People Are a People by Design

March 27, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Passover poem about how a national identity can be created and sustained:

People are a people by design,
Embracing who they were by who they are.
So does history become a meal,
A ritual that makes a memory real,
Calcifying what, beyond the bar,
Has not the substance of a glass of wine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder
March 26: Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales
March 27: People Are a People by Design

Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

March 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Passover poem about the ritual of the Seder for non-religious Jews:

Perhaps your only ritual is the Seder,
All that's left of what was once a Jew.
Suppose you've found the rest's no longer you,
Still working on a self that surfaced later.
Oh, yes, this one last bit of times gone by,
Vividly alive in prayer and song,
Endures, although the past for which you long
Remains rooted in a faith you now deny.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perha8.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True

March 24, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Passover poem about how myths become themselves historical truths:

Please be assured that what you read is true,
Although to some it may seem more symbolical.
Sometimes the myth itself becomes historical,
Sustained by being simply what one knew.
On Passover, we read the ancient story,
Very certain that what happens there
Embodies something true that all Jews share,
Remnant of when God revealed His glory.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/pleas5.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True

Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us

March 23, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Passover poem about national survival:

Time after time they come to destroy us,
Day after day we live;
In love that flows from parents to children
We find the strength to give,
In love that flows beneath all memory
We find the strength to give.

Under the earth we lay our sorrows,
Life keeps them fresh and green;
In growth that springs from sunshine and rain
We find the strength to dream,
In hope that springs from the wounds of the earth
We find the strength to dream.

Come with me and fill my heart,
Come fill me with your song;
In the beauty of your smiling face
I know I will be strong,
In the beauty of your grieving face
I know I will be strong.

Tenderness lies enwrapped in darkness,
Music fills the night;
In love we feel for those who have loved us
There is eternal light,
In love we feel for one another
There is eternal light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us

Praised Be Those Who Don't Believe the Tale

March 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Passover poem about continuing the tradition of the Seder even without faith in God:

Praised be those who don't believe the tale,
Although they will recite it every year
So as to pass on rather than pass over
Symbols that retain their ancient power.
Old myths survive because they don't go stale,
Vivid founding fables long held dear,
Epics binding epochs time would sever,
Restoring richness to each passing hour.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/prais3.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale