Forests Can Be Rooted in a Soul

May 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology at 41.

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

A psychological number poem about the need to enrich the imagination through wilderness:

Forests can be rooted in a soul.

Oceans inundate a tidal heart.

Remember to become a rock-ridged bowl,

The amphitheater that contains the whole,

Yet is of some grand peak a tiny part.

One’s time in tame surroundings takes its toll,

Nor can one grasp the grace beyond the goal

Except by practicing the rambler’s art.

© 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/41g.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology at 41

4/27: Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

4/28: Forty-One Lingers in the Moment

4/29: Forty-One Still Sometimes Spreads Her Wings

4/30: Find Your Wilderness Within Your Heart

5/1: Forests Can Be Rooted in a Soul

Find Your Wilderness Within Your Heart

April 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology at 41.

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

A psychological number poem about the psychological benefits of imagining wilderness:

Find your wilderness within your heart,

Open country fringed by distant hills.

Remember it when civilization fills

The room with manic madness, tears apart

Your love, which all life’s desperate cries would still.

Open country waits upon your will,

Near as any moment. When furies start,

Enter it to undo undue ill.

© 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/findy4.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology at 41

4/27: Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

4/28: Forty-One Lingers in the Moment

4/29: Forty-One Still Sometimes Spreads Her Wings

4/30: Find Your Wilderness Within Your Heart

Forty-One Still Sometimes Spreads Her Wings

April 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology at 41.

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

A psychological number poem wishing someone continued joy in life even in the face of sorrow:

Forty-one still sometimes spreads her wings.

Over life she soars, as angels do,

Reveling in glory. Now she sings

The songs that make each moment ever new,

Years not years, things no longer things.

O long may she take flight, too joyful to

Not love life, though the world its sorrow brings,

Even to the heart, that sticks and stings.

© 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/41c.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology at 41

4/27: Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

4/28: Forty-One Lingers in the Moment

4/29: Forty-One Still Sometimes Spreads Her Wings

Forty-One Lingers in the Moment

April 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology at 41.

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

A psychological number poem for a forty-one year old tortured by memories:

Forty-one lingers in the moment,

Opening an oft-unopen door.

Revelation enters with the wind,

Telling him again what love is for,

Yet not without a twist of hidden torment.

One sometimes looks for content in contentment,

Never sure, of course, what one might find,

Even when the truth lies far from shore.

© 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/41b.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology at 41

4/27: Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

4/28: Forty-One Lingers in the Moment

Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

April 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology at 41.

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

A psychological number poem about the inborn need for longing:

Forty-one is filled with precious longing,

Overcome by sea and earth and sky.

Reason sees no reason for such yearning,

Though the heart knows well the reason why.

Years like fantasies flow swiftly by.

Only in that inner, restless burning,

Need like waves receding and returning,

Eloquent and spare, is the reply.

© 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/41.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology at 41

4/27: Forty-One Is Filled with Precious Longing

No One Is the Author of This Poem

April 26, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem using itself as a metaphor for a soul:

No one is the author of this poem,

Operating by itself alone:

Offering itself the gift of grace,

Needing but the smile upon its face,

Effervescence bubbling up from stone.

© 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/noonei.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

4/22: Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

4/23: People Who Are Certain Are a Curtain

4/24: Remember, Too, the Holy Month of Fasting

4/25: Light Eludes the Latitudes of Longing

4/26: No One Is the Author of This Poem

Light Eludes the Latitudes of Longing

April 25, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem comparing those who choose to believe with those who choose not to:

Light eludes the latitudes of longing.

A part of us is always in the darkness,

Ever -- and thus never -- yet to be.

Ripped from One, we hunger for belonging,

But choose not to surrender our own oneness,

Protecting the sweet sense that we are free.

Some would rather melt into the light,

Consumed by love, certain of their faith,

Yet never, never quite completely home.

Some prefer the precincts of the night,

Haunted by a homeless, helpless wraith

Who yet retains the latitude to roam.

