Poem of the Week

May 5, 2011 #632

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mother'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 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

Hinder not the happiness
Alive within the heart.
Perhaps it's only natural,
Perhaps it is an art.
Yet many rarely feel it,
Many do not know
Of the eternal music
That makes the moment flow.
How might one listen to it
Except to sing and dance,
Reveling in beauty
'Mid clarity and trance?
Singing to the mothers,
Dear vessels of the soul,
As Mary was to Jesus,
Yielding glory whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 28, 2011 #631

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 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

Fortune is the child of will and chance.
In seeking cause, one finds a mute regression.
For some, life is an incandescent dance,
Though others tend to look at it askance,
Yearning for what's not in their possession.

Nor can one ever know what would have been.
In judging fortune, there is no reward.
Now is what one has to choose or spin,
Ever of one's will the sovereign lord.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 21, 2011 #630

Dear Subscriber:

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

Enduring does not lead to happiness.
A person ought not suffer out of duty.
Some choose to sacrifice under duress,
Taking as cruel chance what could be beauty.
Each ought to give for love, as did the Lord,
Reckoning the grace as the reward.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 24, 2011 #622

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 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

There is no better time of life than now.
Whatever age you are, this time is best.
Ever in the prime of life, the soul
Needs no source of joy more than the whole,
The One, in whom contingent souls are blessed.
Yet one finds joy as time and change allow.

So may you know the pleasures of your years
Even as they pass, for others come,
Vivid in the moments of their being.
Each lives in both the datum and the sum.
Nor can one separate delight from tears.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 13, 2011 #616

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 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

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

Poem of the Week

December 23, 2010 #613
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas 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
 
Merely being is a miracle.
Each is both aware and unaware.
Running underneath one's thoughts, a canticle
Repeats one's silent gratitude as prayer.
Yet life does not allow for much devotion,
Claustrophobic in its constant need.
Hunger puts the mind in constant motion,
Reckoning the harvest from the seed.
In ritual and art one finds a moment
Still enough to peer into the deep,
To see beneath the will the wonderment,
Music of such joy that one must weep.
As angels sing, so sing that you might hear
Silence that no mortal long can bear.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 18, 2010 #608
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a set of proverbs.
 
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
 
SELFISHNESS AND SELFLESSNESS
 
1. The last vestige of egotism is the desire to sacrifice oneself for others.
2. The reward for self-sacrifice is self-adulation.
3. The desire to “make a difference” is a desire for personal significance, the cause of much evil, error, and pain.
4. True selflessness requires one to relinquish the desire for power.
5. The motivations for action ought always to be joy and love.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 4, 2010 #606
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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
 
Generations are like streams
Fed by storms in paradise,
Leaping down in waterfalls
That smash upon the rocks below.
 
More placid now, they bear the weight
Of barges on their oily breasts,
And cool the coils of power plants,
And make of love a sacrifice.
 
Near the sea they flatten out
And drop their rage among the reeds,
A swamp of toxic testament
Filtered through the mangrove roots.
 
They start and end with love. Between,
They pick up silt and carry it
Through life, up to the delta's edge,
Where, washed by fear, they join the sea.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 21, 2010 #604
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a 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 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
 
Fifty-one is entering the fall,
In which the colors of her life will brighten.
For her the painted world is but a wall
That shields a void no passion can enlighten.
Yet one can mime its mystery in all.
 
O season of remembrance! A shawl
Now covers the dark branches that will whiten,
Each laden with a dream none will recall.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 14, 2010 #603
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a political 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
 
The triumph of the victor means
The losses have begun.
To be well-nigh invincible
Is to be on the run.
 
Power is a current that
Goes swiftly out to sea.
One's will is wind on grass; one's only
Hope is to be free.
 
Safety lies in wisdom more than
Strength since strength must die,
While wisdom rides the waves beneath which
Sunken victors lie.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 23, 2010 #600
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a friendship 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

May poetry flow
From your moonlit garden,
From your cool, dark fountain,
Untouched by age.
 
May your spirit read
The book of life
With the same enchantment
As the child within.
   
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 9, 2010 #598
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Rosh Hashanah 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
 
Reason ought not be the enemy
Of myth, but rather its interpreter,
Showing one what else one might not see,
Hindsight to which faith might well refer.
Holding onto myth does not require
A blindness to what science has to say.
Salvation is not merely a desire
Hoped for in some long-outmoded way.
A myth, like art, sustains itself through beauty,
Not only true, but doing double duty
As both the cast of conscience and the fire,
Habitude no argument need sway.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 26, 2010 #596
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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
 
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

Poem of the Week

July 15, 2010 #590
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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
 
Here among the cabbages
A rhapsody takes root,
Pastorale for savages,
Passion that bears fruit.
Yearning is unquenchable,
A thirst no drink can slake,
Nor can a desperate canticle
Need's brutal chokeholds break.
Instead, there is a symphony
Vast as all that is,
Echo of eternity,
Replica of bliss,
So beautiful and lasting
All must their spirits buoy,
Replenishing the passing
Years with love and joy.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 8, 2010 #589
 
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 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

Fortune comes in many shapes and guises.
It is by choice what one might never choose.
For those who like to limit their surprises,
There's always less to gain and more to lose.
Years bring heartbreak one cannot refuse.
 
Even so, one's fortune is oneself.
If choice and chance like lovers bring to birth
Good progeny or bad, there is no gulf
Hovering between one's wish and worth.
There is but one ecology, one Earth.
   
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 24, 2009 #561

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas 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

Make not much of what you're missing;
Each gets gifts as they come due.
Rest assured, regarding wishing:
Riches are reserved for you.
Years of want require wanting;
Christmas gives what one receives.
Happiness ought not seem daunting,
Renting space in what one grieves.
In your heart is all you need,
Sustained by giving it away.
Though you burn and break and bleed,
Mere suffering's no place to stay.
As you are is as you will,
Sure of winds that wish you well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 3, 2009 #558

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Years turn the pages; the book remains.
No one can see the life it contains.
The story is over; it sits on a shelf
Outside of time, complete in itself.
Ah! Could we know! But never we will.
Now it is sealed, silent and still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 12, 2009 #555

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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

You live in the world you choose.
Each act is a creation.
The evil and the good
Combine in just proportion.

What you see and know,
What you think and feel,
What you are and do --
All are by your choice.

Choose love, and you'll be loved.
Choose hate, and you'll be hated.
Everything you choose,
You'll see in others' eyes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 22, 2009 #552

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a set of proverbs.

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 UNCERTAINTY OF CERTAINTY

1. If you're sure you're right, you're probably wrong.

2. What one needs to believe is precisely what one needs not to believe.

3. Certainty is a wall one erects around doubt. The stronger the doubt, the stronger the wall.

4. The most consistent source of error is not ignorance but knowledge.

5. What we know is like a flashlight on a moonless night -- essential for getting around. But often it is better to turn the flashlight off and let our eyes get used to the dark.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 1, 2009 #549

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a congratulations poem for a new home.

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

Home is the habit that dwells in habitation.
Out of the familiar comes the longing,
Making place a matter of belonging,
Enduring urge that hungers for relation.

© by Nicholas Gordon