Showing posts with label villanelles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label villanelles. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

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

Friday, March 12, 2021

Shadows Aren't Visible at Night

March 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the negative existence of shadows:

Shadows aren't visible at night,
Empty forms negatively made.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They are pure absence, if we read aright,
Nothingness made visible as shade.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Their temporary presence here is slight --
A cloud floats by, and they abruptly fade.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They diminish and then lengthen as the bright
Sun rises and then sets, to slumber laid.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Sometimes they are vivid black-on-white,
Our avatars on stuccoed walls displayed.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

Eternal Being, to which all else is trite,
What life have they, upon your shores arrayed?
Shadows aren't visible at night.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shado4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Poem of the Week

December 1, 2011 #662

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for AIDS Awareness Day.

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

Death rides with us on our ecstasy,
Unwanted fellow traveler of joy,
Wanderer within our will to be,

Finding in our promiscuity
Multiple partners to pillage and destroy.
Death rides with us on our ecstasy,

Seed within our seed sown carelessly
By dupes who would the enemy deploy,
Wanderer within our will to be,

Foiled alone by a society
Whose common strength of will does each will buoy.
Death rides with us on our ecstasy,

Less threatening the more fidelity
Fences off the flesh with which we toy.
Wanderer within our will to be,

AIDS, if nothing else, has helped us see
That we must love if we would lust enjoy.
Death rides with us on our ecstasy,
Wanderer within our will to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Poem of the Week

June10, 2010 #585
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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
 
The bells ring not for just these two
Who will be joined in love today.
They also ring for me and you.
 
And not just for the families who
Now celebrate, as well they may.
The bells ring not for just these, too.
 
And not just those who know or knew
These families well, who came their way.
They also ring for me and you.
 
And not just those who came to view
The bride, the gown, the whole array.
The bells ring not for just these, too.
 
And not just those whose love is true,
Or those who would their doubts allay.
They also ring for me and you.
 
For all are joined in love, and do
Rejoice to hear the sweet bells play!
The bells ring not for just these two.
They also ring for me and you.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Poem of the Week

February 5, 2009 #518

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

The bond of love is not desire, but need.
Desire fades; need with wisdom grows:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

But why the need to need when one is freed
By needing less of that which comes and goes?
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

And why need to be needed? Why should one cede
What one might well enjoy for what one owes?
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Are longings of the sower for the seed,
And the seed for the sower, who whistles as he sows.
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

Love is longing, by dint of death decreed,
The beauty and the terror life bestows,
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Embedded in one's being, as indeed,
Being needs Creation, which it once chose.
The bond of love is not desire, but need:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

© by Nicholas Gordon