Poem of the Week

April 19, 2012 #681

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Earth Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each must save the Earth in multiple ways.
A vote can cut more carbon than a bulb.
Rules, like acid rain, can span the globe,
Taking aim at those whom blight won't faze.
Hard as many try, it will not do.
Development devours their mite and more.
An equal sacrifice requires a law.
Yet laws are passed by those obliged to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 12, 2012 #680

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eighty has good reason to be grateful.
If being is a gift, then he's been given
Gift enough to compensate for pain.
Happiness depends on being thankful,
The sense of grace that makes the moment heaven.
Years come and go – the longing stays the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 5, 2012 #679

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Passover and Easter.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Enter now the king, all but insane,
Accompanied by his daughter, who would be
Sacrificed to calm a raging sea,
The start of much bad blood, revenge, and pain.
Enter now the ram, who would retain
Remnants of that ancient agony,
Put in place of the child the father would free,
As God would not require a child again.
So enter now the lamb, a sacrifice
Self-sought to still that ancient desperation,
One that would turn the lust for blood to love.
Vengeance and desire turn hearts to ice
Even as the soul looks for salvation,
Restored by rites that would a god's heart move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 22, 2012 #677

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Spring.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Spring surprises us, no matter how
Prepared we are to revel in its bloom,
Returning far too late yet far too soon,
Instantly from bud to blossoming bough.
Nor does it wait for us to take it in,
Gone to green before it well has been.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 15, 2012 #676

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for St. Patrick's Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would satisfy their utmost longings,
Always reaching for what lies beyond.
I know well the soul has no belongings,
Neither short-term lease nor long-term bond.
Though I long for You, I know You're with me.
Peace comes through delivery from desire.
All Your love for all burns right through me.
There is nothing left that I require.
Rich in faith, I can be poor in fashion,
Intending but to be Your instrument.
Called to this green land, I preach Your passion.
Kings come to me through You, their crowned heads bent.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 8, 2012 #675

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Purim.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

“Purim” means “lots,” which wicked Haman drew,
Understanding thus the gods would choose,
Regarding when to massacre the Jews,
Ignorant of whose intent was whose,
More God's lot than any lot he threw.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 23, 2012 #673

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Leap Year Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the Earth catch up to us. We run
Each year a bit too fast, so we must wait,
Adjusting the dynamics to the date,
Pausing as the Earth spins round the sun.

Years do not line up with days, and so
Eventually summer would be spring.
A word serves just the thinker, not the thing.
Revolving Earth cares not what dates dates grow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 16, 2012 #672

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mardi Gras.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Morning will be time enough for sleep.
A person needs to revel now and then,
Returning home from passion only when
Daylight makes the ecstasy look cheap.
In sensuality there is much sense,
Gift of gods assigned to procreation.
Revelry can lead to revelation
As one for once ignores the consequence,
Selfless in the sanctum of sensation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 9, 2012 #671

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Valentine's Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Verities are strangely often true.
A lifelong love needs words, as faith needs prayer.
Let me, then, retell my love for you,
Each word alive with what is always there.
Nowhere else can passion be at ease,
Temptation without fear of consequence,
Instinct whose sole purpose is to please,
Nakedness made safe by innocence.
Even in the midst of work and worry,
'Mid doubts and disappointments, I am sure,
Surviving through the avarice and hurry,
Decent and restrained, is something pure.
As I am yours, so I know you're mine.
You are my love, my joy, my valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 26, 2012 #669

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Winter.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Winter wills white whispers into being,
Into frigid air white dancing death,
Needles that can take away one's breath,
Thick, soft flakes preventing one from fleeing,
Ending briefly in bright drifted hills,
Returning with the churning chaff that kills.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 19, 2012 #668

