Poem of the Week: December 2020

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

January 1, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A New Year’s Day poem for the beginning of the new millennium:

Midnight is a purely human thing
In which a day, a year, a century,
Leaves behind its bloodstained legacy,
Looking to what good the next might bring.
Each of us, this new millennium,
Near midnight will begin to feel the awe,
New wondering what this universe is for,
Immersed in what has been and is to come.
Under midnight's gaze something will end
More beautiful than we can comprehend.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/midnig.html. For more New Year’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live
January 1: Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live

December 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A philosophical congratulations poem for a new home:

Out of who we are comes where we live,
No less shaped by spirit than a shell
Yielding to the one imperative
On which all must depend to live life well.
Underneath the word is the desire,
Rembrandt to the image that we see,
New vesting in old verities its fire,
Evangelist for ambient ecstasy.
We choose from somewhere deeper than intention,
Having for such clarity no eyes,
Older than the moment of dimension
Manifest in fast-exploding skies,
Ember of which in that chamber lies.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/outofw.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

Congratulations on Your Retirement

December 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A congratulations-on-your-retirement poem to someone who was forced to retire:

Congratulations on your retirement!
One makes a virtue of necessity.
Nor can one argue with reality,
Given its regard for sentiment.
Remember that one cannot judge one's fortune,
As what else might have been, one cannot know.
To choose what is remains the only option,
Unless one would be strangled by one's woe.
Let there be ironic celebration!
A moment of nostalgia and release,
The swift goodbye to long-sustained relation,
In which there is an element of peace.
Open doors await, to who knows where?
Now is ever, ever wholly there,
Singing with a grace that does not cease.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congr6.html. For more retirement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/retirementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement

Monday, December 28, 2020

Revel in the Moment! It's Well Earned

December 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A retirement poem bidding farewell to a colleague about to begin a new life:

Revel in the moment! It's well earned.
Enjoy the praises of your many friends.
The people of the place you've so well served
In joy and sorrow see you on your way,
Rejoicing with you, though they'll miss your grace.
Each gift of love is in Time's memory burned,
Music that for much can make amends,
Enduring pleasure that is well deserved,
Now bittersweet on this, your farewell day,
The shared hug that ends your long embrace.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/revel4.html. For more retirement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/retirementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned

To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen

December 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A number poem for a thirteen-year-old about beginning her teen years:

To be thirteen is to be, well, a teen,
Having crossed at last that boundary line.
It is, more than an age, a state of mind,
Reflecting more than any gloss might glean.
Then set off on your journey towards adulthood,
Eager to become what lies ahead!
Eventually, you'll look back instead,
Nostalgic for this springtime of your selfhood.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tobe13.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Make Not Much of What You're Missing

December 27, 2020

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.

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

A philosophical Christmas poem about finding satisfaction:

Make not much of what you're missing;
Each gets gifts as they come due.
Rest assured, regarding wishing:
Riches are reserved for you.
Years of want require wanting;
Christmas gives what one receives.
Happiness ought not seem daunting,
Renting space in what one grieves.
In your heart is all you need,
Sustained by giving it away.
Though you burn and break and bleed,
Mere suffering's no place to stay.
As you are is as you will,
Sure of winds that wish you well.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeno.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys
December 24: Could There Be Angels Waiting in the Wings
December 25: Glad Tidings Are a Coat of Many Colors
December 26: Charity Begins Where Interest Ends
December 27: Make Not Much of What You’re Missing

Friday, December 25, 2020

Charity Begins Where Interest Ends

December 26, 2020

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.

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

A philosophical Christmas poem about charity and selflessness:

Charity begins where interest ends,
Having little interest but in giving,
Removing self from self, that there be space
In which a much-loved guest might feel at home.
So might one find delight, though ravens rend
The unembroidered fabric of one's being:
Miracle of unrequited grace,
A wave of wonder welling up from stone,
Singing as it breaks of selfless grieving.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chari3.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

Glad Tidings Are a Coat of Many Colors

December 25, 2020

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.

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

A Christmas poem about the variety of contributors to religious faith:

Glad tidings are a coat of many colors,
Lest warmth be the only use for clothes.
A moment of redemption is a blessing
Derived from generations of cross dressing,
The product of choice cloth from these and those,
In each of which are gnostic strips of others.
Deeper than the dreams of doting mothers,
In seas that lie beneath the ancient floes,
Neither touched nor untouched by transgressing,
Gripped alone by naked grace, one grows
Silent in the synagogue of lovers.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/gladt2.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Could There Be Angels Waiting in the Wings

December 24, 2020

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.

