March 12, 2009 #523
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a St. Patrick'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
So let it go, that mythic Ireland!
Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!
Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --
All of it – but that was long ago.
The time when states were nations is now ending.
Races know no borders; people move
In search of life, their clothes and colors rending
Cultures that must now their presence prove.
Know, then, that not politics, but art,
'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,
Sustains a people's history and heart,
Dependent more on ritual than place.
As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,
Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Poem of the Week
March 5, 2009 #522
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a political 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 last depression led to holocaust.
The rationale for massacre is fear.
Long before it starts, the game is lost.
The neighborhood of hate is always here.
The best place to begin is one's own heart.
There the mad dogs pull against their chains,
Lusting to tear some stranger's throat apart,
Rage that only love and patience tames.
Each heart becomes a lantern in a crowd.
Yes, people see according to your light,
As you by theirs – but speak of love aloud,
Lest other voices drown the coming night.
And do not turn away from victims' cries,
For evil's spooked by nothing more than eyes.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Dear Subscriber:
This week’s poem of the week is a political 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 last depression led to holocaust.
The rationale for massacre is fear.
Long before it starts, the game is lost.
The neighborhood of hate is always here.
The best place to begin is one's own heart.
There the mad dogs pull against their chains,
Lusting to tear some stranger's throat apart,
Rage that only love and patience tames.
Each heart becomes a lantern in a crowd.
Yes, people see according to your light,
As you by theirs – but speak of love aloud,
Lest other voices drown the coming night.
And do not turn away from victims' cries,
For evil's spooked by nothing more than eyes.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Poem of the Week
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
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 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
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