Poem of the Week

November 1, 2012 #709

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Election 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

Elections bring regime change, even though
Little seems to change but the regimes.
Energetic leaders come and go.
Change is far more daunting than it seems.
This is due to what elections do:
In counting votes, they sum not some but all,
Of which no cook could make a tasty stew,
Nor architect an arch that would not fall.
Demands of opposite intent demand
A compromise constrained, complex, and bland.
Yet such will ever violence forestall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 25, 2012 #708

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Horror is less horrible than life.
At least for most of us, it's an escape.
Let the nightmares out! Let squealers quake!
Let them safely fear the fictive knife!
Open up the Hell of undreamt dreams!
Wake the monsters lurking in the heart!
Exercise our frenzy with your art,
Else dormant in a world of in-betweens,
Not fit for those whose longings haunt their means.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 18, 2012 #707

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a grown-up child.

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

Face the fact that you are still a child --
Older, yes, of course, but a child still,
Remembered, valued, loved unceasingly
Though far away and wholly on your own.
Years pass, yet that identity remains.

So you may recall how once we smiled
Each time you tested out your fledgling will,
Voicing an assumed authority
Eventually becoming yours alone.
Nor can one tell the losses from the gains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

October 11, 2012 #706

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

Alejandro finds his pleasure in parades,
Liking most the tumult and the noise,
Excited by the close-packed crowds he craves,
Jostled to and fro by burly joys.
A quiet moment is too much to take --
Not too empty, but too full of being.
Depressed by so much existential weight,
Restless in the presence of his state,
Out he runs, in search of what he's fleeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Poem of the Week

October 4, 2012 #705

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Columbus 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

Can one ever see what lies beyond?
One cannot help but sail for shores unknown,
Leaving everything one loves behind.
Ultimately, one must live alone.
Maybe that's OK. One needn't weep.
Blessed are those who sail willingly,
Unafraid to lose what they can't keep,
Singing to the silence of the sea.
Do, then, dare to choose your mortal state
And relish the adventure of your fate,
Yearning only for the grace to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

September 27, 2012 #704

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 is a sentimental season,
Undoing with nostalgia summer's dreams.
The sun slants southward, sending golden beams
Underneath the cobalt of one's reason,
Magical among the dying leaves.
Nor can one hold the sweet delight one grieves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Poem of the Week

September 20, 2012 #703

Dear Subscriber:

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

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 cannot be the person you might wish,
Opening the door to who you are.
Morning comes alike to fowl and fish,
Kindled by a mystery from afar.
In you there is a music all your own
Pouring through the sluices of your heart,
Passionate with love as you atone,
Unmoored from self by ritual and art,
Restored to some bright whole not yours alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Note: For those of you in or near Vermont, a musical setting by Michael Isaacson of one of my poems, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be performed by Robert De Cormier and his chorus, “Counterpoint,” with pianist Diane Huling, on October 11 at 7:30 PM at the Bethany Church, 115 Main St, in Montpelier, Vermont.