March Marches to the Beat of Her Own Drum

 

A calendar poem for March:

 

March marches to the beat of her own drum,
Angry in the way of eager youth,
Rebelling against the adult she’ll become,
Challenging the too-long-frozen truth.
How beautiful, though raucous and uncouth!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Buccaneer’s March. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/march2.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Reason Doesn't Travel Well

 

A poem for Ramadan about the weaknesses of reason as compared to faith in a harsh environment:

 

Reason doesn't travel well
Across the desert sand.
Maybe it needs quince to quell
A hunger for command.
Do not think it will survive
A long and thirsty camel ride,
No nutrient near at hand.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Turning Slowly. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/reaso7.html. For more poems for Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

Political Proverbs

 

Some political proverbs for Presidents Day about the dangers for democracy of perfection:

 

POLITICAL PROVERBS

 

Those who'd see democracy's demise
Have little use for compromise.

Those who like their politics strong
Increase their risk of being wrong.

Those who are at the controls
Ought not be trusted with the goals.

Power wedded to perfection
Wins the final free election.

When not one criminal goes free,
We'll know we've lost our liberty.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/polit2.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

Vast the Possibilities of Fortune

 

A Valentine’s Day poem comparing love to a garden:

 

Vast the possibilities of fortune,

And one the reckoning of choice and chance.

Love’s a garden sown with seeds of passion,

Eden in the sunlight of romance.

Nor ought one see this as a limitation:

The garden is a universe, and fate

Is fertile soil fit for cultivation,

Needing long-term care that cannot wait.

Each universe exists in time and space,

‘Mid miracles and troubles, toil and tears.

So are you my universe, my grace,

Dancing through the cosmos of my years.

As one is One, one’s all that one can know,

Yet love of one’s a garden two can grow.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Dancing Star. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/vastt2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

February Knows His Fortune Well

 

A calendar poem for February:

 

February knows his fortune well,
Even in the bitterness of dawn
Breaking in the coldest hour of hell,
Revealing but the worst that must be borne.
Underneath the ice the passions sleep
Ablaze with all the beauty of their burning,
Rendering a richness that will keep
Yet warm within the cavern of his yearning.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/februa.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Holocausts Are Sui Generis

 

A poem for Holocaust Remembrance Day:

 

Holocausts are sui generis.
One sees in all the same totality.
Lest one think they're not so numerous,
One finds some in Deuteronomy.
Can the annihilation of Sihon,
An utterly explicit genocide,
Under God's command to overrun
Some lands where only Jews might now reside,
Thus stated be aught else? How can a Jew
So soon, so soon, such nightmares still pursue?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Parzival. By William Rosati. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holoca.html. For more poems about Jewish history and culture, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewishpoems.html .

Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

 

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about the ubiquity of hatred:

 

Hatred has no color, creed, or race.
All hate, more or less, and thus destroy
The fragile ecosystem of the heart,
Restoring which requires faith and grace.
Each must love for any hope of joy,
Disciplining hate with well-honed art.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Don’t Look Inside. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hatred.html. For more poems for MLK’s birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

January Waits, Unsentimental

 A calendar poem for January:

 

January waits, unsentimental,
Again born into beauty, cruel and kind.
Nor cold nor darkness fools the wily child,
Unweeping in a brutal wind and wild,
As the Earth turns passionless and blind.
Rejoicing in her birth, she dons the mantle,
Yearning to recall what lies behind.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Revelation. By Jeremy Blake. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/januar.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Every Moment Is a Revelation

 

A poem for Epiphany about the revelation that waits behind the scrim of every moment:

 

Every moment is a revelation
Placed behind the scrim of what one sees.
In every unremarkable sensation,
Poised to dance, some truth awaits a breeze.
How might one then step behind the veil,
Alive in ways one was not meant to live?
None can bear such beauty long, nor fail,
Yet yearning, to revere what grace might give.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/every6.html. For more poems for Epiphany, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .

Hell Is Not a Prison, but a Room

 A Happy New Year poem about the ability to escape from a self-imposed Hell:

 

Hell is not a prison, but a room,

And you can walk out anytime you choose.

Perhaps you think your treasure is your tomb;

Perhaps you fear you have too much to lose.

Year's end's an opportune time to take stock,

Needing such inducements for reflection,

Embracing change quite literally by the clock

While thumbing through the usual selection.

Yet escaping Hell's a yes or no --

Embrace the life you have or let it go.

And if it's no, then leave, but if it's yes,

Remember that you chose it, more or less.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Renaissance Castle. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hellis.html. For more New Year’s poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

Christmas and Hanukkah on the Same Night

 

A Christmas poem about Hanukkah and Christmas being on the same night:

 

Christmas and Hanukkah on the same night!

How is that for double delight?

Reason says neither could ever have been.

Imagination says Reason can't win.

Sing of the beauty whose truth would be lost!

The gain in precision is not worth the cost.

Minimal worlds get the minimum right.

A world without faith's moral suasion is slight.

Souls require what selves can't requite.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Holiday Brass Ensemble. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmasan.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

How Explain the Miracle of Light

 

A Hanukkah poem about the miracle of light:

 

How explain the miracle of light?
A lamp's a miracle, refueled or no.
Nor is there aught that ought be more than night,
Unless some unmade maker make it so.
Know that nothing is but miracles,
Kindled from the void we know not how;
And God, if God there be, the greatest miracle,
Here within the sepulcher of now.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Wander. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howexp.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html .

Seasons of Sunshine, Seasons of Rain

 A Season’s Greetings poem about the turning of the seasons:

 

Seasons of sunshine, seasons of rain,

Each with its joy, each with its pain,

All come to revel, then vanish again,

Singing with voices one mirrors in vain.

 

Oak trees in leaf, oak trees stripped bare,

Now giving shade, now simply there,

Swaying as wind whistles through their green hair,

Gaunt, frozen dancers in still, frigid air.

 

Rejoice in the winter, rejoice in the spring,

Embrace the hot summer when sweet songbirds sing,

Embrace the cool autumn when warblers take wing,

Then again winter, which closes the ring.

 

Infinite pleasure, infinite woe,

Nothing above, nothing below,

Grace come a’stumbling through deep drifted snow,

Still the best gift that life can bestow.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. 

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

Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

 A humorous poem from an 11-year-old who has died early and is waiting in Heaven for his friend:

 

Holidays are holy here in heaven.
(Ordinary days are awful, too.)
Love is mandatory day and night.
If you get mad, you're not allowed to fight.
Desperate deeds are difficult to do!
As you know, I'll always be eleven.
Years pass, and there's still no sign of you.
So please come soon, 'cause we're still buddies. Right?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holida.html. For more humorous poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/humorouspoems.html .

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

 A number poem for 61 with some lines borrowed from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:

 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
In truth, thou shoulds't be catalogued in fall.
X-rays do show the darling Buds of May
Traveling still along th'arterial wall.
Yet thou has't late become more temperate,

Older as thou art than thy flesh seems.
Nor do thine eyes betray thy body's date,
Even as within thy spirit gleams.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shalli.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

 

Audio and Video Music: A Kiss for Amanda. By D. J. Williams. Music free to use at YouTube. 

Seventy-Three Is Always at the Ready

 A number poem for a political activist in honor of Election Day:

 

Seventy-three is always at the ready,

Eager to march, to sign, to speak, to sing.

Victory’s the goal, but not the point,

Even though the time is out of joint,

Nor is guilt or self-regard the thing,

Though motivation’s never one, but many.

Yet for her, the love of life is plenty:

 

The love of people, animals, the Earth,

Human rights, freedom, justice, beauty,

Reveling in struggle, in doing right,

Embracing the quixotic gift of duty,

Engaged ever in the painful bliss of birth.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Kiss the Sky. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73i.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

Horror Is a Color in Our Rainbow

 A Halloween poem about horror as part of our nature:

 

Horror is a color in our rainbow,

A chimerical, spectral inner arc of black.