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar (Chinese) New Year, the Year of the Water Dragon.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no knowledge – only good opinion.
Happiness is not afraid of pain.
Each truth is limited to its dominion.
Years sweep away one's walls again, again.
Everyone knows better in their hearts,
Although their hearts know better than to know.
Reason is a razor's edge that parts
Objects from the fullness of their flow.
Fortune is a poor excuse for failure.
The only help one needs is what one gives.
Hard work and happiness extend one's tenure,
Ever more alive the more one lives.
Death is a prerequisite of time,
Revealing far more than it ever hides.
All is limitless, yet etched in lines,
Graven images of what abides.
One dragon, yes, can harmonize a song,
Needing only dreams to sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 12, 2012 #667

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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

Poem of the Week

January 5, 2012 #666

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Epiphany.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us might follow a bright star,
Perhaps to a redemptive revelation,
Intending, then, to change the way things are,
Passionate to socialize salvation.
However, please beware of what you do:
Ambition, even selfless, can turn sour.
No truth fits all, though burning inside you,
Yearning less for paradise than power.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 29, 2011 #666

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for New Year's.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy New Year, darling!
Another year gone by!
Peeling off the onion,
Pausing just to cry.
Yet what could be more lovely?
Nestled into need,
Embracing while dancing
Wherever life may lead.
Yearning is a blessing
Even though we have
All we've ever yearned for,
Rendered us by love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 22, 2011 #665

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Christmas.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Morning never comes on Christmas Day!
Eons pass and still the sun won't rise
Running late, the parents check closed eyes,
Retrieving gifts they long had hid away.
Years pass too quickly; loves and friendships stray.
Christmas comes and goes; the magic dies.
Happiness is hard and elsewhere lies.
Reality erodes one's sense of play.
Innocence remains a memory,
Sustaining hope and faith in later years,
The gift of what the child once believed.
Morning comes, of course, eventually,
As dreams give way to deep and unshed tears,
Still waiting for a glory long since grieved.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 15, 2011 #664

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Hanukkah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy candles dance with light
As children watch them with delight.
Now they flicker, now they glow,
Until the flames burn down too low.
Kindness is a candle bright
Kindled by an inner light,
A flame that brings an inner glow --
Happiness, as well you know!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 8, 2011 #663

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the holiday season.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Satisfaction, like the sea, is tidal.
Each day, each week, each month it comes and goes.
Along the heart's shore, feeling's never idle,
Singing across sand in tidal flows.
One's happiness is much more like the sun,
Not influenced by currents, winds, or moon,
Self-energized, a power plant of one,
Giving light that others need to bloom.
Remember, in this season of desire,
Every moment you are free to love,
Enveloping your fortune in your fire,
That all life's beauty might within you move.
In each of us there is an unspent yearning,
Needing, wanting, wishing, turning, churning.
Gladness may be seasonal, but grace
Sings its song outside of time and place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 24, 2011 #661

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Thanksgiving.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tell me, please, whom I ought to thank,
Having come here not of my own will.
All life can seem like a sadistic prank,
Nor can I count the creatures I must kill.
Kids imagine witches, werewolves, ghosts.
Scientists see horrors every day:
Guests that eat the insides of their hosts;
Insects that cut up their living prey.
Viciousness can sometimes seem the main
Ingredient in this well-seasoned stew;
Nor can I live without inflicting pain,
Grace for which I guess I should thank You.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 10, 2011 #659

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Veterans Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vast fields of crosses, all the same,
Each embellished with a name.
This is what your love had sought!
Embrace the child become a thought,
Reduced to regimented loss,
A name screwed on a plain, white cross!
Nor can you feel what you must feel
Since what is real cannot be real.
Devour the moment, make it yours,
As life continues on all fours,
Yearning, begging at closed doors.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 3, 2011 #658

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Adha.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each sacrifices what the heart loves most,
Imitating Abraham when he
Delivered Isaac to the eternal host,
Although with heavy heart, yet faithfully.
Love does not grasp, but gives away all things,
Aware of something holy in its fire,
Destined to retain the gifts it brings,
Having first relinquished the desire,
As Allah gives one all one would require.

© by Nicholas Gordon