Poem of the Week

March 1, 2012 #674

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poems of the week are a modified form of sijo.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

SIX MODIFIED SIJO

1. The air is sheer perfume! At last it's spring!
Roses bloom late, after the azaleas.
Already, with regret, I fear the fall.

2. There is no substance to my listless longing.
I hunger to be one with One, and yet
I am afraid, I am afraid of death.

3. The little ivy stretches towards the light.
It spills out sunward like a waterfall.
I turn it, turn it, shape it to my liking.

4. The red brick house is buried in azaleas.
The second floor just peeks above the blossoms.
Inside I hear an angry couple screaming.

5. The empty lot is claimed by wildflowers.
The owner waits for prices to recover.
A thunderstorm must finally drive me home.

6. I love to go to Sunday open houses,
Imagining the lives that wait within.
However, I am granted only one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 23, 2012 #673

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Leap Year 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

Let the Earth catch up to us. We run
Each year a bit too fast, so we must wait,
Adjusting the dynamics to the date,
Pausing as the Earth spins round the sun.

Years do not line up with days, and so
Eventually summer would be spring.
A word serves just the thinker, not the thing.
Revolving Earth cares not what dates dates grow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 16, 2012 #672

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mardi Gras.

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

Morning will be time enough for sleep.
A person needs to revel now and then,
Returning home from passion only when
Daylight makes the ecstasy look cheap.
In sensuality there is much sense,
Gift of gods assigned to procreation.
Revelry can lead to revelation
As one for once ignores the consequence,
Selfless in the sanctum of sensation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 9, 2012 #671

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Valentine's 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

Verities are strangely often true.
A lifelong love needs words, as faith needs prayer.
Let me, then, retell my love for you,
Each word alive with what is always there.
Nowhere else can passion be at ease,
Temptation without fear of consequence,
Instinct whose sole purpose is to please,
Nakedness made safe by innocence.
Even in the midst of work and worry,
'Mid doubts and disappointments, I am sure,
Surviving through the avarice and hurry,
Decent and restrained, is something pure.
As I am yours, so I know you're mine.
You are my love, my joy, my valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 2, 2012 #670

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would look for love when love is nigh,
Or fill their fantasies with love unreal,
Afraid to love, and thus afraid to feel,
Afraid to be entangled in a lie.
For love is a commitment that might tie
One to a choice one would, perhaps, repeal,
Leading to regrets one would conceal,
Since any time, it's true, one's love could die.
Simpler just to dream instead of be,
Since being is so hard, and dreaming easy,
Allowing one one's choices without choosing.
One cannot choose to love and still be free,
A gift of self that tends to make one queasy,
Not knowing what, by keeping, one is losing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 26, 2012 #669

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Winter wills white whispers into being,
Into frigid air white dancing death,
Needles that can take away one's breath,
Thick, soft flakes preventing one from fleeing,
Ending briefly in bright drifted hills,
Returning with the churning chaff that kills.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 19, 2012 #668

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar (Chinese) New Year, the Year of the Water Dragon.

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

There is no knowledge – only good opinion.
Happiness is not afraid of pain.
Each truth is limited to its dominion.
Years sweep away one's walls again, again.
Everyone knows better in their hearts,
Although their hearts know better than to know.
Reason is a razor's edge that parts
Objects from the fullness of their flow.
Fortune is a poor excuse for failure.
The only help one needs is what one gives.
Hard work and happiness extend one's tenure,
Ever more alive the more one lives.
Death is a prerequisite of time,
Revealing far more than it ever hides.
All is limitless, yet etched in lines,
Graven images of what abides.
One dragon, yes, can harmonize a song,
Needing only dreams to sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon