Poem of the Week

April 10: One Year Has Passed, and Still We Are in Love

April 11: This First Year of Marriage Has Been the Best

April 12: First Anniversaries Replay a Tune

April 13: Happy First Anniversary

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

First Anniversaries Replay a Tune

April 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a first anniversary poem about how the inner music of love grows richer with time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

First anniversaries replay a tune

In which there is much music yet unheard,

Repeating lyrics, yet not word for word,

Sensing something new and still rough hewn.

Then sing with joy that old, familiar song

And listen for the notes you cannot hear,

Notes that play but to the inner ear,

Notes unfamiliar as you sing along.

In silence underneath your celebration,

Vivid lies the truth of which you sing,

Enduring, as your passion turns to feeling,

Richer, more complex, yet more secure.

So will you sense this sense without sensation

As you let the bells of glory ring,

Rejoicing in the rhythms of love's meaning,

Yielding to what must be still obscure.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/firsta.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: First Anniversaries

April 10: One Year Has Passed, and Still We Are in Love

April 11: This First Year of Marriage Has Been the Best

April 12: First Anniversaries Replay a Tune

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

This First Year of Marriage Has Been the Best

April 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a first anniversary poem about both the beauty and the difficulty of the first year of marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

This first year of marriage has been the best

I've ever known, so deep and rich and full.

I've felt more passion than in all the rest,

Moored at last amidst the tidal pull.

Not that it's been easy. There've been times

When all the world has seemed to come apart:

Anger faces anger, and past crimes,

Real or imagined, lacerate the heart.

Love sometimes settles slowly, like a house

New-built that needs to snuggle in its bed.

When floorboards creak and groan, it's time to douse

The lights and make unbridled love instead!

Love, like air, cannot always be clear;

How sweet to breathe it with you this first year!

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/thisfi.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: First Anniversaries

April 10: One Year Has Passed, and Still We Are in Love

April 11: This First Year of Marriage Has Been the Best

Monday, April 9, 2018

One Year Has Passed, and Still We Are in Love

April 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a first anniversary poem about how the year has enriched a couple’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One year has passed, and still we are in love,

Nor will time undo what we have done.

Even as boughs break and mountains move,

Years enrich what pleasure has begun.

Each moment of our passion and delight,

As clear as sunshine, bountiful and bright,

Remains as longing after it is gone.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/1year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: First Anniversaries

April 10: One Year Has Passed, and Still We Are in Love

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Until We Met I Didn't Know

April 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a first anniversary poem about the beauty of the first year of marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Until we met I didn't know

How light a heart could be;

How, chained to one by bonds of love,

I still could feel so free.

I didn't realize that my dreams

Could ever be so real;

Or when I had all I could want,

Exactly how I'd feel.

This year of love has brought me through

A long-awaited door:

Were angels parked along our skies,

I could not love you more.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/until.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: First Anniversaries

Your Legacy Must Be Both Love and Fear

April 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is about passing on the genetic tendency for breast cancer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Your legacy must be both love and fear.

I know that when you died, you feared for me.

The family curse you carried in your breast

Was not a gift you wanted to pass on.

But fear of it, just like my love for you,

Must linger in my heart, unwelcome guest!

And as I weep for your too early death,

I also can hear rumblings of my own.

Ah, Mother! We are linked like paper dolls,

A line of little cutouts in a row.

I see my clearest memories in my mirror

And feel your anguish bloom beneath my breast.

For this, my love for you is more, not less.

In our misfortune there's a common grace:

For me, in that you must have grieved for me;

For you, in what you knew I’d feel for you.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/yourle.html. For more poems health and sickness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

April 6: Flowers Flourish in Their Proper Clime

April 7: I Wish for You One Thing, and That Is Love

April 8: Your Legacy Must Be Both Love and Fear

Saturday, April 7, 2018

I Wish for You One Thing, and That Is Love

April 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem consists of wishes for a newborn child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I wish for you one thing, and that is love:

Love for life, and pure, unfettered joy

At being here upon this vivid earth.

May great pleasure come from giving pleasure,

And love that streams out from your burning heart

Light the darkened world and make it bloom.

I wish you to be loved both well and long

By all those whom you love; that these be many,

Among whom, not the least, might be yourself.

