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

February 2, 2012 #670

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

Some would look for love when love is nigh,
Or fill their fantasies with love unreal,
Afraid to love, and thus afraid to feel,
Afraid to be entangled in a lie.
For love is a commitment that might tie
One to a choice one would, perhaps, repeal,
Leading to regrets one would conceal,
Since any time, it's true, one's love could die.
Simpler just to dream instead of be,
Since being is so hard, and dreaming easy,
Allowing one one's choices without choosing.
One cannot choose to love and still be free,
A gift of self that tends to make one queasy,
Not knowing what, by keeping, one is losing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 8, 2011 #650

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical love 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

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn't stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self's less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 11, 2011 #646

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about love.

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

Lest your love lie undisclosed,
Simply say what's in your heart,
With neither eloquence nor art,
Unafraid to be exposed.

Some fear their love might be accepted,
Inspiring an expectation;
Others fear humiliation,
Too restrained to be rejected.

Either way, you're sure to lose
By hiding what you know is true.
The love you feel is merely you
Rendered up to whom you choose.

So say it, let your love be known,
And be more fully who you are!
The fear of pain ought never bar
The joy that else might be your own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 19, 2010 #595
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary 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
 
Happy fourth anniversary --
A moment to reflect on life and love.
Praised be those who whittle what they see,
Presuming their surroundings to improve.
Yearning needs companionship, and choice
Finds most content when joined, as though in song,
Open to a harmonizing voice,
United in conviction twice as strong.
Rejoice, then, in the fortune of your fate,
The sweet dependence of your chosen state,
Happy in a love where you belong.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 8, 2010 #576
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary 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
 
Happy First Anniversary!
A moment to stand back and look at life,
Pleased with this first year as man and wife,
Pleased with dreams that now have come to be.
Yet these are just the first few opening measures:
For you there is a symphony in store,
In which the years will ask of you much more,
Rewarding you with rich and varied pleasures.
So may this moment sing of joy and love,
The first of many that your hearts will move.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 11, 2010 #568

Dear Subscriber:

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

Blessed are those who cherish well their loves!
Each enduring love is like a river:
Making bloom the land through which it moves,
Yielding bounty in exchange for labor.
Very few appreciate this treasure,
As most desire more while giving less,
Liable to miss joy pursuing pleasure,
Each dragged into love under duress.
Nor does one understand so easily
That love requires one to be a lover:
Intimate in ways that set one free,
Needing for one's sense of self the other,
Even as one is oneself an other.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 4, 2010 #567

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

Desire is
The hook
Love
The eye
Which forgives
More
Than it
Is
Willing to
See

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 7, 2010 #563

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary 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

Happiness hangs loosely on your lives,
A garment that you wear with fortune's blessing.
Praised be both the wisdom and the will
Pressed between the pages of your days,
Years and years of choices amid chances.

For now, this day, the rhapsody revives
Old memories of love beyond expressing,
Returned as music, passionate and still,
That turns and turns with wonder as it plays,
Yearning that refuses trite romances.

There is a place in all love that survives --
Home, where nakedness needs no undressing,
In which, with candor and sufficient skill,
Reason turns away its clear-eyed gaze,
Deferring to the heart, which weeps and dances.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 19, 2009 #556

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about marriage.

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

I do not understand why you don't love me.
You loved me once. What changed? What did I do?
Your eyes are mirrors in which I can't see me.
Your lips are closed, a door I can't pass through.
For years we shared our bodies, thoughts, and lives.
Now we lie at night encased in stone.
Something's turned the simplest words to knives.
I live with you, and yet I live alone.
I do not want to be the one who leaves.
After all, I'm not the one who changed.
But dead is dead, and for the one who grieves,
The loved one should be gone, not just estranged.
You say that nothing's wrong and all is well,
But I well know the truth you will not tell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 20, 2009 #544

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love poem. I will be leaving on vacation from August 21 – August 31. The next poem of the week will be sent out on September 3.

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

Once more, with feeling, please! I've had enough
Of lubricated passion come and gone!
Years and years and years and years of stuff
Squirting, squirting, squirt – and then it's done!
With feeling, please! Companionship, affection,
Shared pain, shared joy, shared silences, shared thoughts.
Not ecstasy fast moving towards rejection,
Frantic with the fear of time and loss.
Slow down, life! Slow down, and be content
Just to be awhile, and let love grow
Or not, as seedlings by the wind are sent
To find their bit of fertile earth, or no.
Let there be no ecstasy until
The plant has been well tended by the will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 13, 2009 #543

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary 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

Happy third anniversary!
A time for celebration and reflection.
Praised be those who live as they believe,
Pursuing through each act some deep connection.
Years refine what none can grasp or see.

There is in every love not two but three:
Happiness requires consecration,
Requires some sweet angel both conceive
Equally, the child of their relation,
Elf of the heart, who binds them spiritually.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 25, 2009 #538

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about love and lust.

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

Lust is no more physical than love.
Feeling is the fuel that feeds that fire,
A flame that might, controlled, pure pleasure prove.
The language of the psyche is desire.
One is dragged towards ecstasy by need:
For power, vengeance, salience, self-esteem.
One wants sometimes to make one's landscape bleed,
To penetrate the borders of the dream.
Lust's a fantasy, sometimes made real,
Oft sustained by willful ignorance.
The more one sees, the more one's apt to feel
A need for what the love of others grants.
Within love's bounds, lust can be a joy;
Outside of love, it is a child's toy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 28, 2009 #534

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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

WEDDING VOWS

BRIDE: I vow to love you all my life,
In sickness and in health,
And share your journey through this world
In poverty or wealth.

I vow to give myself to you,
To trust you with my life,
To be your source of happiness
As lover and as wife.

GROOM: I vow to give you all my love,
To be your lasting friend,
To care for you and comfort you
Till time and toil end.

I vow to share your happiness
And sorrow, joy and tears,
And be for you the one true thing
That lasts through all your years.

BOTH: These vows we make not knowing what
Good times or ill may come,
But knowing well what good we want:
A joyful, loving home.

These vows we make of our free will
Before you all, that we
Might know the grace of love that comes
To those who loving be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 5, 2009 #518

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

The bond of love is not desire, but need.
Desire fades; need with wisdom grows:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

But why the need to need when one is freed
By needing less of that which comes and goes?
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

And why need to be needed? Why should one cede
What one might well enjoy for what one owes?
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Are longings of the sower for the seed,
And the seed for the sower, who whistles as he sows.
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

Love is longing, by dint of death decreed,
The beauty and the terror life bestows,
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Embedded in one's being, as indeed,
Being needs Creation, which it once chose.
The bond of love is not desire, but need:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 29, 2009 #517

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

Love comes unexpectedly,
An arrow to the heart,
But stays only reluctantly
Through patience, will, and art.

The full-length version of the story
Has both joy and pain,
Boredom, lust, betrayal, glory,
Anger, comfort, shame.

It ends in grief, inevitably,
Through death or separation,
The harshness of the agony
As strong as the relation.

So why, then, love? And why persist
In love long after passion
Has gone its way? And why resist
An urge one need not ration?

The answer is in something more
Than fantasy and pleasure --
A passion passion never saw,
A hunger beyond measure;

A longing for the One in one
One longs for all one's life,
And is, and has, and will become
In time as man and wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon