Read the Holy Book as Though Asleep

April 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Ramadan, which begins on April 13.

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

A poem for Ramadan about appreciating not just the wisdom but also the beauty of the Koran:

Read the Holy Book as though asleep,
And in a dream awaken to its beauty,
Making it the music of your moment
And weaving it like gold throughout your day.
Do not journey through it just to reap,
Avid for the kernels of your duty,
Neglecting the thick flowers in your way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Ramadan.
April 12: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World
April 13: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within
April 14: Read the Holy Book as Though Asleep

Rapture Comes Most Easily Within

April 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Ramadan, which begins on April 13.

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

A poem for Ramadan on the need for discipline to free oneself for prayer:

Rapture comes most easily within
A discipline that divvies up the day,
Making time for timelessness, and space,
A rolled-up rectangle holy anyplace,
Dear temple of delight where one might pray,
Assigned some sweet-tongued verses to begin
Now hallowing this hollow cask of clay.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Ramadan.
April 12: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World
April 13: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within

Ramadan Reminds Us that the World

April 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Ramadan, which begins on April 13.

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

A poem for Ramadan about the role of the holiday in reminding us of the the evanescence of our earthly existence:

Ramadan reminds us that the world
Around us is a temporary place
Made for an equivocal embrace
As we ride this rock through vastness hurled.
Dance upon the Earth with joy and laughter
As long as you remember what comes after.
Nor will you find your home in time and space.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramad2.html. For more poems about Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Ramadan.
April 12: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World

We Went Too Far Too Fast, and Yet

April 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem from someone who wants to step back without breaking off:

We went too far too fast, and yet
I don't want this to end.
How do I step back from love
And keep you as a friend?

How do I feel affection and
Refrain from undue touch?
How do I tell you how I feel
And still not say too much?

I know I led you to expect
Far more than I should give
Before I have the strength to know
Just how I want to live.

The fault is mine, all mine, and so
I now must ask of you
Forgiveness, and the simple space
To do what I must do.

Please don't draw away from me
In anger or in pain,
For in our mutual respect
We both have much to gain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place
April 9: This Will Not Work if You Don’t Want to Try
April 10: We’ve Been Dating Now More than a Year
April 11: We Went Too Far Too Fast, and Yet

We've Been Dating Now More than a Year

April 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem asking for more than the other is willing to give:

We've been dating now more than a year,
And I'd like to date you many more;
But there are things that I've been waiting for,
And why you still avoid them isn't clear.
What is it in our intimacy you fear?
What hurdles of the mind, what inner law
Shuts the gates of pleasure just before
Our love can gallop off in full career?
Is it some alignment of our stars
That twists your taste just as we near the line?
Some gremlin that turns ecstasy to ice?
Or is it some tough principle that bars
Affection from erasing yours and mine,
Joining us in one bright paradise?

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weveb2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place
April 9: This Will Not Work if You Don’t Want to Try
April 10: We’ve Been Dating Now More than a Year

This Will Not Work if You Don't Want to Try

April 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem to a spouse in the midst of marital difficulty:

This will not work if you don't want to try.
There is no way to love except to choose.
You cannot go through people as through shoes:
With each love lost a bit of you must die.
We are all yours, the three of us, and I
Still love you though I know that I may lose.
My love is there to answer or refuse;
I wait upon your definite reply.
Do not say yes for any sake but yours,
Nor sacrifice your happiness for duty,
Nor swim against the current of your will.
But you will find abundance on these shores,
And in your love a more abiding beauty
Than any that might barren hunger still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place
April 9: This Will Not Work if You Don’t Want to Try

There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place

April 8, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A name and love poem to a lover who can’t make up his mind:

There is a dark and gloomy place where choices
Have their homes and wait upon your touch.
After long and futile waits for voices,
You must, alas!, sign on to such-and-such.
A family in a circle warm and loving:
Less sweet? or more? than living lone and free?
A choice in darkness, both sides fiercely shoving:
My heart is yours, whichever it might be!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place

There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains

April 7, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem about lovers who are going through tough times:

There has to be a way across these mountains.
Somewhere there's a pass we haven't found.
The setting sun casts rows of jagged shadows
Swallowing what little hope remains.

Cold descends, the iron will of darkness,
When we can nothing do except survive.
Love like burning embers keeps us breathing
As bitterness engulfs the icy stars.

Ah, my love! There will be, will be morning!
The sun will rise up like an answered prayer.
We will find our way across these mountains
To build our lives on rich, well-watered plains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains

Love So Often Must Depend on Timing

April 6, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem about the role of timing in love:

Love so often must depend on timing.
We loved each other, but at different times.
Now, still friends, we share our hearts by smiling.

One or then the other winds up pining
As one who loved in vain another finds.
Love so often must depend on timing.

