Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

October 2, 2014

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Year after year, you promise to atone.
Often, yes, you actually mean it.
Maybe you remember life’s on loan,
Knowing you’re expected to redeem it.
Into prayers you pour your willing heart,
Perhaps at times unsure of what you’ve done,
Perhaps at times unsure of where to start,
Uncovering what look like sins, though none
Requires much atonement on your part.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Ritual Recalls the Revelation

September 25, 2014

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ritual recalls the revelation.
Once the eternal enters time, it fades.
So might we sustain it through sensation,
Having melodies to serve as aids.
Hear, O Israel, the ancient words
As song, and savor both the sense and music!
Sing with the bright cadences of birds,
Holiness so sweet you can’t refuse it!
A synagogue is sanctified by song,
Nor ought familiar prayers be simply read.
All one’s heart is where it must belong,
Here singing with the living and the dead.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Living in Eternity

September 18, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem about eternity and 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

Living in eternity
While traveling through time.
The moment could be infinite
If one were so inclined.

Moments come and go;
The moment still remains,
Is what is, the only is,
The whole the now contains.

Oh, yes, of course one's little wave
Will break upon some shoal.
But waves are ripples of the deep.
The ocean is the soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/Rbm7vfbj9Nw.

Mommy and Daddy Love You

September 11, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a child about love.

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

Mommy and Daddy love you.
I know you love them, too.
And so it doesn’t matter that
They're sometimes mad at you.

Love is like the bright blue sky
Above the clouds and rain.
Soon the big black clouds move on.
The bright blue sky remains.

Sometimes you don’t notice it,
‘Cause love is like the air.
When you’re happy, when you’re sad,
Love is always there.

Love is like a little song
That you can sing and sing.
Even on the darkest days,
It brightens everything.

Mommy and Daddy love you.
I know you love them, too,
And they will love you all your life,
No matter what you do.

They will love you all your life,
No matter what you do,
No matter what, no matter when.
And you will love them, too.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/7qudeJEOW9Y.

Fifty Years, and You Remain a Child

September 4, 2014

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty years, and you remain a child,
Infinitely valued, loved, and treasured.
Fierce winds may rip away at autumn leaves,
The kind of turn by which one's life is measured.
Yet Eden lingers, innocent and wild.

Years matter not, nor chance, nor choice, nor change.
Ever you must be a child still.
Ambition matters not, nor joy, nor grief,
Reason, passion, temper, fortune, will,
Since you know love that nothing can estrange.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/ebXMFQ6Wr8U.

Life for Most of Us Has Not Improved

August 28, 2014

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Life for most of us has not improved.
A few billion live in agony.
Beasts live better, and are far more free.
Of course, the rest of us are deeply moved.
Remember, then, though business may be brisk,
Decency demands we buy and sell
At prices that reward the labor well,
Yet yield returns that justify the risk.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

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

Let Not Lust Undo Your Greater Longing

August 21, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about love and lust.

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 not lust undo your greater longing,
Lest you lose the love you most desire.
The point is not the partner you are wronging,
But who you are, and what grace you require.
It may be fear that keeps you from betraying
The trust that keeps your present life intact.
But fear alone should not keep you from straying;
The inner truth should flower in the act.
A moment is just one step in a dance
Performed through life upon an inner stage,
Choreographed in turn by will and chance,
Viewed more from the balcony with age.
Choose love, then, over lust, and dance with grace
Within a long and mutual embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/HS8cR6NZ0kw.