Poem of the Week

November 3, 2011 #658

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Adha.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each sacrifices what the heart loves most,
Imitating Abraham when he
Delivered Isaac to the eternal host,
Although with heavy heart, yet faithfully.
Love does not grasp, but gives away all things,
Aware of something holy in its fire,
Destined to retain the gifts it brings,
Having first relinquished the desire,
As Allah gives one all one would require.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 27, 2011 #657

Dear Subscriber:

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

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hell has little hope of happiness.
A devil is eternally on fire,
Locked within unquenchable desire,
Longing with hatred for lost holiness.
On Halloween the devils and the dead
Wander through the world as though to warn
Each soul of an eternity forlorn,
Evangelists condemned to speak through dread,
Nightmares that must preach through pain till dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 29, 2011 #653

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revenge is often taken in the mind.
Open wounds untreated tend to bleed.
Some who else would be both good and kind
Hate others in the thought, if not the deed.
Have mercy, then, upon yourself, and clear
Away the anger twisting you inside,
Sanctifying for the coming year
Heart and spirit, cleansed of pain and pride.
As you ask forgiveness, so forgive,
Nor need you lose your honor with your fury.
All find their just reward in how they live,
Held to account by a less partial jury.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

August 25, 2011 #648

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Fitr.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Evening, and at last the fast is over!
It remains a gift we celebrate,
Delighting in our prayers as in a lover,
Abstaining with a joy no meal could sate.
Let us gather now with food and drink,
For now we turn again to mortal Earth,
Intended to desire, and love, and think,
To savor what is ours 'twixt death and birth,
Reminded by our faith what things are worth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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 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

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

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.