Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

 

A Passover poem about how each Jew’s participation in Jewish ritual enabled Judaism to survive two thousand years of exile:

 

Part of being Jewish is a choice
As one becomes an act of preservation.
Seders start the stream of admonition,
Stories meant to bind one to the past.
On words alone the exiles had to last,
Verses reified by repetition,
Each an heirloom of a generation
Reared to give those ancient words a voice.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/partof.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

April

 

A calendar poem for April:

 

April is quite conscious of his beauty,
Poised to sing a more idyllic song.
Regrettably, he sometimes gets it wrong
In coming on delayed a bit too long,
Losing all sense of his springtime duty.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

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

Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

 

A poem for Eid al-Fitr about returning to the holiness of ordinary life at the end of the greater holiness of Ramadan:

 

Each moment is like sunlight on the heart,
Infinity within infinity.
Descend now from the whole back to the part,
As fast gives way to feast, and One to me.
Love is worship, as is pure, chaste pleasure;
Food is worship, music, dance, delight.
Immersed in talk, we savor what we treasure,
The days of fasting fading fast from sight,
Returning, turning, burning through the night.

 

© 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/eachm2.html. For more Ramadan poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

Adela Removes the Writing on the Wall

 

A name poem for Adela, who despite the odds is determined to shape her own future:

 

Adela removes the writing on the wall,

Determined to replace it with her own.

Even though no fate may heed her scrawl,

Like a god she wills what will befall,

A prophet staking claim to the unknown.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: One Step Closer. 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/adela.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

Sublimation Is a Transformation

 

A poem for St. Patrick’s Day about the virtue of priestly celibacy:

 

Sublimation is a transformation,
Turning objects of one's lust to souls,
Perhaps not wholly holy -- priests are human,
And even Christ knew hunger and desire.
The vow of celibacy, like that of marriage,
Restricts as it enormously enriches,
Inhibits as it frees, resolves, renews,
Celebrates love, all love, every love,
Knots the nots that open wide the heart.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Emotional Love Theme. 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/sublim.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

Purified of Arabs or of Jews

 

A poem for the Jewish holiday of Purim about the need to share the Holy Land:

 

Purified of Arabs or of Jews,
Until the phantoms fade, the land will scream,
Remembering the slaughter of the dream,
In which dark deeds that only madmen choose
Made room for those no blessing could redeem.

 

© 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/purifi.html. For more poems for Purim, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/purimpoems.html .

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 .