Poem of the Week

July 28, 2011 #644

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Roam anywhere you wish, and then return.
All you want to know, you ought to know.
Maybe you're afraid that what you learn
Apart from holy things will turn your head.
Delight in Allah everywhere you go,
And feed your hungry mind till it's well fed.
Nor need you for your faith one insight spurn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 6, 2011 #615

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Each year again the gifts are given gladly,
Perhaps because one wants to be a gift.
In goods there can be good, yet sometimes, sadly,
People get the thing but not the drift.
How could the wise men come without some token,
A gift to give the child, new born a king?
Nor could their words speak as their gifts had spoken,
Yielding love incarnate in a thing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 2, 2010 #610
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Chanukah 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
 
Clearly there were Jews and there were Jews --
Hellenized, not Hellenized, not caring.
Assimilation let one pick and choose,
Not wedded to the faith that one was wearing.
Until a king sought Judaism's end,
Kindling a flame that burned inside,
A miracle that would the faith defend --
Here for us, a faith that else had died.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 16, 2010 #599
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Yom Kippur 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
 
You pray not for yourself alone but all.
One never chooses sin in isolation.
Most evil is not merely personal.
Kindness looks for common inspiration.
In every act there is community.
Perhaps one would prefer it were not so.
Placing each's guilt on all may be
Unfair, but then each righteous soul must see
Reflections of itself in every woe.
 
© 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 12, 2010 #594
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Ramadan 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
 
Return to the sweet discipline of faith!
A ritual is rich in grace and feeling.
Make yourself a servant that you might
Attend with less of will and more of sight,
Doing what is asked, not what's appealing,
Alive with light, free of want and hate.
Nor does one moment pass that is not healing.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 25, 2010 #574
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Passover 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
 
Pour yourself like wine into the glass,
A liquid shaped by glass blown long ago,
Singing every year the words you know,
Songs that do not change as your years pass.
Old glass, new wine; new matter, ancient form;
Vintages that burst with life and joy;
Enduring hope no horror can destroy;
Ritual that makes a faith a home.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 10, 2009 #559

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah 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

Candles dance on their menorah,
Happy to be burning bright!
All the children dance the hora,
Nimbly leaping with delight!
Understand the miracle
Kindled by a match that sings,
A cantor with his canticle,
Here to give the moment wings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 24, 2009 #548

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur.

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 are not, will not, do not what you dream.
One accepts that one cannot be pure.
Moreover, there are sins you would redeem,
Knowing that your world remains secure.
In you there is a longing to be known,
Peered right through, as sun lights up a room,
Perhaps just as you promise to atone,
Understood and loved by One whose doom
Remains wet, not yet hardened into stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 9, 2009 #527

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an Easter 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

Each of us must know You personally --
As friend or father, counselor, mentor, guide --
Someone we invite to come inside
That we might be Your witness literally,
Even of ourselves, though we may die,
Resurrected only eye-to-eye.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 2, 2009 #526

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Passover 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

Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us – family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 4, 2008 #510

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an Eid-al-Adha 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

Even sacrifice may not be pure,
Intended for the eye and not the heart.
Do, then, out of love make sacrifice
As Abraham once offered up his son.
Love of Allah is what will endure
As fire consumes each lacerated part,
Devouring all but love, that will suffice
However long the sacrifice goes on,
As years and lives through time's cold fingers run.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 25, 2007 #457

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a religious 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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Note: There have been two recent changes to my site. I have added a fiction section at http://www.poemsforfree.com/fictio.html, and you can now get the poem of the week as a feed rather than as an email. If you would prefer that method of delivery, just click on the feed icon at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html.

People who are certain are a curtain
Draped between the object and the word.
One sees only formulas repeated
Tirelessly, like stones thrown at the wind.

Such faith is evidence of little faith,
For faith knows very well it cannot know.
Doubt becomes a glass through which one sees
A star or two between fast-moving clouds.

A truth will never last as long as Truth,
For truths must be devoured before they melt.
One may believe, of course, but not too tightly;
When one looks, one sees one’s God is free.