So Many Years! And Now We Take for Granted

 

A political poem, written after 9/11, about the mistake of fighting terror as you would a conventional war:

 

So many years! And now we take for granted

What would have been unthinkable before

The terror that our leader called a war,

And life became more mean, less sure, more haunted.

But was it war? Or was that notion planted

By those who wished their murders could mean more,

Puffed up to fit the oft-recited lore

Of ancient enmities long since recanted?

Oh, do not dignify them with that word,

Or make them larger than they might appear,

Or justify their murders with our own!

There is no quick solution by the sword.

Our only option is to persevere,

Rebuilding bit by bit, but not alone.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soman1.html. For more poems about terrorism and 9/11, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terrorism911poems.html .

Forever Isn't Endless Time

 

A philosophical number poem about the meaning of forever:

 

Forever isn't endless time.
It isn't time at all.
For time's the measurement of change,
Though it be miniscule.

Yet ever means forever true,
Shorn of time and place,
Inserted into everydays,
Xeroxes of grace.

Years wash in and out as we
Experience forever.
A moment is eternity
Rolling on a river,
Still miraculous as ever.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Ceremonial Prelude. By Sir Cubworth. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fore10.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

The Passion of Love, the Passion of Lust

 

A 33^rd anniversary poem contrasting the sexual pleasures of love and lust:

 

The passion of love, the passion of lust:
How might they lead to the same burst of glory
If each drives the plot of a quite different story,
Resulting in mutual joy or disgust?
The answer is not in the act, but intent:
Yielding or sharing, giving or getting.
The direction of flow determines the setting,
Here, where the consequence shapes the event.
Remember that passion unlaces the heart;
Each touch is a doorway into the soul;
Each slow tongue-kiss renders a taste of the whole,
Yielding up truth as each joy plays its part.
Embrace, then, the person, and not just the flesh,
As one should feel safe in a state of undress.
Reveal not your riches, but to one whom you trust,
Saving for someone you love your chaste lust.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Emotional Love Theme. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thepa3.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

Exactly Who Are You

 

A philosophical Easter poem about one way of knowing what one owes others:

 

Exactly who are you? Why are you here?
And what is your purpose? And why should you care?
So what if there's suffering? What's it to you?
The world's not your problem. What more should you do?
Ever the question: What do I owe?
Reckon by beauty, and then you will know.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Kiss for Amanda. By DJ Williams. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/exact3.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

Perhaps There Is No Richer Ritual

 

A poem for Passover about the endurance of the ritual:

Perhaps there is no richer ritual:
A stirring tale, food, wine, prayer, and song,
Some history -- some real, some mythical --
Soul-seeds sown each spring, who knows how long?
One comes and goes; the memory remains,
Vividly present to each generation.
Enduring by evolving, it retains,
Restores, renews the ID of a nation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Gymnopedie. By Erik Satie. Arranged by Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perh13.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

Signs of Happiness

 

A philosophical number poem listing some signs of happiness:

Signs of happiness: A clear vocation;
Intimacy rooted in relation;
Xeroxed memories relived as art;
Tears that flow from springs within the heart;
Yearnings that yield wine with fermentation;

Faith in oneself, in others, in some purpose
Offering the ruthless gift of service;
Unity of thought, belief, and act;
Relentless dreams that shape the coasts of fact.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Wonder. By VYEN. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

 

A poem for St. Patrick’s Day:

 

Sing of the home that you have never seen,
The place your ancestors once called their own!
Play the music of that island green,
And dance the dances dear to those long gone!
Time again to fill their dancing shoes,
Reawakening the ghosts within,
In touch with some incendiary muse,
Channeling the beauty that had been.
Knowledge is not merely of the mind:
'Tis of the arms and legs, the throat, the heart.
Sing, that you not lose your soul to time!
Dance, that you might nurture it through art!
As all your passions quickly become past,
Yet you may give life to things that last.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Runnin Partner. By Aaron Lieberman. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo4.html. For more poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

Cheryl, Unlike Most, Has to Decide

 

A name poem for Cheryl, who has inoperable cancer:

 

Cheryl, unlike most, had to decide,
Having inoperable cancer, whether being --
Each moment she was thinking, knowing, seeing --
Remained worth the cure she must abide,
Yearning to know what the future had to hide,
Looking at God's gift horse eye to eye.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Dance of the U-boat. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

Note: My website, https://www.poemsforfree.com, is temporarily disabled due to a domain name registration change. To see more of my work, please visit my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@Poemsforfree .

"Purim" Means "Lots," Which Wicked Haman Threw

 A poem for Purim that juxtaposes human intent and God’s:

 

“Purim” means “lots,” which wicked Haman threw,
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 drew.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bucolic Acrylic. By Dan Bodan. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

Note: My website, https://www.poemsforfree.com, is temporarily disabled due to a domain name registration change. To see more of my work, please visit my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@Poemsforfree .

Forty-Three's a Summer Afternoon

 

A number poem about being at the age of forty-three:

 

Forty-three's a summer afternoon

On a weekday bathed in molten light.

Rivers slide through pools of gold. Bright birds

Take off from branches thick with sheltering leaves.

Yet shadows start to lengthen 'cross the lawn.

 

There you are, listening for a tune,

Hearing one from somewhere out of sight,

Remembering the song, but not the words.

Every note's a joy, a gift one grieves.

Every night's another chance for dawn.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/43g.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

Politics Must Temper Greed with Dreams

 

A poem for Presidents Day:

 

Politics must temper greed with dreams,
Regarding both as reasons to seek power,
Ends that would forego non-peaceful means
So long as each in turn might claim its hour.
In such ebb and flow the Founders found
Democracy, that perfect imperfection,
Establishing for all a common ground:
None rule without winning an election.
The key to governance is compromise,
Seeking a consensus that will yield,
'Mid interest groups of every stripe and size,
Distinct majorities that power wield.
Autocrats take power by violent means,
Yet democrats take power through greed and dreams.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Renaissance Castle. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/polit2.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

You Are the Landscape of My Life

 

A poem for Valentine’s Day:

 

You are the landscape of my life,
The only place I feel at home,
The view familiar to my heart,
The woods and fields I call my own.

 

You are the music of my life,
The melody I silent sing,
The harmony beneath my words,
The rhythm of my wandering.

 

You are the space in which I live,
The boundary of my ecstasy,
The pleasure palace of my dreams,
The flesh that fills my fantasy.

 

All this you are to me and more,
A soul so much a part of mine
That when I look within, you are
In me, my love, my valentine.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Kiss the Sky. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/youa10.html. For more poems for Valentine’s Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

You're like Music Playing in My Head

 

A love poem describing the experience of new love:

 

You're like music playing in my head
Everywhere I go from day to day.
I try a door and think of you instead,
Not knowing where I am or what I'll say.
I live in a perpetual embrace,
Hugging the sweet thought that you are mine.
Walking through a park I touch your face,
Not caring if there's rain or bright sunshine.
The cause must be, of course, our love is new;
It can't go on like this for years and years.
I must take note of other things than you
And clear my head of smiles and grateful tears.
Yet such talk seems fantasy to me:
The world's the dream, and you reality.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/youre.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

There've Been, of Course, Many Holocausts

 

A poem for Holocaust Remembrance Day:

 

There've been, of course, many holocausts.
How come only one gets to be "The"?
Each equally horrific, though some are lost,
Hard to tally, or ancient history.
Only one was just pure genocide,
Lacking any other conceivable aim.
Obliteration, total and worldwide,
Could be the only goal that might explain
A factory of death, efficiently
Unloading loved ones from boxcars to be gassed,
Shoving them naked into ovens, routinely
Turning millions into heaps of ash.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther52.html. For more poems for Holocaust Remembrance Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewishpoems.html .

Maybe Racial Hatred Is Baked In

 

A poem for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday:

 

Maybe racial hatred is baked in,
A trait evolved through natural selection.
Remember the doctrine of original sin:
That cleansing of the soul requires salvation.
If racial territoriality,
Not at home except with one's own kind,
Looking, staring at others resentfully,
Unwinding zero-sum games in one's mind,
Takes conversion rather than conversation,
Human nature being tribal still,
Even in a multi-nation nation,
Reason rarely touching deep-down will:
Knowing this, what happens to my dream?
Individual souls can be reborn.
Need faith a whole society redeem?
Given time, can humanity reform?
Just remember: Though dreams may light the way,
Real change, in fits and starts, comes day by day.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Renaissance Castle. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mayber.html. For more poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

Sing of Marriage and of Loves That Last

 

A 17^th anniversary poem:

 

Sing of marriage and of loves that last,

Each year again a cause for jubilation,

Voices and arms raised in celebration,

Elevating either gloss or glass!

Nor can one find one's way across the vast

Time 'twixt birth and death without relation,

Ever the locale of one's location,

Ever the love that binds one to life fast.

Nor ought one be a tree without deep roots,

Yielding to the next fierce hurricane,

Ever fearful of each gathering storm.

A self and soul work best when in cahoots,

Rationale and rational the same,

Singing with full throat a joyful song.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allemande. By Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing24.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

Every Road Is Headed for Damascus

 

A poem for Epiphany about the burden of an epiphany:

 

Every road is headed for Damascus.
Pick any one you like, or randomly.
Intent on getting somewhere? No one asks us,
Preps us, points us towards epiphany.
How will you respond? What will you see,
Accosted by that vision? Will it task us,
Name us, seize us, scar us permanently?
Yet how, yet how unwitness what just passed us?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever15.html. For more poems about Epiphany, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .

How Beautiful the Turning of the Year

 

A New Year’s poem about the artificial beauty of the border between one year and the next:

 

How beautiful the turning of the year!
A moment artificial yet profound:
Point upon an arbitrary chart
Passing like a breath upon the heart,
Yearning with anticipation wound,
New hope new harbored in old-fashioned cheer.
Even when the boundary line is clear,
We recognize the oneness of the ground.
Years, like circles, do not end or start
Except we lay across their truth our art,
Adjusting dates as they go round and round
Revolving to a tune long sung and dear.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howbea.html. For more poems for the new year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

Make Time, Make Time to Listen to Your Heart

 

A Christmas poem about the benefits of putting reason away for the holiday:

 

Make time, make time to listen to your heart!
Empty out your thoughts and then just listen!
Reason can't compete with faith and art.
Resist it! It will go into remission.
Yes, listen to the arguments of grace,
Clarifying mysteries no word
Has ever plumbed: the source of time and space,
Reality, Being, you, me -- all absurd.
If everything is equally a miracle,
Sing carols on a cold, crisp winter night,
Taking on the inexplicable,
Making it as lyrical as light.
Although your reason may not wish to stay,
Sing with the angels! Sing! It's Christmas Day!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: The Beauty of Love. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maketi.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

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 .