May you love the beautiful and good,

And always act with honesty and justice,

Being what you would that others be.

But most of all, I wish for you a love

Into which you might plunge out of passion,

And in it find serenity and peace.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/iwishf.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

April 6: Flowers Flourish in Their Proper Clime

April 7: I Wish for You One Thing, and That Is Love

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Flowers Flourish in Their Proper Clime

April 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who has just moved to a new state.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Flowers flourish in their proper clime,

In which they find the sunlight, soil, and rain

Favorable to who they really are.

Then they and their environment combine,

Yielding leaf to soil to leaf again.

So might a seed blown hither from afar

Implant itself, co-fashioning its room,

Xerophyte or hydrophyte in bloom.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/flowe3.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

April 6: Flowers Flourish in Their Proper Clime

You Are the Rose About to Bloom

April 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is from parents to their daughter about a difference in perspective.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You are the rose about to bloom,

The color soon to wake,

The perfume set to scent the breeze,

The bud about to break.

You stand upon the lip of time

Alight with what will be,

And see yourself out to the sky

Across the open sea.

We see you vertically, a gift

Too beautiful to plumb,

And treasure all the years you were

And all the years to come.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/rosebl.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Treat Yourself to All the Best of Life

April 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is a number poem about what brings the heart to bloom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Treat yourself to all the best of life!

Have some love and friendship, passion, beauty!

In these you’ll find a lasting happiness,

Regardless of the risk of pain or stress,

The tough commitment to some long-term duty.

Yet some find little more than constant strife.

Ecstasy, adventure, wealth, and things

Inward flow to vanish in the self,

Granting much in pleasure, less in joy.

Hearts rarely come to full bloom on the shelf,

Though watered well in sun their sweet love sings.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/treat2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

Monday, April 2, 2018

Stephen

April 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is a name poem from a mother to her still-born child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Stephen lived his life within my womb.

Though brief, it was a rich, full life and good.

Each day I told him of my love in ways

Perhaps most intimate, my silent phrase

Heard in the heart directly, blood to blood.

Each life must be redeemed within its doom,

Needing only love to make it bloom.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/stephe.html. For more poems about stillbirth and miscarriage, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/miscarriagepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

April 3: Stephen

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Fifty-Three3

April 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since trees, plants, and flowers are about to bloom, this week’s theme is bloom as a metaphor.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a late bloomer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-three reveals herself at last

In full career, a blossom that is blooming.

Fortune, time, and will have had their way,

Though, looking back, it sometimes seems like fate,

Years of choices that have led her here.

There is no point in questioning the past,

However one might find it all-consuming.

Remember, one is ever unbaked clay,

Early on, of course, but also late,

Embraced by shaping hands upon the wheel.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/53c.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bloom as a Metaphor

April 2: Fifty-Three

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Believe, Believe in the Power of Love

April 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover and Easter, which this year are celebrated at the same time. The first night of Passover is the evening of Good Friday, March 30, and Easter Sunday is April 1.

Today’s poem is an Easter poem about the power of faith to move the heart.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Believe, believe in the power of love

To save us all from death and sin,

And God that way your heart will move.

Christ came to Earth to free us of

The state of vengeance we were in.

Believe, believe in the power of love

To change the heart from snake to dove,

To make dust bloom and goodness win,

And God that way your heart will move.

Christ arose from death to prove

That we a new life could begin.

Believe, believe in the power of love

To bring us to a life above,

A life of glory near to Him,

And God that way your heart will move.

Christ will all our sins remove

And make us feel His joy within.

Believe, believe in the power of love,

And God that way your heart will move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/believ.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 31: Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

April 1: Believe, Believe, in the Power of Love

Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

March 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about changing generations within an unchanging ritual.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Pour yourself like wine into the glass,

A liquid shaped by glass blown long ago,

Singing every year the words you know,

Songs that do not change as your years pass.

Old glass, new wine; new matter, ancient form;

Vintages that burst with life and joy;

Enduring hope no horror can destroy;

Ritual that makes a faith a home.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/pouryo.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 31: Pour Yourself like Wine into the Glass

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Why Do I Remain in Exile

March 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about a Jew’s ambivalent urge to live in Israel.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Why do I remain in exile?

