January 31, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the desire to share beauty:

Thirty-four sings softly in the moonlight,
Hoping to disturb a passing soul.
In beauty only does one see God's face,
Reckoning the power by the grace,
Touching so the sunlight in the coal.
Years of song are swallowed by the night.

Fear not, for the miracle of sight
Opens up a window on the whole,
Unveiling a glimpse of time and place
Resplendent as the song one sings alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/34b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation
January 30: Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs
January 31: Thirty-Four Sings Softly in the Moonlight

Thirty-Four Sings Softly in the Moonlight

January 31, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the desire to share beauty:

Thirty-four sings softly in the moonlight,
Hoping to disturb a passing soul.
In beauty only does one see God's face,
Reckoning the power by the grace,
Touching so the sunlight in the coal.
Years of song are swallowed by the night.

Fear not, for the miracle of sight
Opens up a window on the whole,
Unveiling a glimpse of time and place
Resplendent as the song one sings alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/34b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation
January 30: Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs
January 31: Thirty-Four Sings Softly in the Moonlight

Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs

January 30, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem for a youth-orchestra conductor whose glorious visions will never be realized:

Thirty-five has all the joy he needs,
Having memorized the sacred score.
Infinite beauty rests within his hands,
Rising from a sea of music stands,
The sound mere presence to the silent core,
Yet far from the rendition that he reads.

For now, the faint allusion that he leads
Intensifies his avarice for more,
Visioning the glory he demands
Even though but life can lie in store.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/35d.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation
January 30: Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs

Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation

January 29, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem for a singer-songwriter who uses her past as the soil for her creation:

Sixty-five suspends her animation,
Immersed within a wistful melody.
Xylophones accompany her song,
The wave of wonder rising from her sea,
Yearning overwhelming all sensation.

For her the past is neither right nor wrong.
Instead it is the soil for her creation,
Vast fields of darkness sown by memory,
Ever yielding tunes she must pass on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/65c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation

Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music

January 28, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem for someone who listens to her inner music:

Forty-seven listens to her music,
Open to the melody within.
Rich with revelation, she remains
The dancer, ever ready to begin,
Yielding to the moment's unchanged magic.

So is music ever an alembic,
Ethereal beneath one's tell-tale skin,
Viscerally abstract, the sea in chains,
Embassy of some angelic twin,
Not you, but you, elusive, endless, tantric.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/47b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music

Isabella Loves the Sound of Music

January 27, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about the music that makes a soul rise to its sacred space:

Isabella loves the sound of music,
Standing as she does beside her self.
A song might offer words, were she to choose it,
But word are curtains to the little elf.
Each note is like a bell that's struck in heaven,
Lining all the boulevards with grace.
Let none be more or less, but all be leaven,
As her soul rises to its sacred space.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/isabel.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music

Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty

January 26, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the rewards of a career in music:

Thirty-seven is immersed in beauty,
Having served it since he was quite young.
If such a choice demands some sacrifice,
Refusing with regret the merely nice,
To live with the sublime cannot be wrong,
Yearning for it with a sense of duty.

So the moment flows, nor plain nor pretty,
Even as the time, nor short nor long,
Vale of voices passionate, precise,
Eases into clarity, a song
Nor more nor less than perfect, priceless, plenty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/37f.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty

Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz

January 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a ninety-five-year-old jazz critic and aficionado:

Now is just the time for non-stop jazz,
Is just the perfect time to bop one's beep!
Ninety-five's the time for razzmatazz,
Enduring syncopation, life offbeat,
The music wailing, as it always has,
Years and years more life on old Beale Street.

Forget the rap, the punk, the rock and roll!
If the legs give way, the mind still swings,
Vividly in sync with funky soul,
Easing on down songs the moment sings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz

Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

January 24, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A political epitaph for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday comparing political movements to ceaseless waves:

Movements are like waves upon the shore
As they break across the yielding sand,
Rushing ravenously up, and then withdraw,
Though not before remodeling the land.
If change awaits high tide, so let it be.
Nor will waves cease to break when tides are low.
Let us fight for justice ceaselessly,
Uplifted by the seaward undertow.
There is no disappointment in my song,
However much injustice still remains.
Each generation needs to come on strong,
Reckoning the incremental gains.
Know that I am proud of what we've won
In spite of all the lives and labor lost.
No cause well worth one's love is ever done.
Good is good regardless of the cost.
Justice is a wave that breaks, and then
Returns, returns, again, again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/moveme.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 21: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2
January 22: Meaning Is a Morning Song
January 23: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land
January 24: Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

January 23, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

An epitaph for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the usefulness of an unrealizable dream:

Moses never reached the promised land,
And I, too, died upon that distant mountain,
Resting on the laurels of my dream.
There is no end to struggle, no safe refuge
In which one can say, yes, I have arrived,
No longer feel the guilt of privilege,
Let go the fierce anxiety for justice,
Untie the knots of conscience in one's soul.
The promised land's a vision, not a place,
Held within the unrelenting heart.
Each generation must behold its beauty,
Reach for its uncompromising goodness,
Know that its long looked-for realization
Is in a time zone one will never see.
No matter. There's a joy in going forward
Greater than the joy of going home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mosesn.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 21: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2
January 22: Meaning Is a Morning Song
January 23: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A philosophical name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the need for hope and love to bring about change:

Meaning is a morning song,
A dawn, a dance of light.
Reason merely sings along
To get the lyrics right.
In what you know is what you are,
Not what you'll become.
Let not sight your vision bar,
Undone by what is done.
To love must be to hope, for love
Has far too much to lose.
Embrace the good you're wary of,
Refusing to refuse.
Knowledge is as knowledge does.
It so quickly turns to was.
Now is ever when
Grace will come again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani3.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 21: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2
January 22: Meaning Is a Morning Song

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2

January 21, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A philosophical name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about living for more than oneself:

Maybe there is more to life than living.
A person is a ripple in a stream,
Roiling the waters with a dream,
The revelation that makes life worth giving.
In love one finds a reason for believing,
Needing love to make life more than seem,
Love that makes the mundane moment gleam,
Undoing fate with faith, and death with grieving.
There is no love but at the risk of death,
Having valued something more than self,
Embracing what gives life to life, and grace,
Replacing fear of death or loss with joy.
Know then that the dreaded end of breath
Is not the end one ought to aim for, else
None would speak to fortune face to face,
Granted life no bullet can destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe6.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 21: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2

Maybe It's a Little Strange that I

January 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about changing the name of the holiday to Freedom Day:

Maybe it's a little strange that I
Am now the only one whose day of birth
Remains a holiday. I don't know why
That honor should be mine alone. My worth
Is certainly no more than Washington's,
Nor do I more than Lincoln days deserve.
Let me then suggest a change: Once
Unmoored from my name, let the holiday serve
To honor not the person but the cause,
Healing racial wounds, pursuing justice,
Examining the morals of our mores,
Revisiting the pain of prejudice.
Kings require homage; this king would
Instead be an occasion for remembrance:
Not of me, but of all who fought for good,
Giving “Freedom Day” its proper sense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe9.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A philosophical name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the difficulty of making one’s dream a reality:

Maybe more than love was needed.
All my love was not enough.
Reason is but rarely heeded.
Talk means little at the trough.
Icons look good on the wall.
Nothing changes but the names.
Love is merely protocol.
Undiluted fear remains.
The life is fast, the changes slow.
Hope must be its own reward.
Eventually, the undertow
Returns, returns towards times untoward.
Kings build castles in the sand.
Infinity awaits the tide.
None can settle on the strand.
Grace must live with fratricide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybem.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

Make of Me a Hero

January 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A political name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday comparing his days as an icon to his days as an activist:

Make of me a hero, but I was
A failure in what mattered most to me.
Remember well the ill that sainthood does,
Taking holiness for victory.
I think we are as far away as ever,
Not from equal laws but equal lives.
Little has been done to make life better,
Unless you like the shift to guns from knives.
The icon of my face is now a mask
Hiding the destruction of the poor.
Each day is worse for millions than the last.
Raging unregarded is a war.
Know, then, though our president might be black,
I would march again, could I come back,
No icon, but a loving, peaceful scourge,
Gathering strength where race and class converge.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeo2.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero

Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion

January 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for an elderly woman who continues to sing with undiminished passion:

Clara sings with undiminished passion,
Leaning all her strength into the wind.
A soul need not such lifelong pleasures ration,
Relishing what grace she still can fashion,
A labor that she would not leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/connor.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness
January 16: Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune
January 17: Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion

Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune

January 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about the full range of emotion within the ecstatic joy of beauty:

Connor sings a classic Irish tune,
Open to the wild western wind.
Neither sentiment nor well-worn words
Need keep him from the ecstasy of birds,
Overwhelmed by beauty, brute and blind,
Reserved for those who bleed, as from a wound.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/connor.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness
January 16: Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune

There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

January 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem to a deceased loved one about not wanting to let go:

There is no threnody for utter darkness,
Nor dirge for nothingness, nor song for silence.
I sing to you in all your piercing presence.
You are not gone, but haunting in your nearness.
My pain is unrelenting in its starkness,
Unmerciful. Your ever-present absence
Becomes the heart of me, my grieving essence,
As I hold you in the shadow of your stillness.
Ah, my darling! I'll not let you go
Though years pass through the chamber of my sorrow
And memory alight upon my will.
Sweet winds may through my open windows blow,
Yet I will sing to you upon the morrow
And dance with you across the sunlit sill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/there7.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option

January 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A political number poem for someone who uses song to follow the family tradition of political activism:

Silence never was a long-term option,
Even in the years not fit for song.
Vested in your heart a legacy
Endures of a humane morality,
Not bound to faith or tribe, but to a long
Tradition of family in the ranks of reason,
Years and generations deep and strong.

