February 26, 2009 #521
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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
Once a paladin
Rode into mountains
Seeking himself
Among barren stones.
He was a spring
Covered by fountains,
Or an immortal elf
In a dungeon of bones.
Long he rode weary
Through high mountain passes
And deep, lonely canyons
Untouched by the sun.
Long he rode dreary
'Mid snow-covered masses,
His dreams for companions,
And still he rode on.
Yet he found nothing
That matched his ambition
To see himself naked
Of what was not him:
That singular something
Beyond all condition,
The soul he'd forsaken
For life's daily din.
He came on a hermit
Praying in shadow,
Unmoving for hours
In the early spring cold;
His hut near a summit
In a high mountain meadow
Covered with flowers,
Red, white, and gold.
Finally moving,
He turned towards the paladin,
Blank as a snowfield,
Silent as space;
The soul simply choosing
To pass its brief time within,
Steadfastly sealed
Behind its locked face.
“Good Sir,” said the paladin,
“Long have I wandered
In search of the soul
That somehow I lost.
“My life has been sin,
My brief moment squandered,
Yet I would be whole
Regardless of cost.
“O holy man,
Show me the truth
Known to those few
At being's bright core!
“And, if you can,
Yourself be the proof,
For I would be you --
I ask nothing more.”
The hermit then opened
His eyes wide as saucers.
Behind them was emptiness,
Nothing at all.
Sheer nothingness beckoned
Like death 'neath life's wonders,
The absolute stillness
That makes the flesh crawl.
“O God!” shrieked the paladin,
“Heaven, please save me!”
And down from the mountains
He fled on his steed;
Back towards profusion,
The commerce that daily
Surrounds the great fountains
That simple springs feed.
Back, back to the world
Of passion and plunder
The paladin raced
Away from that sight
Of a self self-dissolved
In the truth that lay under
The truth – just a taste
Of the cold, waiting night.
Nor did he ever
Recover from seeing
That vision of nothingness
At being's heart.
Alas! He could never
Embrace his own being,
And so performed graceless
His pitiful part.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Poem of the Week
February 19, 2009 #520
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Washington's Birthday.
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 President was without precedent
At the time that he took on the post.
Equally homespun and elegant,
He struck the precisely right note.
Refusing the power of kings,
He yet understood that the State
Required what reverence brings:
A loyalty one can create.
And so he became The Great Leader,
The focus of wide adulation.
Yet only a one-time repeater,
He served not the man, but the nation.
He gave to the State what the states
Could only recopy writ small:
The sense of a Center the fates
Must bless for the good of us all.
He played well the hero who held
The Union together those years,
Until the still-thin mixture jelled,
And fact was more forceful than fears;
Till the other great president we
Now jam into one day for two
Kept the Union together and free,
The gift of the first to renew.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Washington's Birthday.
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 President was without precedent
At the time that he took on the post.
Equally homespun and elegant,
He struck the precisely right note.
Refusing the power of kings,
He yet understood that the State
Required what reverence brings:
A loyalty one can create.
And so he became The Great Leader,
The focus of wide adulation.
Yet only a one-time repeater,
He served not the man, but the nation.
He gave to the State what the states
Could only recopy writ small:
The sense of a Center the fates
Must bless for the good of us all.
He played well the hero who held
The Union together those years,
Until the still-thin mixture jelled,
And fact was more forceful than fears;
Till the other great president we
Now jam into one day for two
Kept the Union together and free,
The gift of the first to renew.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Poem of the Week
February 12, 2009 #519
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Valentine's Day 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
Some might think, perhaps, that I'm not pleased
At how you've trivialized my name and day.
In fact, I think romantic love's one way
New recruits for paradise are seized.
True, the object is the kind that's squeezed.
Very well! We're flesh, and though we may
Awaken first to lust, at last love's play
Leads us to redemption by degrees.
Each soul must find its way from love to Love,
Needing love, beside itself with need,
Though through pride reluctant to give in.
In cards and flowers, chocolate hearts, and such,
None but must recite love's gentle creed,
Each proclaiming tenderness within.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Valentine's Day 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
Some might think, perhaps, that I'm not pleased
At how you've trivialized my name and day.
In fact, I think romantic love's one way
New recruits for paradise are seized.
True, the object is the kind that's squeezed.
Very well! We're flesh, and though we may
Awaken first to lust, at last love's play
Leads us to redemption by degrees.
Each soul must find its way from love to Love,
Needing love, beside itself with need,
Though through pride reluctant to give in.
In cards and flowers, chocolate hearts, and such,
None but must recite love's gentle creed,
Each proclaiming tenderness within.
© 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
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
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Poem of the Week
January 29, 2009 #517
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
Love comes unexpectedly,
An arrow to the heart,
But stays only reluctantly
Through patience, will, and art.
The full-length version of the story
Has both joy and pain,
Boredom, lust, betrayal, glory,
Anger, comfort, shame.
It ends in grief, inevitably,
Through death or separation,
The harshness of the agony
As strong as the relation.
So why, then, love? And why persist
In love long after passion
Has gone its way? And why resist
An urge one need not ration?
The answer is in something more
Than fantasy and pleasure --
A passion passion never saw,
A hunger beyond measure;
A longing for the One in one
One longs for all one's life,
And is, and has, and will become
In time as man and wife.
© by Nicholas Gordon
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
Love comes unexpectedly,
An arrow to the heart,
But stays only reluctantly
Through patience, will, and art.
The full-length version of the story
Has both joy and pain,
Boredom, lust, betrayal, glory,
Anger, comfort, shame.