I say, "Next year in Jerusalem!"*

Seders come and Seders go.

I feel the pull but not the pain.

I say, "Next year in Jerusalem!"

I do not mean it, not for real.

I feel the pull but not the pain.

My anguish must be self-imposed.

I do not mean it, not for real.

I mean it in my Jewish bones.

My anguish must be self-imposed.

I lie becalmed, and wait, and wonder.

I mean it in my Jewish bones.

Seders come and Seders go.

I lie becalmed, and wait, and wonder:

Why do I remain in exile?

*The traditional cry at the end of every Seder.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/whydoi.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

March 30: Why Do I Remain in Exile

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Enduring Does Not Lead to Happiness

March 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is an Easter poem about the proper way to sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Enduring does not lead to happiness.

A person ought not suffer out of duty.

Some choose to sacrifice under duress,

Taking as cruel chance what could be beauty.

Each ought to give for love, as did the Lord,

Reckoning the grace as the reward.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/enduri.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Easter Is a Time of Love

March 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is an Easter poem about the redemptive power of human love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Easter is a time of love,

A time of grief and pain undone,

So we may know the power of

The love that lives in everyone.

Each love we feel, each love we know,

Redeems what would to darkness go.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/easter.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

March 28: Easter Is a Time of Love

Monday, March 26, 2018

Passion Is the Wine, and Love, the Glass

March 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about how ritual shapes and enriches life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion is the wine, and love, the glass,

As ritual reserves the times for drinking.

So life gathers dignity and mass,

Sustained by scripts that free the mind for thinking.

Our love waits upon the white-robed table.

Vintage holy fills our hearts with joy.

Elijah* comes, that wanderer of fable,

Restoring what the wide world would destroy.

*Jewish legend has the prophet Elijah wandering the world to protect Jewish households. At the Seder, a glass is filled with wine for him and the door is opened while the celebrants sing his song.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/passi4.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Enter Now the King, All but Insane

March 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is about the evolution of sacrifice through Greek myth, Passover, and Easter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Enter now the king, all but insane,

Accompanied by his daughter, who would be

Sacrificed to calm a raging sea,

The start of much bad blood, revenge, and pain.

Enter now the ram, who would retain

Remnants of that ancient agony,

Put in place of the child the father would free,

As God would not require a child again.

So enter now the lamb, a sacrifice

Self-sought to still that ancient desperation,

One that would turn the lust for blood to love.

Vengeance and desire turn hearts to ice

Even as the soul looks for salvation,

Restored by rites that would a god's heart move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/entern.html. For more Easter poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Just as a Wave Is Lifted by the Shore

March 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem lets a friend know that you are there for them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just as a wave is lifted by the shore,

Then breaks across the slowly rising sand,

So as I watch you weep my feelings pour

Across the wash of what I understand.

I wish I could just take you in my arms

And all your pain could melt into my chest,

And all the violence of passing storms

Could pass through me and finally come to rest.

No words can set things right or presence lend

A miracle to light your darkened way,

But there is solace in a loving friend

And comfort in what I don't have to say.

Whatever circumstance you cannot bear,

Just turn to me, and you will find me there.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/justa2.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

March 24: I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

March 25: Just as a Wave Is Lifted by the Shore

Friday, March 23, 2018

I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

March 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the extreme isolation of a life without God or friends.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I sometimes think that I could be alone:

Really alone, with neither God nor friends.

The people near me then might well be stone:

Just faces on a frieze that never ends.

And I would travel in my mind towards death,

A world within a world sealed like a tomb.

My thoughts would be as silent as my breath,

And, like my breath, expire at my doom.

Such thoughts would make me shudder, were not you

A world where I may enter and find rest.

A rock gives way within, and I walk through

To be in laughing eyes a welcome guest.

Thank God I have you, friend, that I might stay

And be as I could be no other way.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/isome.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

March 24: I Sometimes Think that I Could Be Alone

Thursday, March 22, 2018

I Don't Understand What Happened to Us

March 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem asks why a friendship ended.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don't understand what happened to us

Or why you have turned away.

Of course you are free to do as you like,

But first I have something to say.

