So May This Season of Sweet Celebration

December 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about passing holiday traditions on to the next generation:

So may this season of sweet celebration
Endure for yet another generation,
Alive in food and ritual and song,
Sustained by the desire to pass it on.
Of love and will and long tradition sing,
Needing new knots to extend the string.
Sing the cover songs that touch the heart,
Giving them new salience through your art.
Revel in the riches of the season,
Embracing truths more resonant than reason,
Each a myth of hope revealed anew
That touches something beautiful in you.
If you resolve not to let it die,
Nor be reduced to something one might buy,
Giving it the imprint of your grace,
So will the next brigade this time embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somayt.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days
December 18: Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season
December 19: Sing of Love and Happiness and Joy
December 20: So May This Season of Sweet Celebration

Sing of Love and Happiness and Joy

December 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem to a couple who is devoted to making the world a better place:

Sing of love and happiness and joy,
Even as the world descends towards sorrow,
A song of hope reborn to spirits buoy,
So sweet it brings new promise to tomorrow.
Open up the windows of your heart,
Nor need you doubt the power of your song.
Sing with all your wisdom and your art,
Gathering strength as others sing along.
Render scenes from your imagination
Embodying the soul of your ideal,
Eroding the redoubt of resignation
That stands between what should be and what's real.
If all your efforts sometimes seem to be
No more than pouring wine into the sea,
Give another metaphor a chance:
Sing, that all the world around might dance.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing18.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days
December 18: Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season
December 19: Sing of Love and Happiness and Joy

Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season

December 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying religious holidays even when one is not religious:

Some refuse the pleasures of the season,
Ever the pure acolytes of reason,
Against whatever smacks of superstition,
Severing supply lines to tradition.
One need not be Catholic to be catholic,
Nor be of faith to be towards faith empathic.
Sing, then, with sweet gusto songs that may
Grace the message of a holy day,
Reveling in beauty, though it be
Engaged in service to a mystery,
Enjoying what you never would believe,
Tailoring the torso to the weave.
If one loves the music, one should dance,
Nor need one look the provenance askance,
Granted myths that make the end of year
So lovely one rejoices when they're here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somere.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days
December 18: Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season

Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days

December 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about lighting the cold, dark days with inner delight:

Share a bit of sunshine on dark days,
Enduring with a smile and a song,
As those lit by your laughter sing along,
Singing down the winter's frozen ways.
Open up your heart to holidays,
Nor can a bit of jollity be wrong,
Singing of life's pleasures loud and long,
Giving voice to all that sadness sways.
Remember that the winterscape is stark,
Each naked branch a-shiver in the wind,
Each grassy field knee-deep in drifted snow,
The white world waiting for an early night.
In such times one's windows light the dark,
Not shuttered that the world might see within
Glimpses of warm inner rooms that glow,
Shining with sincere yet willed delight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sharea.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days

Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

December 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about why love is especially needed in this season of cold and darkness:

Sing of love, that graces every season,
Eden's child dressed in robes of time,
A dancer through long hallways lined with reason,
So beautiful that few remain behind.
Of love then sing, and kindness, and affection,
Needing warmth as winter settles in.
Sing of loyalty, life-long connection,
Granted those who light the lamp within.
Renew each day that sacramental fire,
Each day again choose love, an act of will
Emanating from life's chief desire --
To love and to be loved and cherished still.
In this season of extended darkness,
Now uncurtain windows full of light,
Giving to the world in all its starkness
Such splendor as will see it through the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing17.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

Poem of the Week

December 8, 2011 #663

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the holiday season.

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

Satisfaction, like the sea, is tidal.
Each day, each week, each month it comes and goes.
Along the heart's shore, feeling's never idle,
Singing across sand in tidal flows.
One's happiness is much more like the sun,
Not influenced by currents, winds, or moon,
Self-energized, a power plant of one,
Giving light that others need to bloom.
Remember, in this season of desire,
Every moment you are free to love,
Enveloping your fortune in your fire,
That all life's beauty might within you move.
In each of us there is an unspent yearning,
Needing, wanting, wishing, turning, churning.
Gladness may be seasonal, but grace
Sings its song outside of time and place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 17, 2011 #660

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding/happy holidays 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

When you read this, we'll be wed,
A married couple wishing you
A Merry Christmas, New Year's too,
And happiness in days ahead.

May we all be joined in love,
And share the joys with which we're blessed,
Bear with charm and grace the rest,
And to all good neighbors prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 16, 2010 #612
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Season's Greetings 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
 
Say what you will about the winter gloom!
Each year the turn towards light's a celebration.
And so it is with life: the darkest doom
Succeeds in summoning its own salvation.
Open, then, your heart to what may come,
Nor should you fear the advent of the night.
Selves are far more than their selfish sum,
Graced within with everlasting light.
Revels move indoors as darkness falls
Early, lit by laughter, songs, and love.
Even as the cold wind wailing calls,
The lilt of life and longing stronger proves.
In this season of good will and cheer,
Night and frost undo the dying year.
Gifts pour in; the joyful music plays --
Signs of hope and slowly lengthening days.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 17, 2009 #560

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Season's Greetings 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

Sense makes little sense this time of year.
Each has reason to dispense with reason.
As darkness soon descends, the festive season
Shines out upon vast rolling fields of fear.
Old customs still survive, long loved and dear,
Now bought and sold, it's true, as is the fashion,
Still filling faith with poetry and passion,
Giving to dark days a touch of cheer.
Reason says there's little cause for worry:
Electric lights have long since tamed the darkness;
Even winter doesn't wish us harm,
Taught to be a nuisance well contained.
In our hearts, though, time still stirs the slurry;
Now the dark stokes fears of nothingness.
Gifts mean more, and love becomes the warm
Sanctum in which hope can be sustained.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

December 11, 2008 #511

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a holiday 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

Holidays are memories in waiting,
Amply fitted out to linger long.
Perhaps it is the food, the gifts, the song;
Perhaps the love that keeps the light from fading.
Years pass, traditions blend, people change;
Holidays endure, each generation
Offering its own fond re-creation
Lest the next find such sweet labors strange.
In memory the secret’s repetition:
Delight anticipated is delight
Approaching a predictable condition,
Yearly replicating a rendition
So that on holidays each note sounds right.

© by Nicholas Gordon