Light bursting through the prism of our dreams

Lingers as a set of separate beams,

Of which pure terror is a prominent track,

Where we may feel our bones freeze to the marrow,

Exercising instincts else gone slack.

Nor does all truth lie tucked between two seams.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Don’t Look Inside. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/horro4.html. For more poems for Halloween, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

Death Came to Me When I Was at a Meeting

An Epitaph for a Social Activist

 

Death came to me while I was at a meeting,
Opened up my chest and wandered in.
Nor did it leave until a few days later,
Satisfied it need not come again.
It was a death both unforeseen and fitting,
Living as I did for what I did,
Being one averse to merely being,
Engaged in service to the world I would.
Remember me, then, as I was when death
Made its sudden entrance to my heart:
Attentive in my seat, my wife beside me,
Night come, the meeting just about to start.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/death2.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

The Right to Live as Distinct Peoples

 Adapted from The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

 

Indigenous peoples have the collective right

To live as distinct peoples

And shall not be subjected to

Any act of genocide

Or other act of violence,

Including the forcible

Removal their children.

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

Not to be subjected to forced assimilation

Or the destruction of their culture.

 

States shall prevent

Any action that has the aim or effect

Of depriving them of their integrity

As distinct peoples,

Or of their cultural values

Or ethnic identities;

Or dispossessing them

Of their lands, territories, or resources;

Or any form of forced population transfer;

Or any form of forced assimilation or integration;

Or any form of propaganda

Designed to promote or incite

Racial or ethnic discrimination

Directed against them.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri4.html. For more poems for Indigenous Peoples Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

Yes, There Is a Lot One Need Atone for

 A poem for Yom Kippur about the need to atone for what you failed to do as much as for what you did:

 

Yes, there is a lot one need atone for.

One is in this pickle every year.

Maybe progress is too much to ask for,

Knowing how few angels live down here.

In fact, one must atone for what one didn't,

Perhaps as much or more than what one did.

Perhaps one's most egregious evil isn't

Understood till one lifts up the lid,

Revealing what one's life of privilege hid.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yesthe.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Remorse Is Not a Synonym for Shame

 A poem for Rosh Hashanah comparing remorse to shame:

Remorse is not a synonym for shame.

One is mainly outer; the other, inner.

So might fear of shame deter a sinner

Hidden 'neath the gilt of a good name.

 

However, remorse comes from within, a feeling

Arisen from the grave of innocence,

Still haunted by a mystic moral sense

Hemorrhaging a sorrow that is healing.

 

A fear of shame requires imagination,

Needing an imaginative eye,

As remorse needs an imaginative I

Harrowed by empathic transformation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Nocturne. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/remors.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Sing for All the Years You Have Been Granted

 A 70^th birthday poem of celebration for the gifts of life:

 

Sing for all the years you have been granted,
Each blessing sing, each child, girl and boy!
Verses sing for all the things you've wanted:
Each victory, each pleasure, and each joy!
No matter age or illness, sing undaunted,
Though you may be by dreams or memories haunted,
Yet sing, and life and love this day enjoy!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singfo.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

The Night My Heart Stopped

 A poem about a moment of silent communication between the poet and a racoon:

The night my heart stopped
I was sleeping with my wife
In a tent at the edge of a wood.

The Earth spun and spun.
Silent, in a cold sweat,
I felt myself going under.

I crawled out of the tent,
Careful not to wake my wife,
And onto a chaise lounge.

Under the spinning stars
My heart started and stopped,
Started and stopped, started . . .

I lay where a path emerged
From the wood, and along the path
Came a large raccoon.

He walked over to me
And raised himself up
Not four feet from my eyes.

We stared at each other
With focused understanding,
Words without words,

Eyes beyond eyes,
A giving and a taking
That stilled my raucous heart.

Satisfied, he lowered
Himself to the ground
And turned toward the wood.

"Thank you, brother," I said,
"Thank you." But he was gone,
Slipped back into darkness.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theni2.html. For more poems about animals, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/animalpoems.html .