’s sense of the season as light or dark:

Short days augur longer ones

Even as the cold

Alights upon the early gloom,

Sailing on the wind.

One feels the chill inside one's bones;

Night too soon takes hold.

So we light the festive room,

Gathering within.

Remember those long summer days,

Each a little shorter?

Evenings had a touch of grief

Trailing behind.

In each sharp turn, time delays

Not only change of weather.

Gripped by passion or belief,

Slowly we unwind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shortd.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

December 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying the religious holidays without being religious:

Secular celebrations seem so spare,

Even with religious ancestry,

As though the brick beneath what had been there

Stood unadorned where stuccoed grace should be.

Old prayers and praises now sound insincere,

No longer fitting where but reason reigns.

'Tis the season, nonetheless, for cheer;

Scoured of mystery, mystique remains.

God aside, the dark still turns towards light;

Revolving Earth still tilts into the sun;

Each gift of breath still fills one with delight;

Each child is still all being new begun.

The miracles one celebrates are questions

Implying answers too remote to know.

Nor need one not have faith in the directions

Given those whose fate it is to go

Step by careful step towards what is so.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/secula.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

Seasons Are like Seasonings

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying the special tastes of each season:

Seasons are like seasonings,

Each a complex taste

Amplifying appetites of

Souls with senses graced.

Open up your windows,

Nestle in your beds,

Scent the scents of wakening fields,

Gaze at golds and reds.

Revel in the tang of time

Even now when night

Ends too soon the caravans

Traveling towards light.

In gratitude for being

Now sing that all might hear!

Give the gift of merriment!

Sing of love and cheer!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/season.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

Julian

December 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and friendship poem about the interdependence of every moment of life:

Julian is a true and loving friend.

Underneath his words there is his heart.

Life is not a table set for one.

If one would eat, one cannot eat alone.

All we have we borrow and we lend.

Nor do I breathe without your taking part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/julian.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

12/13: Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

12/14: I Have a Friend with Benefits

12/15: May Poetry Flow

12/16: Julian

May Poetry Flow

December 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A friendship poem wishing a friend continued inspiration and love of life:

May poetry flow

From your moonlit garden,

From your cool, dark fountain,

Untouched by age.

May your spirit read

The book of life

With the same enchantment

As the child within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maypoe.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

12/13: Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

12/14: I Have a Friend with Benefits

12/15: May Poetry Flow

I Have a Friend with Benefits

December 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A friendship poem about so-called friendship with benefits, each using the other for casual sex:

I have a friend with benefits,

Whom off and on I see.

While I use her to get my kicks,

She also uses me.

She's not my girlfriend, just a friend

With whom I have some sex.

Too young to love, we play the game

And wonder what comes next.

We try out stuff from porno sites,

Watching what we do

As though we were on film, and someone

Else was watching, too.

Yet somehow, somewhere even we

Still know we yearn for love,

And wait like withered stalks to feel

That wind within us move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ihavea.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

12/13: Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

12/14: I Have a Friend with Benefits

Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

December 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about a close and lasting friendship:

Our friendship is as close as closest sisters,

Two flutes with a single melody,

Interchanging runs through changing vistas,

Notes like birds alighting on a tree.

To some, friends are like books upon a shelf;

Yet you to me are like another self.

This music will not stop for other misters,

Nor will it pause for princes, real or elf.

However life may wend, we will be we.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ourfri.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

12/13: Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

My Tears Are Not of Loss

December 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the role of the imagination in friendship.

My tears are not of loss

But of time too quickly gone.

I miss our days together

Even while they're going on.

I savor odd, sweet moments

When you laugh or when you smile,

Nostalgic for your presence

Though you're with me all the while.

Strange how fantasy

Can wander in and out at will,

Looking back from somewhere

That is just beyond a hill.

And so when once you leave

You will not leave me alone,

For I will have you with me

Long after you are gone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mytear.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

Of You I Know So Much

December 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A friendship poem about what makes a friend so precious:

Of you I know so much, and yet

Nothing that I know

Encompasses just who you are

Or explicates your glow.

For you I would do anything,

As you would do for me.

Knowing this is breathing life:

Intense, serene, and free.

No one else so touched my soul

Deep in, where none can see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ofyou.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

Why Did You Change

December 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem questioning why a friendship has turned sour:

Why did you change? What did I do?

We were like brothers, and now

Your face is a wall without windows, while you

Curse every claim you allow.

I don't understand what undid the sweet bond

That for years yielded nothing but joy.

I am who I was, and yet you respond

With words either cutting or coy.

Perhaps there's no why when some untoward wind

Whips away what one holds to one’s heart.

Though bitter it be to leave loved ones behind,

One must learn when it’s past time to part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/whydi2.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

Clearly There Were Jews and There Were Jews

December 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Hanukkah, which began at sundown on December 2^nd and will end at sundown on December 9^th.

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

A Chanukah poem about how the attempt by the Syrian King Antiochus IV to persecute the Jews ironically led to the miracle that helped sustain Judaism:

Clearly there were Jews and there were Jews --

Hellenized, not Hellenized, not caring.

Assimilation let one pick and choose,

Not wedded to the faith that one was wearing.