© 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/lighte.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

4/22: Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

4/23: People Who Are Certain Are a Curtain

4/24: Remember, Too, the Holy Month of Fasting

4/25: Light Eludes the Latitudes of Longing

Remember, Too, the Holy Month of Fasting

April 24, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem for Ramadan about the transformative power of a moment of faith:

Remember, too, the holy month of fasting.

Absorb the word of God like burning sand.

Make yourself through prayer a single yearning,

A single breath of faith, a single turning,

Dawn to dusk a diamond in God's hand.

A moment of pure faith is everlasting,

Nor need one know aught else to understand.

© 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/ramada.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

4/22: Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

4/23: People Who Are Certain Are a Curtain

4/24: Remember, Too, the Holy Month of Fasting

People Who Are Certain Are a Curtain

April 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about faith and certainty:

People who are certain are a curtain

Draped between the object and the word.

One sees only formulas repeated

Tirelessly, like stones thrown at the wind.

Such faith is evidence of little faith,

For faith knows very well it cannot know.

Doubt becomes a glass through which one sees

A star or two between fast-moving clouds.

A truth will never last as long as Truth,

For truths must be devoured before they melt.

One may believe, of course, but not too tightly;

When one looks, one sees one's God is free.

© 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/peopl2.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

4/22: Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

4/23: People Who Are Certain Are a Curtain

Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

April 22, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical and religious poem about how, despite inequalities of fate, all are loved equally:

Some are picked for pleasure, some for pain;

Some for pity, others for perfection.

Some are unfortunate, and so remain,

While some seem chosen for the gods' affection.

Some lose limbs or sanity or joy,

Stranded on the road from birth to death;

Some find all the world in their employ,

Riding through rich fields, the lords of breath.

But all are souls, and therefore lost at sea,

Lost, lost, and drowning in eternal grace;

And all must suffer the same agony

And vanish into time without a trace.

And all are loved, and lavished well with love,

And live within a love serene and good.

Fate may cruel or expeditious prove,

Yet one may dwell in glory if one would.

© 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/somear.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

4/22: Some Are Picked for Pleasure, Some for Pain

Lynnette Likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

April 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem contrasting the self with the soul:

Lynnette likes tigers, roses, navy blue,

Yet all these preferences cannot be she.

Nice long brown hair, brown eyes, loves poetry,

Needs pets and people, cuddles, gentle, too.

Even these are not the girl Lynnette,

The mystery that is her childlike being,

The sacred soul beyond what we are seeing,

Embraced by love more deep than we've known yet.

© 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/lynnet.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

4/21: Lynnette likes Tigers, Roses, Navy Blue

Proverbs on Faith

April 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Proverbs on Faith

1. Faith is a choice; knowledge, an understanding.

2. The choice of faith can be made only outside the boundaries of knowledge. So, for example, if one knows that one is six feet tall, one need not choose to believe that one is six feet tall. Nor could one reasonably choose to believe that one is five feet tall.

3. Similarly, if one knows that God exists, one need not choose to believe that God exists. Just as if one knows that God does not exist, one could not reasonably choose to believe that God exists.

4. The question of God's existence is, however, beyond the boundaries of knowledge, and is therefore a fertile field for faith. For while science may eventually discover the origin of our universe, it will never discover the origin of being itself, the uncaused cause of which is a paradox that defies reason.

5. The choice of faith ought to be made on moral or esthetic grounds rather than on epistemological or metaphysical grounds. For epistemology and metaphysics are concerned with knowledge, while one's experience of goodness and beauty is affected by faith.

6. What, then, does it mean to say that one believes that God exists? It means that although one cannot know whether God exists, one has chosen to posit God's existence and act accordingly.

7. Since the choice of faith can always be unmade, in every faith there must always be an element of doubt.

8. One chooses faith because of its effect on the quality of one's life, and on the quality of the lives of those around one.

9. In its social manifestations, faith provides a rich tradition of rites and practices that bind people together in ways that reason and knowledge cannot. This is why even some who do not choose faith choose to practice faith's rituals at various turning points in their lives.

10. There is room for faith in even the most rational of societies, not as a substitute for knowledge, nor even as an additional way of knowing, but as something altogether different from knowledge, as ordinary movement differs from dance.

© 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/faith2.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

4/20: Proverbs on Faith

To Be Happy, One Must Know the Rules

April 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem setting out rules for happiness:

To be happy, one must know the rules.

We are the gods against whom we rebel.

Equal orchards need not equal seeds,

Nor can a stone escape the laws of laughter.

The rules are ancient, yet none of them are strange.

Years alter them, but they never change.

Savor sweat, and give away the jewels.

Earn your leisure; your pleasure never sell.

Value grain no more than wild weeds.

Ease the lust to own what you are after.

Never fence what should be open range.

© 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/haprul.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

4/15: Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

4/16: Happiness Is like a Sun

4/17: Thirty-Eight Has No Fear of the Future

4/18: Thirty-Six Sings Well the Song of Life

4/19: To Be Happy, One Must Know the Rules

Thirty-Six Sings Well the Song of Life

April 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem in which happiness lies in passion, joy, and love, resting in the arms of death and pain:

Thirty-six sings well the song of life,

Having long known well its sweet refrain.

In passion, joy, and love lies happiness,

Resting in the arms of death and pain.

There are those who battle for success,

Yet wind up winning much with little gain.

Sing, then, of what is neither more nor less;

In music limn the grace beneath the strife,

X-rays of a silence, spare and plain.

© 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/36e.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

4/15: Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

4/16: Happiness Is like a Sun

4/17: Thirty-Eight Has No Fear of the Future

4/18: Thirty-Six Sings Well the Song of Life

Thirty-Eight Has No Fear of the Future

April 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the role of calculation in achieving happiness:

Thirty-eight has no fear of the future,

Having learned the secret in the past:

It calculates the chances of success,

Roughly estimating more or less,

Then turns to contemplate the things that last,

Yielding a solution that is surer.

Even though a number might be better

In dithering before the die is cast,

Grace comes not to bargain but to bless,

Hewing to what hopes lie anchored fast,

The resonance within the songs that matter.

© 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/38c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

4/15: Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

4/16: Happiness Is like a Sun

4/17: Thirty-Eight Has No Fear of the Future

Happiness Is like a Sun

April 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A tenth anniversary poem comparing happiness to a sun: sometimes obscured by clouds, sometimes not, but always there:

Happiness is like a sun

Adrift amidst high clouds:

Pouring through like liquid gold;

Playing coy, shy peek-a-boo;

Yielding to despair.

The warmth and light are never done,

Enduring behind shrouds

Now draped across it, fold on fold,

Then unveiling cerulean blue

High up, where all is fair.

© 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/happ94.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

4/15: Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

4/16: Happiness Is like a Sun

Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

April 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem with a recipe for joy:

Jayden has the recipe for joy:

A quiet, passionate delight in beauty;

Yearning for what lies behind the veil;

Desire for what lies within the will;

Enduring love that makes a gift of duty;

Need only for what time cannot destroy.

© 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/jayden.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

4/15: Jayden Has the Recipe for Joy

Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

April 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the role of creation in happiness:

Fortune is more fortunate within.

One has been created for creation,

Rich in reason and imagination,

There being always something to begin

Yielding something more than what has been.

No one’s at the mercy of relation

If one can see the grace behind the scrim.

Nor need one look to fortune for salvation,

Embracing life with joy through thick and thin.

© 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/fort12.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

4/14: Fortune Is More Fortunate Within

Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

April 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the role of intent in happiness:

Fulfillment is entirely up to you.

In simply being, there’s enough content,

Freeing all to lead a happy life.

The source of disappointment is intent,

Yearning for far more than one need do.

For some there is much joy in noble strife.

One would wounds heal and shattered lives renew.

Uncouple caring from accomplishment,

Retaining love for what is good and true.

© 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/fulfi2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

4/13: Fulfillment Is Entirely Up to You

Holiness Is Everywhere Around You

April 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

An Easter poem about the ubiquity of holiness:

Holiness is everywhere around you,

A radiance that is because it is.

Perhaps you have not seen its light within you.

Perhaps you think your passion less than His.

Yet you have all the radiance of Being,

Even as you wait upon your name.

All have the capacity of seeing

Such glory as no moment can sustain.

Time requires death and resurrection

Even as each being is perfection,

Real beyond the realm of loss and pain.

© 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/holine.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

4/8: How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

4/9: Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

4/10: Easter Is a Holiday of Love

4/11: The Tomb of Christ Is But the Bed

4/12: Holiness Is Everywhere Around You

The Tomb of Christ Is But the Bed

April 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

An Easter poem about Christ's resurrection:

The tomb of Christ is but the bed

He rested on three days.

Easter morn He rose again,

The flower of our spring.

On Him, arisen from the dead,

Must we, though flesh decays,

Bestow our faith that when we die

Our souls, like His, shall not long lie

Forsaken in our tomb.

Christ shall, with deep affection, when

He sees our soul's affliction, then

Redeem us with His pain.

In His eternal suffering

Shall we find grace enough to bring

The seed of faith to bloom.

© 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/thetom.html For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

4/8: How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

4/9: Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

4/10: Easter Is a Holiday of Love

4/11: The Tomb of Christ Is But the Bed

Easter Is a Holiday of Love

April 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

An Easter and love poem that relates the love of a couple to love at Easter:

Easter is a holiday of love,

A song to what might bring a soul salvation.

So sing of the sweet miracle of us,

The love that every moment in us moves,

Enduring through the tides of close relation,

Redeeming what would else be wind-whipped dust.

© 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/easte4.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

4/8: How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

4/9: Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

4/10: Easter Is a Holiday of Love

Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

April 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

A poem for both Passover and Easter about how the uncertainty of faith should lead one to tolerance:

Praised be those who worship God with love

And set aside the enmities of old.

Salvation is a tale often told,

Sensing what one can't be certain of.

One's faith precisely is what one can't prove,

Vivid though one finds it to behold,

Each touch of truth a moment wrought in gold,

Revealing what no turmoil can remove.

Even so, belief must be a choice,

As fact ought not, nor probability,

Sure only of what can be proven wrong.

The muse of faith requires an inner voice

Emanating from a soul that's free,

Respecting all that each might find her song.

© 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/prais2.html. For more poems about Passover, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . For more poems about Easter, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

4/8: How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

4/9: Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

April 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

A Passover poem about the meaning of being a chosen people:

How could the Lord for our sake part the sea

And choose full well a folk that evil knew?

Passion, greed, and cruelty each Jew

Possessed with Egypt's children equally.

Yet those the Lord anointed as His own,

Passing over them on vengeance bent,

After many centuries to repent,

Still have, like other humans, hearts of stone.

So must we understand the Lord's high will

On us to place a burden, not a crown.

Vivid though His love, we lay it down

Even as we think we bear it still,

Righteous in our hearts, yet doing ill.

© 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/howcou.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

4/8: How Could the Lord for Our Sake Part the Sea

Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

April 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

A Passover poem about the need for love whether with or without faith:

Perhaps there is a purpose to all things,

A great intention that one cannot see.

So might one bear one’s pain more patiently

Since all that is, from love’s vast bosom springs.

Or, perhaps, one lives more skeptically,

Viewing without filter what life brings.

Each then must love, for love to all souls sings,

Redeeming with its grace life’s mystery.

© 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/perh10.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

4/7: Perhaps There Is a Purpose to All Things

Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions

April 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which begins on the evening of April 8^th, and Easter, which is celebrated on April 12^th .

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

A poem for both Passover and Easter to the child of a mixed marriage who must keep both traditions:

Praised be those who value their traditions

And celebrate the holidays each year.

So might a family through repeat renditions

Strengthen bonds that else might disappear.

Over time, families tend to scatter.

Vast distances require an occasion

Embodying the things in life that matter:

Roots, love, faith, grace, goodness, joy, relation.

Even so, how does one manage to

Accommodate two separate sets of roots?

Since trees have only one, what does one do

To grow up tall and sturdy and bear fruit?

Embrace your fortune. You do not need to choose.

Roots joined within a willing heart will fuse.

© 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/prais7.html. For more poems about Passover, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . For more poems about Easter, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Passover and Easter

4/6: Praised Be Those Who Value Their Traditions