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

A Christmas poem about loving the beauty of Earth as angels love Heaven:

Could there be angels waiting in the wings,
How might we call upon their ecstasy?
Rainbows are not visible on days
In which we are the glory and the light.
So may we hear the songs our sunshine sings,
The music that adorns our winsome ways;
May we know how good it is to be
As we celebrate the holidays,
So much in love we weep as angels might.

A #Christmaspoem about loving the beauty of Earth as #angels love Heaven. See it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/couldt.html .

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Christmas Really Isn't About Toys

December 23, 2020

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.

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

A Christmas poem about putting more emphasis on the spiritual meaning of Christmas:

Christmas really isn't about toys,
However much we love them, young and old.
Reductions in the fat of Christmas Day
In time restore its vigor and its health.
So let us with more care consume our wealth,
Though children should have toys with which to play.
More sweet and joyous music must be sung,
And thoughts of peace and mercy make their way
Silent and uncluttered through the noise.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmasre.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves

December 22, 2020

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.

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

A Christmas poem about learning to love as Christ loved:

Christmas is for cowards, too, and thieves.
How might they be loved as dearest friends?
Redemption starts where satisfaction ends.
Instinctively, one does as one believes.
So did Christ love everyone the same
That everyone might love the same as He.
Most children that are loved will loving be
As they become the people they became.
So shall you love all creatures in His name.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmasi3.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves

Monday, December 21, 2020

Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends

December 21, 2020

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.

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

A Christmas poem about Christmas and friendship:

Christmas is a holiday for friends,
However they may be, or not, related.
Remember that the three wise kings were strangers
In search of one remote, uncanny dream.
So may we all be far more than we seem,
Together bound for dark and haunting changes,
More lovely for the loves we have created
Along the lonely paths from means to ends,
Stumbling towards that star of Bethlehem.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmasis.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends

Saturday, December 19, 2020

So May This Season of Sweet Celebration

December 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about passing holiday traditions on to the next generation:

So may this season of sweet celebration
Endure for yet another generation,
Alive in food and ritual and song,
Sustained by the desire to pass it on.
Of love and will and long tradition sing,
Needing new knots to extend the string.
Sing the cover songs that touch the heart,
Giving them new salience through your art.
Revel in the riches of the season,
Embracing truths more resonant than reason,
Each a myth of hope revealed anew
That touches something beautiful in you.
If you resolve not to let it die,
Nor be reduced to something one might buy,
Giving it the imprint of your grace,
So will the next brigade this time embrace.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somayt.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days
December 18: Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season
December 19: Sing of Love and Happiness and Joy
December 20: So May This Season of Sweet Celebration

Sing of Love and Happiness and Joy

December 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem to a couple who is devoted to making the world a better place:

Sing of love and happiness and joy,
Even as the world descends towards sorrow,
A song of hope reborn to spirits buoy,
So sweet it brings new promise to tomorrow.
Open up the windows of your heart,
Nor need you doubt the power of your song.
Sing with all your wisdom and your art,
Gathering strength as others sing along.
Render scenes from your imagination
Embodying the soul of your ideal,
Eroding the redoubt of resignation
That stands between what should be and what's real.
If all your efforts sometimes seem to be
No more than pouring wine into the sea,
Give another metaphor a chance:
Sing, that all the world around might dance.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing18.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season

December 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying religious holidays even when one is not religious:

Some refuse the pleasures of the season,
Ever the pure acolytes of reason,
Against whatever smacks of superstition,
Severing supply lines to tradition.
One need not be Catholic to be catholic,
Nor be of faith to be towards faith empathic.
Sing, then, with sweet gusto songs that may
Grace the message of a holy day,
Reveling in beauty, though it be
Engaged in service to a mystery,
Enjoying what you never would believe,
Tailoring the torso to the weave.
If one loves the music, one should dance,
Nor need one look the provenance askance,
Granted myths that make the end of year
So lovely one rejoices when they're here.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somere.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days

December 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about lighting the cold, dark days with inner delight:

Share a bit of sunshine on dark days,
Enduring with a smile and a song,
As those lit by your laughter sing along,
Singing down the winter's frozen ways.
Open up your heart to holidays,
Nor can a bit of jollity be wrong,
Singing of life's pleasures loud and long,
Giving voice to all that sadness sways.
Remember that the winterscape is stark,
Each naked branch a-shiver in the wind,
Each grassy field knee-deep in drifted snow,
The white world waiting for an early night.
In such times one's windows light the dark,
Not shuttered that the world might see within
Glimpses of warm inner rooms that glow,
Shining with sincere yet willed delight.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sharea.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Safe Within the Womb of Expectation

December 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the pleasures and the difficulties of returning to one’s childhood home for the holidays:

Safe within the womb of expectation,
Each dancer finds anticipated joy,
A rich routine of choreographed sensation,
Sweet rites no repetition can destroy.
On certain holidays one turns towards home,
Needing to reprise one's childhood part,
Sustain the sense that one is not alone,
Greet again the family at one's heart.
Return, then, to a place you cannot go,
Embracing what you can no longer hold.
Each moment is a print in drifting snow;
The wind obliterates all things but the cold.
Instantly you are a child again,
Not only in your joy but in your pain.
Grace requires all your strength and love,
Serving only those who dancers prove.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/safewi.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation

Say There's Neither Santa Claus nor God

December 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem to someone who recently joined the Unitarian Universalist church:

Say there's neither Santa Claus nor God;
Eight days of light require eight days of oil;
All humankind is rich, recycled sod;
Souls can't shuffle off this mortal coil.
One longs for a community of spirit
Not based on faith in something mystical,
Sustained by love of life as we must live it,
Gift that is itself a miracle.
Reason seems to one most reasonable,
Even though there's much it can't explain.
Embracing faith seems inconceivable;
The act of prayer seems poignant but inane.
In such a case, one joins a non-church church,
Needing for one's spiritual search
Grace that comes from the pursuit of good
Shared with those who will the world one would.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/saythe.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God

Monday, December 14, 2020

Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

December 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about why love is especially needed in this season of cold and darkness:

Sing of love, that graces every season,
Eden's child dressed in robes of time,
A dancer through long hallways lined with reason,
So beautiful that few remain behind.
Of love then sing, and kindness, and affection,
Needing warmth as winter settles in.
Sing of loyalty, life-long connection,
Granted those who light the lamp within.
Renew each day that sacramental fire,
Each day again choose love, an act of will
Emanating from life's chief desire --
To love and to be loved and cherished still.
In this season of extended darkness,
Now uncurtain windows full of light,
Giving to the world in all its starkness
Such splendor as will see it through the night.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing17.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Eight Days the Light Continued on Its Own

December 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is darkness and light, in honor of Chanukah (or Hanukkah), the festival of lights, the first night of which is December 10.

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

A poem for Hanukkah about each of us as oil lamps burning with infinite light:

Eight days the light continued on its own:
A miracle, they say, but not more so
Than ordinary lives of flesh and bone,
Consuming wicks burned ashen long ago.
Within there is a mystic lake of fire,
Fuel-less energy, power uncelled,
Unmeasured fount of obstinate desire,
Hope burning, where no hope was ever held.
Invisible source of all that's seen or seeing,
Unseen light that animates the void;
Unlit spark of indivisible Being,
Shard of One that cannot be destroyed:
To be so vast a miracle till death
Is why we struggle fiercely for each breath.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/8days.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love
December 8: Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window
December 9: Before Earth, Water, and Air Is Fire
December 10: What Is There in the Darkness to Receive
December 11: Blessed Are Those Who Doubt the Word of God
December 12: Careful When You Light the Chanukah Candles
December 13: Eight Days the Light Continued on Its Own

Friday, December 11, 2020

Careful When You Light the Chanukah Candles

December 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Hanukkah about a possible relationship between rote ritual and faith:

Careful when you light the Chanukah candles!
Have some water nearby just in case
A candle teeters at some crazy angle,
Not having been quite twisted into place.
Unexpected things can sometimes happen:
Kindling can blow in across a flame
And make of a charade a conflagration,
Holy fire furnished by The Name.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/carefu.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

Blessed Are Those Who Doubt the Word of God

December 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Hanukkah about the need to practice one’s faith with an open mind:

Blessed are those who doubt the word of God,
Opening their minds to what might be.
No literal truth is literally true,
Nor can one see unless one sees anew,
In lieu of faith observing faithfully
Each metaphor writ deep within each word.

Murderers would worship every word,
A band of cutthroats in the name of God,
Reasoning unreason faithfully,
Knights of night, whose end cannot but be
Unholy, though the righteous reign anew,
Sure as angels of what words are true.

Let wit and wisdom wonder what is true.
Inside, we face the being of the word,
Light lost within its depths, condemned anew,
Immensities as infinite as God
Trapped within the confines of "to be,"
However we pursue them faithfully.

Grant faith its grace, but reason faithfully,
Always doubting what you know is true.
Being needs no temple fuel to be,
Resting on the reason of a word
In myth, with reason, uttered first by God.
Each mind must light the universe anew,
Letting being be in words anew.

Eight days we light the candles faithfully,
Lest we forget a miracle of God.
Let go the miracle, false or true,
Even as you venerate the word,
Nor do you need to know to fully be.

Sing, then, of words that wake the will to be,
Each generation ravishing anew!
The past and future mingle in a word
Hammered into gold, as faithfully,
Embracing in the beautiful the true,
Lamps alight, we thank an ancient God.
In such a God we find solace anew,
Zealous to be singing faithfully
A text as true in pitch as that first word.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/blesse.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

Thursday, December 10, 2020

What Is There in the Darkness to Receive

December 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A Hanukkah poem questioning the existence and nature of God while wishing to celebrate Creation:

What is there in the darkness to receive
The gratitude that clearly is its due?
What if one's filled with awe but can't believe
That anything religion says is true?
It's clearly hogwash that the temple flame
Burned eight whole days on oil just for one;
Yet symbols drawn from tales are not the same
As knowing what the power of God has done.
The leap of faith strikes me as wishful thinking,
To believe in God because one sees one must;
I grant that life and death could use some linking,
But to yield to faith's like giving in to lust.
And yet I wish to celebrate the light
Which quite by chance was born of endless night.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/whatis.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Before Earth, Water, and Air Is Fire

December 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Hanukkah about the elemental fire of Creation within us:

Before earth, water, and air is fire,
On which all subsists,
Not as flame on oil,
Nor candle on wax, but with-
In, as in us, each
Element in love.

So we are:
Each organ mad with lust, tingling,
The blood eager to cleanse the spleen, nerves
Hungering for connection.

Gifts are tongues of flame.
A blood cell delivers its gift of oxygen. Why?
Brain cells surrender memories.
Reasons are beside the point.
In love we do only what we cannot help,
Each pinpoint moved by frenzy,
Longing to give, to be accepted, consumed.

Most of us have ideological toes,
Or live brightly, with understandings
More reasonable than real.
Around us, within us, is fire,
Non-consuming,
Delivered from flame.
Do we see it?
Absolute, messageless.
Do we see this dark, unradiant fire?

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/earth.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love
December 8: Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window
December 9: Before Earth, Water, and Air Is Fire

Monday, December 7, 2020

Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window

December 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Hanukkah about the need, even in the midst of holiday cheer, never to forget the horrors of the Holocaust:

Cheerful lights dance within your window,
Happy to dispel a bit of darkness.
As you display your faith, remember when
No light was light enough to light the wind.
Underneath our joy there must be sorrow
Kindled by a willing act of witness,
A turn to share in love again, again,
Horrors that we would not leave behind.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/cheerf.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love
December 8: Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window

And Thou Shalt Love

December 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Hanukkah about light, darkness, and faith:

AND THOU SHALT LOVE

i

All I ever looked for was happiness:
Not for myself only; also for mine.
Dumbstruck, I learned the futility of being good.

Tell me, how does one get pleasure out of life?
How, when so much engenders pain?
Only maudlin moments of forgetfulness
Unloose the tears that turn the blood to wine.

Simple Simon went into a wood,
Hoping to return his damaged wife.
A drunken druid drove him forth again,
Laughing like a god at his distress:
Take her, fool! For you she'll do just fine!

Longing comes easy in darkness. I should
Open my eyes, turn on the light. A knife,
Viciously twisting, argues for pain.
Eagerly I press on, in fear of nothingness.

ii

There! Do you see the light
High on that mountain?
Even here there is

Light! Do you see it?
Only darkness. You see
Reflections of dreams. Here
Darkness covers even

Tomorrow. Who can
Hope any longer for light?
Yet there it is! We must

Go towards it, or else--
Or be of those who love
Darkness, luminous darkness . . .

iii

Wealth isolates, hardship unites.
In darkness people hold hands.
Those only who cry out are comforted.
However we live, death is the same.

And so we come to know Thy name:
Lounging easy in our rights,
Loving only as need demands,

The grace most sought uncelebrated,
Happiness inextricable from shame.
Yet we, too, have known lidless nights.

Hope is not for one who understands.
Even blameless, we are rejected.
All are lost who win the game.
Reason renders only lights.
Those who fear know Thy commands.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/andtho.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love

Sunday, December 6, 2020

How Might One Be Happy but by Loving

December 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem about love as the source of happiness:

How might one be happy but by loving?
All one is will vanish in the sea.
Perhaps the point of life is in the sharing.
Perhaps the soul's beyond the shores of me.
Years pass, and what does one accumulate?
How might one find permanence in time?
Only love such hunger compensates,
Lending life its beauty line by line.
In everything there is, there is a flame
Deeper than the passions one can name,
An oil lamp that never will go out
Yielding light beyond belief or doubt,
Source of all that answers loss and pain.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howm12.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holiday Season
November 30: How Good to Celebrate Both Holidays
December 1: Here We Have Three Holidays
December 2: Health and Happiness to You and Yours
December 3: There Is No Better Time than Now
December 4: Happy, Happy Holidays to You2
December 5: Holidays Are Happy Days2
December 6: How Might One Be Happy but by Loving

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Holidays Are Happy Days2

December 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem about the difficulty of accepting happiness:

Holidays are happy days,
Albeit with some stress.
Praised be those content to be
Pleased with happiness.
Yes, one cannot do it all,
However hard one tries.
One sacrifices much for love.
Life's a compromise.
In treasuring the things one has,
Delivered from regret,
A lover finds the holidays,
Year in and out, a song of praise,
Sung with joy. And yet …

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holi13.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Friday, December 4, 2020

Happy, Happy Holidays to You2

December 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem to a grandniece about how her great-uncle’s years of love for her grandfather translate into close ties of love between him and her:

Happy, happy holidays to you!
A chance to wish you well, and to renew,
Perhaps, the ties that bind us to each other,
Perhaps to strengthen those we might uncover.
You are bound to me by years of love,
However distant they might to you prove,
Old, persistent childhood memories
Lingering like poignant melodies,
In which your grandfather, a child like me,
Dreamed of what his future life might be,
As I worshipped him, my older brother,
Years and years before his first-born daughter
Sang you in her knowing arms to sleep.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hap100.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Thursday, December 3, 2020

There Is No Better Time than Now

December 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem to a child of mixed religious heritage about the holidays as a time of celebration:

There is no better time than now
To celebrate and sing
The music of the holidays,
The songs that sweet thoughts bring!

Holidays are happy days,
Full of joy and fun,
Candles, lights, menorahs, trees,
And gifts for everyone!

Though the days are short and cold,
There is no better time
To laugh and play and happy be,
And generous and kind.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther45.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Health and Happiness to You and Yours

December 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem about dressing up holiday wishes in poetry:

Health and happiness to you and yours!
A wish that wings its way from heart to heart,
Pleasure's plenty, drawn from ample stores,
Poised to be converted into art.
Yet rhyme and meter are but bits of grace
Here to shape a feeling into song.
One has words one dresses up in lace
Lest for this more casual dress seem wrong.
Into greetings one pours all one's passion,
Destined for a well-worn, classic mold,
A fancy flaunting of poetic fashion
Yielding all the wish a heart can hold,
Singing, that the wish be sweetly told.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healt2.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holiday Season
November 30: How Good to Celebrate Both Holidays
December 1: Here We Have Three Holidays
December 2: Health and Happiness to You and Yours

Here We Have Three Holidays

December 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Happy Holidays poem to a child describing the three year-end holidays as three birds singing together in the snow:

Here we have three holidays,
All three in a row,
Perhaps like three bright songbirds
Perched upon the snow,
Yearly perched just so!

Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Day
Open up in song,
Lighting winter's darkest hours
In trills both sweet and strong,
Delighting children everywhere
As these three birds the season share,
Yielding joys beyond compare.
So come! Let's sing along!

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/here10.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holiday Season
November 30: How Good to Celebrate Both Holidays
December 1: Here We Have Three Holidays

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Monday, December 28, 2020

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Friday, December 25, 2020

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Monday, December 21, 2020

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Monday, December 14, 2020

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Friday, December 11, 2020

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Monday, December 7, 2020

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Friday, December 4, 2020

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

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