Until a king sought Judaism's end,

Kindling a flame that burned inside,

A miracle that would the faith defend --

Here for us, a faith that else had died.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clearl.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Hanukkah

12/3: Happiness Comes Wholly from the Heart

12/4: Before You Light the Candles, Say the Blessing

12/5: Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights

12/6: Bees Swarm Along the Fragile Edge of Darkness

12/7: Chanukah Itself’s the Miracle

12/8: Before Chaos, There Was Perfect Light

12/9: Clearly There Were Jews and There Were Jews

Before Chaos, There Was Perfect Light

December 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Hanukkah, which began at sundown on December 2^nd and will end at sundown on December 9^th.

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

A Hanukkah poem about the eternal nature of light:

Before chaos, there was perfect light;

Only light, there was no hint of darkness.

Nor was this moment ever in the past,

Nor can it ever be. Outside time

It simply is. Perfect. Eternal. Pure

Existence. What we, at every moment, are.

Still, we must move downriver. We are

Each, in the end, prepared to turn to pure

Terror at the raging lip of time.

How can we vanish, yet live on in the past?

Life only seems to flow towards darkness:

Open those seams, and you see only light.

Red in the west heralds motion's darkness,

Revealing glories millennia past.

As the Earth spins, so we spin through time;

In gravity's grip, no circle is pure,

No being is Being, yet by being we are

Eternal, forever an instant of light.

Given: that light can only be; that light,

As such, cannot not be; that in time lights are,

But then are not; that nonetheless they are pure

Rays racing far beyond the lips of time,

Infinite, irrevocable; that the past

Exists forever, as such; that darkness

Limits only one's perception of light.

Most experts claim the night is clothed in darkness;

Instinctively, they view the past as past.

Do not assume that what you see in time

Is what appears in visions cold and pure.

Eternal isn't only forever. We are

Living eternally now, fragments of pure

Light--the track, the train, the farmhouse time

Erased. No thing is ever nothing--not the past,

Not loved ones lost, not what we know as darkness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chaos.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Hanukkah

12/3: Happiness Comes Wholly from the Heart

12/4: Before You Light the Candles, Say the Blessing

12/5: Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights

12/6: Bees Swarm Along the Fragile Edge of Darkness

12/7: Chanukah Itself’s the Miracle

12/8: Before Chaos, There Was Perfect Light

Chanukah Itself's the Miracle

December 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Hanukkah, which began at sundown on December 2^nd and will end at sundown on December 9^th.

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

A Chanukah poem about the miracle of keeping Chanukah alive for millennia of exile:

Chanukah itself's the miracle:

How could we remember all those years,

Aliens lost upon a shoreless sea,

Not only scattered--battered, shattered, tattered,

Unwelcome guests of hosts unmerciful,

Knowing well the wellsprings of our tears,

A life devoured by identity

Holding on to legacies that mattered?

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanuk.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Hanukkah

12/3: Happiness Comes Wholly from the Heart

12/4: Before You Light the Candles, Say the Blessing

12/5: Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights

12/6: Bees Swarm Along the Fragile Edge of Darkness

12/7: Chanukah Itself’s the Miracle

Bees Swarm Along the Fragile Edge of Darkness

December 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Hanukkah, which began at sundown on December 2^nd and will end at sundown on December 9^th.

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

A Hanukkah poem about life as a gift:

Bees swarm along the fragile edge of darkness.

Open wounds attract blood-hungry flies.

Near my heart lie savage little souls

Neatly arrayed to feast upon my life.

In eight days God will be through with miracles.

Even so, life is a gift of love.

So how does one enjoy this gift of love,

Even as one moves from light to darkness?

There is no moment free of miracles,

However swift and deep one's passion flies.

Glory is the dancing quark of life,

Alight with love and lust in all our souls.

Born of the cataclysm, our burgeoning souls

Race towards infinity, love

Infinite, lust infinite, life

Eternal as light billowing into darkness.

Little do we see how far it flies

As we spin through Earth-bound miracles.

Nor can we comprehend these miracles.

Darkness is the center of our souls,

Like still black water in the moonlight. Love

Is of this emptiness; unburdened, it flies

Swiftly in widening circles, skimming the darkness,

A motion outward at the heart of life.

More cry than ocean, more wish than star, life

Is the lyric of an explosion of miracles.

Dream and dung, it is the gospel of darkness;

In a petrie dish, a canticle of souls.

Earth is the stage for a concert of passionate love:

Lettuces and roses, gulls and flies.

Let flies and fish and redwoods sing of life

Equally, of love and miracles;

Nor shall our souls deny their birth in darkness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bees.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Hanukkah

12/3: Happiness Comes Wholly from the Heart

12/4: Before You Light the Candles, Say the Blessing

12/5: Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights

12/6: Bees Swarm Along the Fragile Edge of Darkness

Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights

December 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Hanukkah, which began at sundown on December 2^nd and will end at sundown on December 9^th.

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

A Hanukkah poem for children about the meaning of the Hanukkah candles:

Time to light the Hanukkah lights,

Eight candles in a row,

One by one for eight whole nights –

Watch them dance and glow!

Time to light the Hanukkah lights

Eight nights in a row,

Remembering that one day’s oil

Burned eight nights long ago!

Time to light the Hanukkah lights,

To watch them dance and play,

Dancing, dancing eight whole nights –

A happy holiday!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timeto.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Hanukkah

12/3: Happiness Comes Wholly from the Heart

12/4: Before You Light the Candles, Say the Blessing

12/5: Time to Light the Hanukkah Lights