Borders Are Obscenities

February 21, 2013 #725

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about borders.

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

Borders are obscenities,
Barbed wire through the heart,
Guardians of amenities
Tearing us apart;

Scars across the living Earth,
Remnants of old wounds;
Bastions of good luck at birth;
Death among the dunes;

Walls to stop a surging sea,
Keeping back the tide
Of those of us who are not we
Yet would join us inside;

Fortresses of fortunes good
And prison camps of bad;
Boundaries of brotherhood
In mines and sensors clad;

Soon, we hope, to be just lines
Unnoticed as we pass
Some unobtrusive welcome signs
Half hidden in tall grass.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Vital Signs Include the Pulse of Love

February 14, 2013 #724

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Valentine's 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

Vital signs include the pulse of love
As measured by the grace with which one lives.
Love maintains the spirit's health and gives
Each life a dignity that none need prove.
Nor need a lover need a lover of
The moment to enjoy what this day brings.
In every heart an unspent hope has wings,
Nestled in, but placed to make its move.
Embrace, then, what you cannot do without.
'Ere night the pulse of love should make you dance
So that your movement mirrors what you feel.
Dance with grace too beautiful to doubt,
Alive to the allurement of romance,
Yearning with a joy you can't conceal.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 7, 2013 #723

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year (the Year of the Snake).

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

They also serve themselves who lie in wait,
However much they may be moved to strike.
Empty-headed fools do as they like,
Yielding the ill fortune they call fate.
Eventually, things fall into place
As patience reaps its ultimate reward.
Remember that the wise are rarely bored
Or restless as the game goes on apace.
For those who play it well, with subtlety,
Taking nothing as it might appear,
Having much desire and little fear,
Each moment is suspended ecstasy.
Success is sweetest when it is well earned,
Not snatched from some unmeditated wind.
All one loves may well be left behind,
Kindred of the heart or blood, not kind,
Each a lesson from which one has learned.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 31, 2013 #722

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about friendship.

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

Horses have friends, and cows, pigs, elephants.
Dogs have best buddies, and parrots, possums, ducks.

Eating alone in a public place can be embarrassing,
As though one's personal failure to connect was on view.

Perhaps we need listeners to make our thoughts real.
Perhaps we need another's warm space as a refuge.

A word of affection is like sunlight to a flower,
Opening it up to the scent-laden sky.

A friend is a mirror, without which we could not see ourselves.
A friend is a window, without which we could not see beyond ourselves.
A friend is a necessity, like food, or sleep, or home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 24, 2013 #721

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about death and grief.

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

I do not wish to undermine your sorrow
Or blunt the healing power of your pain,
But there will be another day tomorrow,
And you will, yes, be happy once again.
Grief is music, sad but full of beauty,
Song of love that ought not last too long.
If it lasts, it turns into self-pity,
Which does both mourned and mourner grievous wrong.
Grief is just a shaft of mourning sunlight.
It is not all-consuming like the night.
Soon the clouds will burn away, and one light
Of love will shine, ubiquitous and bright.
Love is one, beyond all joy and grief.
Love is the tree, and each beloved the leaf.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 17, 2013 #720

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.'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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meaning is a morning song,
A dawn, a dance of light.
Reason merely sings along
To get the lyrics right.
In what you know is what you are,
Not what you'll become.
Let not sight your vision bar,
Undone by what is done.
To love must be to hope, for love
Has far too much to lose.
Embrace the good you're wary of,
Refusing to refuse.
Knowledge is as knowledge does.
It so quickly turns to was.
Now is ever when
Grace will come again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 10, 2013 #719

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an anniversary 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

Heaven is an ordinary day.
All the love there is, is in your hearts.
Perhaps the chatter jostles with the music
Pouring forth from angels on all sides.
Yet every moment sings with jubilation.

For you today's a day of celebration
In which you mark the joining of your lives.
Fortune comes to those who don't refuse it,
The self-served gift, despite one's fits and starts,
Heaven that succumbs, and serves, and stays.

© by Nicholas Gordon