Poem of the Week: religious poems

Showing posts with label religious poems. Show all posts

Monday, September 30, 2024

Remorse Is Not a Synonym for Shame

A poem for Rosh Hashanah comparing remorse to shame:

Remorse is not a synonym for shame.

One is mainly outer; the other, inner.

So might fear of shame deter a sinner

Hidden 'neath the gilt of a good name.

However, remorse comes from within, a feeling

Arisen from the grave of innocence,

Still haunted by a mystic moral sense

Hemorrhaging a sorrow that is healing.

A fear of shame requires imagination,

Needing an imaginative eye,

As remorse needs an imaginative I

Harrowed by empathic transformation.

Audio and Video Music: Nocturne. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/remors.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Saturday, May 22, 2021

O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

May 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious poem about someone who prays for the strength to be a burden on loved ones:

O Lord, help me be a burden!
My mother and my sister do their duty,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
Help me, please, endure until my time.

My mother and my sister do their duty,
Loving me as righteousness demands.
Help me, please, endure until my time,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.

Loving me as righteousness demands,
They teach me how to lean upon your love,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!

They teach me how to lean upon your love,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!
O Lord, help me be a burden!

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

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More
May 22: O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that this would be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. The last Poem of the Day email will be sent out on May 23rd.

I will still be posting a new Poem of the Week each week at my Web site (https://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html), as well as regularly adding new poems, drama, and fiction to the site. And you are welcome to follow me on:
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YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyyixnna5SPO5EIe4IAKkXQ)
and Twitter (https://twitter.com/poemsforfree).

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

May 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious number poem about a love that blesses all equally at any age:

Seventy-three refocuses on love
Even as she now must live alone.
Very little waits behind the door.
Every day is like the day before.
Nestled in her heart are sleeves of stone.
Time hangs like a fog no sun will soon remove.
Yet there is much that makes her yearn for more.

To be is to be loved and blessed with grace,
However one might live or soon might die.
Revelations come like words long known,
Each an invitation to embrace
Ecstasy that needs no reason why.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul
May 13: Eid Is Bittersweet
May 14: Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me
May15: Recently I Dreamed I Talked to You
May 16: Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Recently I Dreamed I Talked to You

May 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious poem about how faith makes grief more bearable:

Recently I dreamed I talked to you.
You were in the desert, and you said
That I would never want for love, for you
Would love me now until the end of time.

I cannot think that you are wholly gone,
That one day you could simply be no more,
And it should come about that your bright soul
Would vanish like a rainbow in the darkness.

For me it is as if you were away,
Somewhere on a very long vacation.
And though I know you're dead, you do not seem
To be beyond the boundaries of my love.

Our souls do not abide in days or hours
But in a love that never, never ends.
You will be with me till life is over,
Then I with you somewhere beyond the stars.

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

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Friday, May 14, 2021

Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me

May 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious love poem from God to a non-believer:

Little do you know how much you love me,
For there can be no faith without desire.
Little does your pleasure feel the fire
That burns beneath your cool avoidance of me.
You know no ease or ecstasy above me,
No balm so rich in all that you require,
No breast so full on which you may expire,
Satisfied that in your joy you've moved me.
My love for you is such that I will wait
Until in pain or passion you turn towards me,
Full of need that needs my knowing art.
My yearning for your love will not abate,
Though not one single word or thought rewards me,
And I must dwell unnoticed in your heart.

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

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Eid Is Bittersweet

May 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem for Eid Al-Fitr about the return to the mundane world:

Eid is bittersweet. The holy month
Is over and the mundane months begun,
Devoted to the world of work and pleasure.
A sense of satisfaction comes at length,
Like winds that through the open windows run,
Freshening the soul, at last at leisure.
In celebration, then, and with new strength,
Turning to the many from the One,
Re-embrace the lives and loves you treasure.

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

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul
May 13: Eid Is Bittersweet

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul

May 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem for Eid al-Fitr about the benefits of religious fasting:

Each fast is like a cleansing of the soul
In which one's thoughts are purified by prayer,
Deepened by connection to the whole
As one becomes somehow more simply there.
Leaving the sweet holiday behind,
Families feast to bid it fond farewell.
If Ramadan rewards the heart and mind,
The feast rewards the long-neglected shell
Returning to the palace of the wind.

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

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

How Might One Untie the Knot

May 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious poem about how the awareness of God’s love leaves one no alternative to the vicissitudes of faith:

How might one untie the knot
That binds one to God's love?
For love imposes innocence,
And innocence, remorse.

The tenderness that time forgot
No caustic can remove:
The laws of cause and consequence
Are cut off at the source.

Love comes simply as one is,
Condemning one to hope,
Restoring culpability,
Awakening one's pain.

So loved, one cannot be but His,
Though one be moved to grope
Towards some amoral liberty
That seeks the void in vain.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howmi6.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Monday, May 10, 2021

The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within

May 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious poem about how the devastating tsunami of 2004 might cause some to lose their faith:

The wave without becomes a wave within,
Semblance of a transcendental self
Unmoved by the cool carnage of its motion.
Nor ought we fail to calm this inner ocean
And build once more upon its nameless gulf.
May our love be at the heart of being,
In which all loved ones lost might rise again.

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

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Erase My Soul

April 18, 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 and Eid al-Fitr about the peace that comes from erasing oneself through prayer:

Erase my soul and let me be
Invisible as air.
Detain me in Your emptiness
And let me be just prayer.
Let my passion disappear;
Focus well my mind.
Immerse me in infinity
Till at peace I turn to see
Ramadan behind.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/erasem.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
April 15: Reason Is No Cause for Revelation
April 16: Righteousness Remains the Rock of Faith
April 17: Rights Are Not Equivalent to Freedom
April 18: Erase My Soul

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Rights Are Not Equivalent to Freedom

April 17, 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 how the individual shapes and is shaped by society:

Rights are not equivalent to freedom.
All have claims upon the lives of all.
Make yourself a servant of the kingdom,
Acting in the interests of the whole.
Deeds are sermons preached upon the plain
As each from each has much to lose or gain;
Nor is faith the free choice of one soul.

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

Friday, April 16, 2021

Righteousness Remains the Rock of Faith

April 16, 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 need for righteous behavior to sustain faith:

Righteousness remains the rock of faith,
As what one does sustains what one believes.
Mere hypocrites might pray, the Prophet saith;
Actions must be words the heart conceives.
Do, then, what acts and rituals are due,
As faith becomes a flame that feeds on you,
No less than as a fire consumes dry leaves.

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

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Reason Is No Cause for Revelation

April 15, 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 need for revelation:

Reason is no cause for revelation.
A moment comes and goes; a word endures.
More than sense must underlie sensation.
A holy mind and heart such faith secures.
Depend, then, on your fasting to awaken
A love of Allah easily forsaken.
Nor is there mooring where one's reason moors.

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

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

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.

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

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

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.

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

Monday, April 12, 2021

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.

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

Thursday, March 18, 2021

So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

March 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the greater guilt of those in charge of abusive priests:

So let them be, who have had sex with children!
And turn Your rage on those who turned their eyes,
Intending to defend Your church with lies!
Nor were they ever fit for Your dominion!
These hypocrites are far worse than the poor
Polluted souls they moved from place to place,
Avid to avoid undue disgrace,
Trafficking in silence to be sure.
Remember them when You return! For they,
Instead of proper penance, yet remain
Cardinals, bishops, princes in Your name,
Knowing well what price they ought to pay!

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/solett.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Christmas Really Isn't About Toys

December 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A Christmas poem about putting more emphasis on the spiritual meaning of Christmas:

Christmas really isn't about toys,
However much we love them, young and old.
Reductions in the fat of Christmas Day
In time restore its vigor and its health.
So let us with more care consume our wealth,
Though children should have toys with which to play.
More sweet and joyous music must be sung,
And thoughts of peace and mercy make their way
Silent and uncluttered through the noise.

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

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves

December 22, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A Christmas poem about learning to love as Christ loved:

Christmas is for cowards, too, and thieves.
How might they be loved as dearest friends?
Redemption starts where satisfaction ends.
Instinctively, one does as one believes.
So did Christ love everyone the same
That everyone might love the same as He.
Most children that are loved will loving be
As they become the people they became.
So shall you love all creatures in His name.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmasi3.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves

Monday, December 21, 2020

Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends

December 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A Christmas poem about Christmas and friendship:

Christmas is a holiday for friends,
However they may be, or not, related.
Remember that the three wise kings were strangers
In search of one remote, uncanny dream.
So may we all be far more than we seem,
Together bound for dark and haunting changes,
More lovely for the loves we have created
Along the lonely paths from means to ends,
Stumbling towards that star of Bethlehem.

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

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends

Monday, September 30, 2024

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Friday, May 14, 2021

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Monday, May 10, 2021

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Friday, April 16, 2021

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Monday, April 12, 2021

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

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