Then sing, sing of love and peace with passion,
With all the beauty, wisdom, clarity
One voice can yield to the winds of right and wrong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/silen3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option

Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future

January 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number and teen poem about how a choir of dreams might help an adolescent grow into an adult:

Sing of dreams, those blueprints of the future,
Images hovering in the western sky,
XXX's on the chalkboard of one's choices!
Then listen to that choir of many voices!
Embrace them all for now, that by and by
Each might share the grace of its illusion,
Needed to enrich one's reasons why.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing19.html. For more teen poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/teenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future

For You, May Every Moment Sing

January 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical love and number poem about rejoicing in the beauty of song:

For you, may every moment sing
Of love and beauty. May your heart
Rejoice with melodies that bring --
Though cold wind wail and hard rain sting --
You grace to serve with wit and art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fory17.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing

Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song

January 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the significance of song:

Everyone finds comfort in a song,
In the sweetness of a well-wrought tune,
Grace resounding through a mundane room,
Held by beauty as one sings along,
The ecstasy that turns the heart from wrong,
Yearning like a flower in full bloom.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever10.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song

Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

January 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who has dropped out of the race for success:

Zachary lets go a long-held longing
Amid his contemplation of the race.
Chastening a tide of heartfelt yearning,
He goes to some quite ordinary place.
As life unfolds, he dances through its shadow,
Redundant as a grain upon a meadow
Yielding to the wind across its face.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/zachar.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends
January 9: Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light
January 10: Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light

January 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem for someone immersed in the beauty of the moment:

Sixty-eight sings silently of light,
Inner song reflecting inner grace.
Xylophones send messages by wind:
Tapestries no hand can hope to trace;
Yearnings no beatitude can blight.

Even in the fortress of the mind,
Intimations of the coming night
Give way to what no fortune can rescind:
Here, and only here, is paradise,
The moment that gives beauty time and place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/68b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends
January 9: Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light

Robert Is a Light unto His Friends

January 8, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who struggles to live the means while letting go of the ends:

Robert is a light unto his friends.
Old wisdom whistles sweetly through his day.
Before breakfast he puts his hopes away,
Eager to clear a passage to his heart.
Robert wrestles daily with his art:
To live the means and let go of the ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/robert.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends

Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures

January 7, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who is able to preserve his pleasures by embracing his pain:

Lewis is a symphony of pleasures,
Embracing much that, shunned, would bring pure pain.
While death and illness, loss and hunger reign,
In him there is a treasuring of treasures:
Simple savoring, sweet-tongued and sane.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lewis.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures

I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun

January 6, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical poem about the realization that the gifts of life come from beyond the self:

I know I cannot satisfy the sun
Nor earn the pleasures of a quiet day;
Spring is not a prize that I have won,
Nor am I here because I've had my say.
My thoughts are not the product of my wits,
Nor are my myths the product of my dreams;
I am a confluence of moments -- bits
Of longing borne by cold and laughing streams.
Love also is a gift beyond deserving:
Large-eyed, nocturnal, armed with delicate paws;
Nudging shameless for affection, serving
Equally my need and its own laws.
Miraculously delivered, drunk with light,
I stagger towards the long-expected night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iknow8.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun

Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being

January 5, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem about someone who has learned that losses in one area of life can result in gains in another, and vice versa:

Forty-three finds happiness in being
Open to the unreflective wind.
Reason would reduce the untrimmed sail,
Though love would run full speed ahead, and blind,
Yearning for what there's no hope of seeing.

The beauty of the run itself is freeing,
Having left safe harbor far behind.
Remember: One does not succeed or fail,
Ever losing what one wins in kind,
Ever granted grace without agreeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/43b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being

Fifty-Seven's Not Afraid of Silence

January 4, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem about a woman who visits the altar of her soul:

Fifty-seven's not afraid of silence,
In which the self can take a well-earned breath.
For her there is no urgency to time,
There being an eternity till death.
Years are but the borders of remembrance.

So does she find the doorway to her presence,
Entrance to which needs no shibboleth,
Visiting an oft-neglected shrine.
Even as she walks her length and breadth,
Not moving, she beholds her radiance.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/57.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence

Single Life Is Hard for Those Who've Shared

January 3, 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 number poem for someone who has lost his or her spouse and must begin a new life alone:

Single life is hard for those who've shared
Each day with someone whom they've deeply loved.
Valuing the quiet loneliness,
Even pain and everyday distress,
Needs a joy in life that's unimpaired.
There's no secret way to happiness,
Yet love is known to have great sadness moved.

For you I wish a garden of bright days
In which you stroll among sweet-scented flowers.
Vistas of great peace must fill your hours,
Even as your sad-tinged music plays.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/single.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
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
January 2: Here’s to Chey and Corey
January 3: Single Life Is Hard for Those Who’ve Shared

Here's to Chey and Cory

January 2, 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 wedding poem in the form of a toast to a couple with a child about to begin a new life:

Here's to Chey and Cory!
To a long and happy life
In an Eden of their making
As a husband and a wife.

Here's to Chey and Cory!
To the passion and the will
That has brought them here together:
May it long sustain them still!

Here's to Chey and Cory!
And to Adria - all three!
And to the grace and courage
That creates a family.

May they love each other
With a love that binds them fast
To the things in life that matter
And the ecstasies that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/heres.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.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
January 2: Here’s to Chey and Corey