Monday, January 27, 2025

Holocausts Are Sui Generis

 




A poem for Holocaust Remembrance Day:

 

Holocausts are sui generis.
One sees in all the same totality.
Lest one think they're not so numerous,
One finds some in Deuteronomy.
Can the annihilation of Sihon,
An utterly explicit genocide,
Under God's command to overrun
Some lands where only Jews might now reside,
Thus stated be aught else? How can a Jew
So soon, so soon, such nightmares still pursue?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Parzival. By William Rosati. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holoca.html. For more poems about Jewish history and culture, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewishpoems.html .



Monday, January 20, 2025

Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race


 

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about the ubiquity of hatred:

 

Hatred has no color, creed, or race.
All hate, more or less, and thus destroy
The fragile ecosystem of the heart,
Restoring which requires faith and grace.
Each must love for any hope of joy,
Disciplining hate with well-honed art.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Don’t Look Inside. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hatred.html. For more poems for MLK’s birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .




Monday, January 13, 2025

January Waits, Unsentimental

 A calendar poem for January:

 


January waits, unsentimental,
Again born into beauty, cruel and kind.
Nor cold nor darkness fools the wily child,
Unweeping in a brutal wind and wild,
As the Earth turns passionless and blind.
Rejoicing in her birth, she dons the mantle,
Yearning to recall what lies behind.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Revelation. By Jeremy Blake. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/januar.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .



Monday, January 6, 2025

Every Moment Is a Revelation

 


A poem for Epiphany about the revelation that waits behind the scrim of every moment:

 

Every moment is a revelation
Placed behind the scrim of what one sees.
In every unremarkable sensation,
Poised to dance, some truth awaits a breeze.
How might one then step behind the veil,
Alive in ways one was not meant to live?
None can bear such beauty long, nor fail,
Yet yearning, to revere what grace might give.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/every6.html. For more poems for Epiphany, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .