Maybe One Must End the War Within

May 22, 2014 #790

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe one must end the war within.
Each must first find peace within the heart.
Maybe one ought neither lose nor win,
Ought not presume to tell the two apart.
Remember that this means that one’s own hate
Is something one no longer needs to fight.
A hatred of one’s hatred is a state
Like any other in the way of light.
Do, then, in yourself just leave the field,
Abandoning your saber and your shield,
Yielding the long struggle to be right.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Graduation Means that Now You Must

May 15, 2014 #789

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation means that now you must
Repay the debt so innocently incurred,
Although the final tally seems absurd,
Demanding more than you consider just.
Unwillingly you had to make your bed
And now must lie in it, though we are all
The better for your choice. We like to call
Individual what is instead
Our common good. We feed on your success,
Nor can we be unscathed by your distress.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/RtMCYM_A7Vo.

Maybe No One Wholly Leaves the Womb

May 8, 2014 #788

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe no one wholly leaves the womb,
Of which the memory remains as love --
The need for innocence, the unslaked longing,
Hunger for the beauty of belonging,
Each being for the other what might prove
Redemptive, as love makes the moment bloom,
Self losing self in song, in grace, in giving.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/6zNHckCP7yU.

Ten Years! Such a Round, Emphatic Number

May 1, 2014 #787

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ten years! Such a round, emphatic number!
Each step's an invitation to a dance
Not unlike the foxtrot or the rumba,
Yielding to the rhythms of romance.
Each is one, yet dances as a couple,
A single body joined by love and art,
Rejoicing in the movement, sure and supple,
Singing to the music of the heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/eD81Ou3jDkI.

Time Speeds Up as One Grows Older

April 24, 2014 #786

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number poem about the nature of time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Time speeds up as one grows older.
Half one's life is one to two.
In a year, a year's a third.
Realize, though it seems absurd,
Time's proportional to you.
Years for dogs and cats run slower.

Free of time, beyond the knower,
One with all, eternal, true,
Unreachable by will or word,
Resides what will one's life renew.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/yfcM-ecRyaI.

Happy Easter to My Love

April 17, 2014 #785

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy Easter to my love!
After leaving paradise,
Perhaps a little love is nice,
Proving what no priest could prove.
Years will not that grace remove,
Eternal goodness given twice,
Although the heart be dipped in ice,
Saving all who would so choose.
The love we feel is simply this
Enduring bit of Eden's bliss,
Revealed within each joyful kiss.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

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

Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales

April 10, 2014 #784

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Perhaps this is no time for telling tales.
After all, the slaves are still not free.
So what if God once parted the Red Sea,
Saving us, when slavery still prevails?
Ought one turn to save those left behind?
Very few would face the Pharaoh's host,
Emerging from the sea with little lost,
Ravenous to kill who would be kind.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/TptsH-B4mgQ.