To me it had seemed we could go on forever,

So close were our hearts, and at ease,

So much did we share, yet the words never faltered,

So I thought as time did as it pleased.

Whatever I did that has made you unhappy,

Or am that is not to your taste,

Or would be were I to return to your graces,

Or won't be if I am replaced:

I want you to know that your friendship is something

I treasure, and would not now end.

If you would be willing to turn to embrace me,

You'd find in me still a good friend.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frien3.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

Friends Are Where One Offloads What

March 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about what friends are for.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends are where one offloads what

One cannot bear alone --

Spoiled goods that jam the gut,

Sorrows turned to stone.

Why does the act of telling friends

One's troubles ease one's pain?

Nothing changes, nothing ends,

Yet one can cope again.

It's not that one is looking for

Advice or sympathy.

One has pent-up words to pour

Into reality.

A friend is like a field on which

Such feelings can find air.

The point is not to say too much,

But simply to be there.

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

March 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the universality of personal experience.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forgive me if I come into your bed,

Open wounds to read therein your shame,

Remove your skin to gaze on naked sorrow,

Tear out your heart to substitute my name.

You wish, no doubt, to keep your personhead.

One we are, and one will be tomorrow;

No one is ever utterly unwed.

Even strangers are one flesh in joy and pain.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/forbed.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a friendship poem about breaking out of the prison of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For most of us life passes like a dream,

Revealing only what is on our minds.

Inside the prison of the self we see

Each object as a shadow on our wall.

Nothingness awaits, as sure as night.

Did I not have you, dear friend, I might,

Shadow on a shade, not be at all.

How much we need a word beyond our sea:

In love and laughter, thoughts of different kinds,

Perhaps, with luck, unraveling a seam.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/formos.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Courtney

March 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for an excellent friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Courtney is an all-embracing friend,

Open to the winds of whim or need.

Underneath her smile is a smile

Radiating outward like a sun.

To her the joys of friend and self are one,

Nor is her cheerful deference a style:

Each moment is a perfect book to read,

Yet not with any passion for the end.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/courtn.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

March 18, 2018

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 was celebrated yesterday, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem with a more secular view of selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Souls and selves are organ tones and tunes.

The soul is deep, unchanging, it abides.

Placed in time, but not of time, it rides

Above the silence, alike in graves or wombs.

The self is full of feeling as it croons,

Restricted to a shallow range, but wide.

In constant flux, it flits from side to side,

Changing as it nears its bliss or doom.

Know that soul and self sing one sweet song.

‘Mid sense and sentiment, eternity

Sings the deepest organ tone of being.

Do, then, bound for death, please sing along,

A chorister transfixed by beauty, singing,

Yielding to the rich, full harmony.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/soulsa.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 18: Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

Friday, March 16, 2018

Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 17, 2018

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 today, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick about the difference between selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,

As what might change is never what must be.

In one we find pure light; the other, coals,

Now burning, now burned out, now memory.

The self is something that can grow and change,

Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,

Alive to faith or innerly estranged,

The lonely witness to what one has been.

Remember that the soul is also you,

Is what is, which is eternal love,

Called to love by love you know is true,

Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/selves.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 16, 2018

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 tomorrow, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is spoken by St. Patrick about relinquishing personal ambition.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would satisfy their utmost longings,

Always reaching for what lies beyond.

I know well the soul has no belongings,

Neither short-term lease nor long-term bond.

Though I long for You, I know You're with me.

Peace comes through delivery from desire.

All Your love for all burns right through me.

There is nothing left that I require.

Rich in faith, I can be poor in fashion,

Intending but to be Your instrument.

Called to this green land, I preach Your passion.

Kings come to me through You, their crowned heads bent.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/somew3.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 15, 2018

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^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day to the descendants of Irish immigrants.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the home that you have never seen,

The place your ancestors once called their own!

Play the music of that island green,

And dance the dances dear to those long gone!

Time again to fill their dancing shoes,

Reawakening the ghosts within,

In touch with some incendiary muse,

Channeling the beauty that had been.

Knowledge is not merely of the mind:

'Tis of the arms and legs, the throat, the heart.

Sing, that you not lose your soul to time!

Dance, that you might nurture it through art!

As all your passions quickly become past,

Yet you may give life to things that last.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo4.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served