Success Is Measured Out in Humdrum Days

July 31, 2014

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

Success is measured out in humdrum days.
Enduring love evolves from ecstasy.
Vested in a choice, one settles in,
Eventually becoming what one is,
Needing what would else be mere desire.

Years pass, the elemental union stays,
Each turning bit by bit more otherly.
A change without becomes a change within,
Richer than what once was hers or his,
Self no self could by itself acquire.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/-Snr1k5lF6Y.

Eid Is Bittersweet

July 24, 2014 #798

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the holy month of Ramadan.

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

Eid is bittersweet. The holy month
Is over and the mundane months begun,
Devoted to the world of work and pleasure.
A sense of satisfaction comes at length,
Like winds that through the open windows run,
Freshening the soul, at last at leisure.
In celebration, then, and with new strength,
Turning to the many from the One,
Re-embrace the lives and loves you treasure.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/aBRCQ-Odp-c.

Let Me Love You Long and Well

July 17, 2014 #797

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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

Let me love you long and well,
Long past passion's prime.
For love begins as passion, but
Becomes far more in time.

Let me dream with you beyond
The woods that line time's bend,
And see not just a lover, but
A mate, companion, friend.

Oh, is it far too early to
Imagine what might be?
We are only you and I,
Not near to being we.

Love is like that, making plans
That dance within the heart
Before the words can find their way
To where the curtains part.

So let me love you long and well,
Though for now we wait
For life to catch up with what I
Would like to be our fate.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/BT2oMxii5ZA.

Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

July 10, 2014 #796

Dear Subscriber:

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

Because the root of poverty is injustice,
And there is wealth enough for all to have
Sustenance and shelter, and the promise
That all will prosper if they work and save;
Indeed, because those then have fewer children,
Leaving each more room in which to grow,
Leveraging lives through education,
Elevating lives by what they know:
Do not succumb to comfortable despair,
And think the poor, like flies, are simply there,
Yielding what might be to what seems so.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

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

Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

July 3, 2014 #796

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Independence Day (USA).

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

Indeed, this should be interdependence day.
No nation can lay claim to independence.
Despite the myth of sovereignty, we are
Entangled in a web of greed and need,
Poised upon the lip of life’s destruction.
Eventually, pain will have its way,
Nor will we fail forever our descendants.
Death comes singing anthems from afar,
Even as each victim is a seed
Now blowing in the wind of our redemption.
Come, then, for the Earth will have its say,
Eloquent on the subject of dependence.
Divided, we have not the strength to bar
A nation from its exercise of greed.
Yet as one world, we can avoid extinction.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/mylUe9xF6zk.

Right Action Is the Mother of Right Feeling

June 26, 2014 #795

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Right action is the mother of right feeling.
As one does, one ultimately becomes.
Mere words are insufficiently revealing.
An act of faith revives what living numbs.
Do, then, faithfully the month observe,
And by your abstinence your spirit serve.
Nor will that act be any less than healing.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/7iq0rtKHp2g.

This Is a Time of Extraordinary Hope

June 19, 2014 #794

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

This is a time of extraordinary hope.
What makes a couple think their love’s for life?
The passion comes and goes as couples cope
With what it means to be a man and wife.
Love that lasts is more than just a feeling,
More than ecstasy or tenderness,
More than empathy, however healing,
More than affection, joy, or happiness.
All these are love, and yet they will not last
Without a daily, conscious act of will.
The bridge between the future and the past
Is the choice to love through good and ill.
Love can be for life, but only when
The choice is made again, again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/3fheWnV409I.