Poem of the Week

January 17, 2008 #469

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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe more than love was needed.
All my love was not enough.
Reason is but rarely heeded.
Talk means little at the trough.
Icons look good on the wall
Nothing changes but the names.
Love is merely protocol.
Undiluted fear remains
The life is fast, the changes slow.
Hope must be its own reward
Eventually, the undertow
Returns, returns towards times untoward.
Kings build castles in the sand.
Infinity awaits the tide.
None can settle on the strand.
Grace must live with fratricide.

Poem of the Week

January 10, 2008 #468

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number 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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forget that you are much esteemed and loved
If that is not enough to bring you joy.
Forget that you are healthy and secure,
Though there must always be what will alloy
Your happiness and life’s indifference prove.

So is there nothing, nothing can destroy?
Is there grace no sorrow can remove,
Xerophyte that blooms where most endure?

Poem of the Week

January 3, 2008 #467

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an animal 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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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.

Poem of the Week

December 27, 2007 #466

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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have another new beginning,
Another chance to be what we are not.
Praised be those who recognize the rot,
Portion out the guilt, and go on living.
Years change far more frequently than we,
Nor are our changes more than painted screens,
Each placed to maximize our meager means,
Windows on a world that none can see.
Yet, truth be told, we know well what’s within.
Each resolution fails to touch the heart,
As in the end we are, as at the start,
Remorseful reprobates, half hope, half sin.

Poem of the Week

December 20, 2007 #465

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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make the most of every Christmas morning
Even when the weather’s not so clear.
Riches come and go with little warning,
Rendered only to what souls are there.
Yet some would spend their Christmas at hard labor,
Choosing to ignore the gifts of grace,
Having much, though little that they savor,
Resigned to serve the lords of time and place.
In Christmas there is work and there is pleasure,
So interfused one cannot separate
The labor from the loving, common treasure
Made from giving, much beloved weight,
A burden and a blessing both, that one
Should relish till the precious day is done.

Poem of the Week

December 13, 2007 #464

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Season’s Greetings 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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Simple pleasures rest on complex piers
Engineered to stand against the wind,
A latticework of love that lasts the years,
Steel lace on which we ply our passions blind.
On certain days, however, we recall
Necessary links to worlds below,
Seasons of remembrance that with small
Gifts of grace rekindle what we know.
Revel, then, within, and celebrate
Each tangled thread that binds you to your life,
Embracing the regrets that are your fate,
Traveling again the roads to light.
In such sweet seasons love, however wrought,
Neither what you feared nor what you sought,
Grants audience to sentiment unstained,
So pure but treasured tinctures are retained.

Poem of the Week

December 6, 2007 #463

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Chanukah 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."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Careful when you light the Chanukah candles!
Have some water nearby just in case
A candle teeters at some crazy angle,
Not having been quite twisted into place.
Unexpected things can sometimes happen:
Kindling can blow in across a flame
And make of a charade a conflagration,
Holy fire furnished by The Name.