It ends in grief, inevitably,
Through death or separation,
The harshness of the agony
As strong as the relation.
So why, then, love? And why persist
In love long after passion
Has gone its way? And why resist
An urge one need not ration?
The answer is in something more
Than fantasy and pleasure --
A passion passion never saw,
A hunger beyond measure;
A longing for the One in one
One longs for all one's life,
And is, and has, and will become
In time as man and wife.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Poem of the Week
January 22, 2009 #516
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar, or Chinese, New Year (Year of the Ox).
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 point is just that I don't see the point:
However much one wants to be turned on,
Ecstasy can put things out of joint;
Yearning is for what will soon be gone.
Each can choose content or discontent;
All are happy, if they would be so.
Revelation isn't Heaven sent;
Out of what you are comes what you know.
Forget, then, the pursuit of the sublime.
There is no thing that's needed – all is here.
Happiness will settle in, in time,
Enduring, though the weather may turn drear.
One must plod to plow, and plow to plant.
X marks the heart, where lies all one could want.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Lunar, or Chinese, New Year (Year of the Ox).
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 point is just that I don't see the point:
However much one wants to be turned on,
Ecstasy can put things out of joint;
Yearning is for what will soon be gone.
Each can choose content or discontent;
All are happy, if they would be so.
Revelation isn't Heaven sent;
Out of what you are comes what you know.
Forget, then, the pursuit of the sublime.
There is no thing that's needed – all is here.
Happiness will settle in, in time,
Enduring, though the weather may turn drear.
One must plod to plow, and plow to plant.
X marks the heart, where lies all one could want.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Poem of the Week
January 15, 2009 #515
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King's birthday.
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
Maybe some had thought I hoped too much
And dreamed a dream that never would come true,
Reasoning from what they saw and such
Trends as might confirm their points of view.
In dreams, however, one creates what is --
Not from what one sees but what one wills:
Like light, from the Lord's dream sprung, now All, as His
Undying Word the void unending fills.
Then look! Look! What miracles occur!
Here we have a black man judged upon --
Exactly as I dreamed – his character,
Regardless of his skin! And he has won!
Know, then, that the dream for which I fought
In time became the ground for what I sought.
New realities require dreams
Given to us not as ends but means.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King's birthday.
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
Maybe some had thought I hoped too much
And dreamed a dream that never would come true,
Reasoning from what they saw and such
Trends as might confirm their points of view.
In dreams, however, one creates what is --
Not from what one sees but what one wills:
Like light, from the Lord's dream sprung, now All, as His
Undying Word the void unending fills.
Then look! Look! What miracles occur!
Here we have a black man judged upon --
Exactly as I dreamed – his character,
Regardless of his skin! And he has won!
Know, then, that the dream for which I fought
In time became the ground for what I sought.
New realities require dreams
Given to us not as ends but means.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Poem of the Week
December 31, 2008 #514
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a New Year's 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
Note: I will be away from Jan.1 – Jan. 11. The next poem of the week will be emailed on Thursday, Jan. 15.
Hope is not a harbinger of peace
As countless holocausts have made quite clear.
Perhaps the unsolved problem is that fear
Prevents the heart from seeking its release.
Years pass; we come no closer to the good,
Nor do we better understand why we
Each year have hope to live in harmony
While watering our fields with tears and blood.
Yet hope remains, and love, that hope revives.
Each knows well that hatred is insane,
And hates and fears and loves and hates again,
Resolving ever to keep hope alive.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a New Year's 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
Note: I will be away from Jan.1 – Jan. 11. The next poem of the week will be emailed on Thursday, Jan. 15.
Hope is not a harbinger of peace
As countless holocausts have made quite clear.
Perhaps the unsolved problem is that fear
Prevents the heart from seeking its release.
Years pass; we come no closer to the good,
Nor do we better understand why we
Each year have hope to live in harmony
While watering our fields with tears and blood.
Yet hope remains, and love, that hope revives.
Each knows well that hatred is insane,
And hates and fears and loves and hates again,
Resolving ever to keep hope alive.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Poem of the Week
December 25, 2008 #513
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas 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
Merry Christmas to my love!
Enjoy the holiday.
Revel where the angels move,
Rejoice in what they say.
Years burn life down to a stub;
Christmas comes and goes.
Happiness lies at the nub,
Refuse of one’s woes.
Inside the husk there is the seed,
Shivering with glory.
The midnight cold, the dire need,
Mere setting for the story.
All the labor, loss, and pain
Sings of beauty born again.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas 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
Merry Christmas to my love!
Enjoy the holiday.
Revel where the angels move,
Rejoice in what they say.
Years burn life down to a stub;
Christmas comes and goes.
Happiness lies at the nub,
Refuse of one’s woes.
Inside the husk there is the seed,
Shivering with glory.
The midnight cold, the dire need,
Mere setting for the story.
All the labor, loss, and pain
Sings of beauty born again.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Poem of the Week
December 18, 2008 #512
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah 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
Cheerful lights dance within your window,
Happy to dispel a bit of darkness.
As you display your faith, remember when
No light was light enough to light the wind.
Underneath our joy there must be sorrow
Kindled by a willing act of witness,
A turn to share in love again, again,
Horrors that we would not leave behind.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a Hanukkah 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
Cheerful lights dance within your window,
Happy to dispel a bit of darkness.
As you display your faith, remember when
No light was light enough to light the wind.
Underneath our joy there must be sorrow
Kindled by a willing act of witness,
A turn to share in love again, again,
Horrors that we would not leave behind.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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
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
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