You Find but Little Solace in Success

September 12, 2013 #754

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur, the Jewish 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 find but little solace in success,
On which you long have hung your self-esteem.
Maybe you expected happiness,
Knowing how the self-important seem.
Instead, you feel a gnawing at the heart,
Perhaps because you know where you've gone wrong,
Purporting to be whole when you are part,
Unable yet to simply sing along,
Restored to worship by the grace of song.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/rPpG2SmHvoQ.

Reason Says, of Course, that There's No Book

September 5, 2013 #753

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

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

Reason says, of course, that there's no Book
Of Life in which one is, or not, inscribed.
Still, repentance can affect one's fate.
How well one loves, or not, can still reshape
How well the year turns out. The soul revived
Attends to what the wayward soul forsook.
So does the myth remake the everyday,
Holding out the hope that fervent prayer
Actually might make someone's fortune better.
Nor ought one judge the legend by the letter,
As what is writ enriches what is there,
Having set forth well both will and way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/qpFVTaF9aH4.

Labor Is Identity

August 29, 2013 #752

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

Labor is identity
As one is what one does.
Beware the work that will not sculpt
One into what one would.
Remember well the bunko bees,
Defined by work that is
Awash in ugliness and guilt,
Yielding little good.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/QhzcumHl0jI.

Sing of Who and Where and What You Are

August 22, 2013 #751

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a birthday number 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

Sing of who and where and what you are
In celebration of your day of birth!
X marks the moment you came into being,
The start of your identity on Earth.
Yet one still yearns to see beyond the bar.

The mystery is never more or less.
Here must be a miracle, and now;
Reality's a miracle, and seeing
Each moment come and go, as years allow,
Even as you sing, and being bless!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/7qAFeLVMWOg.

Agatha

August 15, 2013 #750

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

Agatha is plain, old-fashioned good --
Giving, caring, loving, generous, kind.
A person doesn't get that way by chance,
Though much can be explained by circumstance.
Her will remains the servant of her mind
As she molds what character she would.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu be/Nkse9uVGx8I.

Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul

August 8, 2013 #749

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Fitr.

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

Each fast is like a cleansing of the soul
In which one's thoughts are purified by prayer,
Deepened by connection to the whole
As one becomes somehow more simply there.
Leaving the sweet holiday behind,
Families feast to bid it fond farewell.
If Ramadan rewards the heart and mind,
The feast rewards the long-neglected shell
Returning to the palace of the wind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at  http://youtu.be/2kus4XznEFw.

What Can I Do to Keep You from Despair

August 1, 2013 #748

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about mental illness.

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

What can I do to keep you from despair?
You turn from me with darkness in your heart.
It doesn't seem to matter that I'm there,

Or how much more or less I show I care
Once the suicidal drumbeats start.
What can I do to keep you from despair?

Life itself seems what you cannot bear
For reasons that no reasoning can chart.
It doesn't seem to matter that I'm there,

Or that I try to make each day seem fair
With all my passionate will and bumbling art.
What can I do to keep you from despair?

I try my best to love you well, and share
With you your pain, and take your part.
It doesn't seem to matter that I'm there.

There is a stranger who takes over where
There was a friend – loving, playful, smart.
What can I do to keep you from despair?
It doesn't seem to matter that I'm there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/3bPqXnNsXHw .