Or one moves far away, and when returning,
Discovers distance of another kind.
Now, still friends, we share our hearts by smiling,

Yet love remains like moonlight, setting, rising;
Even as a sliver, it still shines.
Love so often must depend on timing,

Two desires never quite combining,
Ever close, but never quite aligned.
Now, still friends, we share our hearts by smiling,

Doing the right thing, never crossing
Even by a hint the other's lines.
Love so often must depend on timing.
Now, still friends, we share our hearts by smiling.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/loves2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing

Although We're No Longer Together, I Still Love You

April 5, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is troubled loves.

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

A love poem to a former lover about the difficulty of letting go:

Although we're no longer together, I still love you.
Each moment of each day, I'm thinking of you.
Everywhere we once were, I still miss you.
Every place that's new, I want to show you.

I know I have my flaws and didn't do
Many of the things I should have done.
I live in self-served pain with my regret,
Salvaging my pleasure with my sorrow.

I do not ask you to come back to me.
The past is past and needs now to be buried.
I tell you this because I cannot bear
That you not hear the beating of my heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/altho6.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You

Every Moment Is a Resurrection

April 4, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

A philosophical Easter poem about each new moment as a rebirth:

Every moment is a resurrection
As is arises from the tomb of was,
Steps out into the miracle of light,
Turns every buried did to blissful does,
Endures just long enough to preach salvation,
Reborn again, again from shapeless night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever13.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies
April 1: Easters Come and Go; The Thought Remains
April 2: Every Bunny Loves the Spring
April 3: Every Year Each Hemisphere’s Reborn
April 4: Every Moment Is a Resurrection

Every Year Each Hemisphere's Reborn

April 3, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem about Easter as a fairly recent myth celebrating the coming of spring:

Every year each hemisphere's reborn
As it leans its visage towards the sun.
So have people celebrated this
Turning of the season with a myth.
Easter is a fairly recent one,
Rich in symbols of an inner dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever12.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies
April 1: Easters Come and Go; The Thought Remains
April 2: Every Bunny Loves the Spring
April 3: Every Year Each Hemisphere’s Reborn

Every Bunny Loves the Spring

April 2, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about the rebirth of both nature and the heart in spring:

Every bunny loves the spring
As winter slowly fades.
Sunny days more loudly sing.
The bright blue skies more blossoms bring.
Each cloud a garden shades.
Restless hearts take wing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever11.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies
April 1: Easters Come and Go; The Thought Remains
April 2: Every Bunny Loves the Spring

Easters Come and Go; the Thought Remains

April 1, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem about personal resurrection through love:

Easters come and go; the thought remains:
All of us at times are resurrected.
So might you not fear calamity,
Though time or trouble blight all that you see.
Each moment's gift is in your heart reflected,
Reborn into joy that love sustains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easte7.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies
April 1: Easters Come and Go; The Thought Remains

Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies

March 31, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about Easter candy in the form of chicks, ducks, and bunnies:

Easter chicks and ducks and bunnies
All like treats to fill their tummies.
So do kids like Easter sweets -
Tiny chicks turned into Peeps,
Eggs and bunnies turned into
Rich chocolate - Yum! - for me and you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easte6.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies

Easter Comes at Springtime

March 30, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about the happiness of springtime:

Easter comes at springtime
When flowers start to bloom.
Trees begin to get their leaves,
Which will hide songbirds soon.

A happy, happy time of year
When all the world's reborn!
And even you feel bright and new
At life's sweet-scented dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easte5.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime

The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop

March 29, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about an out-of-control Easter bunny:

The Easter Bunny loves to hop.
He hops too fast! Call a cop!
Tell him, please, he has to stop!
He'll get worn out and then he'll drop!

The cop turns out to be a flop.
He runs too slowly - plop! plop! plop!
He sees a store and wants to shop.
He sees a mess and wants to mop.

Time to make a call to Pop.
He will make that bunny stop!
He will give his head a bop!
And so he does. Hooray for Pop!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop

Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

March 28, 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 Seder Haggadah as a panoply of rituals and prayers from millennia of Jewish history:

Passover Seders are like the night sky:
A moment of moments long past and just gone;
Starlight years old next to planets nearby
Shining as though joined in one joyous song.
Over our heads is a book of the ages
Vividly chanting the stories of old,
Even as under our fingers are pages
Resplendent with light come from cauldrons now cold.
So may we gaze at the past in the present,
Each prayer a jewel in a darkness undone,
Destined to light on our eyes in a moment
Embracing all slaves out from Egypt as one.
Rejoice, then, in this living graveyard of light,
Singing the words, that they last one more night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passo3.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
March 28: Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

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 This Is No Time for Telling Tales

March 26, 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 ethics of celebrating an escape from slavery when slavery still exists:

Perhaps this is no time for telling tales.
After all, the slaves are still not free.
So what if God once parted the Red Sea,
Saving us, when slavery still prevails?
Ought one turn to save those left behind?
Very few would face the Pharaoh's host,
Emerging from the sea with little lost,
Ravenous to kill who would be kind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perha7.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