Happiness Is Half Real and Half Haunting

June 27, 2013 #743

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

Happiness is half real and half haunting.
A moment is half passion and half dream.
Perhaps there is no richness without wanting.
Perhaps the things we yearn for only seem.
Yet there are things that over time accrue,
Enduring through integrity and will,
Implicit every day in what we do,
Grace that blooms in soil we turn and till.
How beautiful to celebrate in passing
The things that last, the loves that years prove true,
Happiness long lived yet longing still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/G3tgN_gRFnM.

Give a Little Thought to Years Gone By

June 20, 2013 #742

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a graduation 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

Give a little thought to years gone by,
Remembering the time we spent together.
A moment, though long vanished, lasts forever,
Determining the tilt of every why.
Understand that nothing will be lost.
As we go, we also will remain,
Taking with us what we leave behind.
In each of us today a border's crossed,
Offering a past we will retain
Now that we'll be scattered to the wind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/_cbLVgJQiwk.

Fathers Are Forever

June 13, 2013 #741

Dear Subscriber:

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

Fathers are forever. Even death,
Although a distancing, does not divide
The child from the parent, nor does time,
However long, nor space, however wide.
Enduring beyond silence, beyond breath,
Resonant where hours cease to chime,
Some yearnings inconsolable abide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

You can watch me recite the poem at http://youtu.be/yj2DsL4CXZM.

Love Is the Spring from Which All Longing Flows

June 6, 2013 #740

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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

Love is the spring from which all longing flows.
Long may we long for what we have, for this
Is happiness, the bliss in wedded bliss,
Where married longing deepens as it slows.
How beautiful! The passion comes and goes
While love draws from the well of the abyss,
Watering well the seed of every kiss
As loves well tended soon take root and grow.
To love must be an everyday decision
Taken out of unrepented need,
The recognition of one's ceaseless longing.
The view depends on values more than vision,
The choice to let the choosing self recede,
Behind which lies revealed the grace of loving.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem at http://youtu.be/j24lZ6cOkJo .

The Roots of Hatred

May 30, 2013 #739

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

The roots of hatred run so deep
We drink their poison in our sleep.
Deep within or deep below,
The roots run deeper than we know.

Day and night, and night and day
We while the precious time away
Hating, writhing, seething, ranting,
All the while new hate seeds planting.

In the mind and in the heart,
In the whole and in each part,
The anger clenches flesh and soul,
Taking a titanic toll.

O love, the wind that winnows well
The hate that holds the heart in hell,
Come and kiss the urge to kill,
And storms abate, and tempests still.

Love comes alone to those who call,
And love themselves along with all,
Love the roots and love the tree,
And know that you are part of me;

And know that I am part of you,
And you become the things I do,
And what I hate is what I am,
Both hungry wolf and slaughtered lamb.

So do not hate the hate within,
But love the love, and love the sin,
Love the beast and love the prey,
For both one word of wonder say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem at http://youtu.be/fEmoKh-sr2g.

Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

May 23, 2013 #738

Dear Subscriber:

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

Murder ought not ever be a duty,
Even though for soldiers it must be.
Maybe one is bound by love or beauty
Only after one is safe and free.
Remember, then, those who murdered for you,
Invading, burning, bombing in your name,
And those whose plain white tombstones are before you,
Long dead, with neither guilt nor pride nor shame.
Deep within the heart the cause of war,
Alive and well, assures us there’ll be more,
Yielding hatred, fear, revenge, and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

See me recite the poem at http://youtu.be/y2Eo7XvTYCA.

Happy Graduation

May 16, 2013 #737

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a graduation 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

Happy graduation! For at last
A goal long sought has finally been achieved!
Praised be those who persevere, for they
Prepare the ground for gardens that will come,
Yielding fruit for many yet unborn!
Give back the gifts that else would bind you fast,
Returning to the wind what you've received.
A learner's not a storehouse but a way,
Doing what will ever be undone,
Undoing what was once so proudly worn.
All that you have labored for is past.
There is no longer knowledge long believed.
In truth, the truth is subject to decay,
Opening a world of wonders, one
Not cubbyholed or clipped, of mystery shorn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

See me read the poem at http://youtu.be/_QtCVgP_VwA.