Poem of the Week

October 6, 2011 #654

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You pray to be included in the book
Of life before your yearly doom is sealed,
Making sure no sin is left concealed,
Knowing that there'll be no second look.
In words that are sincere, with guilt unfurled,
Perhaps you pray with some uncertainty,
Poised between belief and poetry,
Unwilling now to take it literally,
Remnant of a strange and ancient world.

© by Nicholas Gordon

September 29, 2011 #653

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revenge is often taken in the mind.
Open wounds untreated tend to bleed.
Some who else would be both good and kind
Hate others in the thought, if not the deed.
Have mercy, then, upon yourself, and clear
Away the anger twisting you inside,
Sanctifying for the coming year
Heart and spirit, cleansed of pain and pride.
As you ask forgiveness, so forgive,
Nor need you lose your honor with your fury.
All find their just reward in how they live,
Held to account by a less partial jury.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 29, 2011 #653

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revenge is often taken in the mind.
Open wounds untreated tend to bleed.
Some who else would be both good and kind
Hate others in the thought, if not the deed.
Have mercy, then, upon yourself, and clear
Away the anger twisting you inside,
Sanctifying for the coming year
Heart and spirit, cleansed of pain and pride.
As you ask forgiveness, so forgive,
Nor need you lose your honor with your fury.
All find their just reward in how they live,
Held to account by a less partial jury.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 22, 2011 #652

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for autumn.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Autumn sheds its brilliant tears,
Undone by darkness, wind, and cold,
Then turns the tears to leafmeal so
Ultimately trees can grow.
Meanwhile, in naked wood and wold,
None can hide as winter nears.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 15, 2011 #651

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Agafya is plain, old-fashioned good --
Giving, caring, loving, generous, kind.
A person doesn't get that way by chance.
Fortune isn't merely circumstance.
Years are fields on which the play of mind
And will create what character one would.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 8, 2011 #650

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn't stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self's less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 1, 2011 #649

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Labor Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Long may you labor at something you love,
Awakening daily to passion and pleasure,
Blessed to find joy both in work and in leisure,
Obliged to move mountains you most want to move.
Remember that work is defined by the heart,
Delightful or not as the laborer chooses.
All life is a game that one wins or one loses,
Yielding what one would with will and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon