Given That There Is No Explanation

 

A Chanukah poem about how Creation is equally a mystery to those who turn to reason or faith for an explanation:

 

Given that there is no explanation,

And that the provenance of the Creation,

Belief or no, remains a mystery,

Regarding how the whole thing came to be,

It makes no sense to squander sense on it.

Enjoy the candles, and when the last one's lit,

Love their loveliness, however lit.

 

Even so, one seeks an explanation:

Like one for Being, though there's none for it;

Like one for the creation of Creation,

Eternal Being bringing all to be.

Nor would no cause be less a mystery.

 

So faith and reason end in mystery,

Equally ignorant of what lit

The light from which all beings came to be,

Having no conclusive explanation

As to the existence of Creation,

Nor hint of what might be the cause of it,

Despite the tangibility of it.

Even so, the veil of mystery

Leads one to imagine the Creation,

Inventing how and why the void was lit,

Zealous for an ethical explanation,

A myth that makes love be the cause of be.

 

But one need not believe a myth to be

Open to the loveliness of it,

Nor need a theological explanation,

Nor care to solve a meta-mystery.

It might have been a miracle that lit

Eight days the lamps, as some say at Creation

A voice out of the void called forth Creation,

Needing out of love for us to be,

Demanding out of love our souls be lit,

Choosing not to be alone. It

Acts as fair use of a mystery,

Repurposing the role of explanation,

Making explanations of Creation

Exquisite art, that mystery might be

Not claimed by faith, but by the lamps it lit.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Heart Strings. By Coyote Hearing. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/given4.html. For more Chanukah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

How Explain the Miracle of Light

 

A Hanukkah poem about the miracle of light:

 

How explain the miracle of light?
A lamp's a miracle, refueled or no.
Nor is there aught that ought be more than night,
Unless some unmade maker make it so.
Know that nothing is but miracles,
Kindled from the void we know not how;
And God, if God there be, the greatest miracle,
Here within the sepulcher of now.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Wander. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

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

Remorse Is Not a Synonym for Shame

 A poem for Rosh Hashanah comparing remorse to shame:

Remorse is not a synonym for shame.

One is mainly outer; the other, inner.

So might fear of shame deter a sinner

Hidden 'neath the gilt of a good name.

 

However, remorse comes from within, a feeling

Arisen from the grave of innocence,

Still haunted by a mystic moral sense

Hemorrhaging a sorrow that is healing.

 

A fear of shame requires imagination,

Needing an imaginative eye,

As remorse needs an imaginative I

Harrowed by empathic transformation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Nocturne. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/remors.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Palpably, You Are in This Room

 A Passover poem about the presence of God at the Seder:

 Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us -- family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 Audio and Video Music: Dream of the Ancestor. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/palpab.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . 

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

March 25, 2010 #574
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Passover 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 and clicking on "Poem of the Week."
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Pour yourself like wine into the glass,
A liquid shaped by glass blown long ago,
Singing every year the words you know,
Songs that do not change as your years pass.
Old glass, new wine; new matter, ancient form;
Vintages that burst with life and joy;
Enduring hope no horror can destroy;
Ritual that makes a faith a home.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 10, 2009 #559

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah 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 and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Candles dance on their menorah,
Happy to be burning bright!
All the children dance the hora,
Nimbly leaping with delight!
Understand the miracle
Kindled by a match that sings,
A cantor with his canticle,
Here to give the moment wings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 24, 2009 #548

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You are not, will not, do not what you dream.
One accepts that one cannot be pure.
Moreover, there are sins you would redeem,
Knowing that your world remains secure.
In you there is a longing to be known,
Peered right through, as sun lights up a room,
Perhaps just as you promise to atone,
Understood and loved by One whose doom
Remains wet, not yet hardened into stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 2, 2009 #526

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Passover 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 and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us – family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 18, 2008 #512

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah 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 and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 9, 2008 #503

YOU'D LIKE A SHOT AT SERIOUS REDEMPTION

You'd like a shot at serious redemption,
Only, like us all, you have no clue.
Mostly satisfied, you leave your pew
Knowing that you've satisfied convention
Instead of being some more painful you.
Perhaps there is no other truth than this;
Perhaps the yearning must be unfulfilled.
Unredeemed, you pay your debts as billed,
Returning to a bliss that dreams of bliss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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