Voices of the Dead Are All Around Me

November 6, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Veterans Day about coming home from war.

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

Voices of the dead are all around me.
Everyone alive seems much less real.
The smoke and screams and bombs and blood surround me,
Enduring through the love I still can’t feel.
Reality is rarely in the present
As truth and falsehood are defined by pain.
Nor can I stand one moment that is pleasant.
Sanity to me just seems insane.
Death is more attractive than a wife,
And loneliness a far less lonely life.
Yet I must turn and somehow live again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Happy, Happy Halloween

October 30, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about ghosts for Halloween.

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, Happy Halloween!
A funhouse till tomorrow!
Let the living squirm and scream!
Leave the dead to sorrow.
Only ghosts endure such pain,
Well beyond their age,
Each undone again, again,
Each condemned to rage.
Nor can they turn the page.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Let the Love Be Free of Lust

October 23, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

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

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 the love be free of lust
And watch the marriage die.
Devils dance on days of dust
As desperate lovers lie.

Yet how might lust survive the years
Of naked intimacy,
The thousand nights of talk and tears,
The flesh too tame to free?

The answer lies in lovers' dreams
Made flesh in lovers' play,
Where each becomes the other's means –
White canvas, willing clay;

A mutual acceptance of
A mutual desire
For lust, a generous act of love
That fuels the inner fire;

Still themselves, still faithful to
A marriage of the heart,
Making old love ever new
With chaste and playful art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Cierra Juliann

October 16, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a psychological name poem about being an older sibling.

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

Cierra Juliann's an older sister,
Infant no more, well before her time.
Everyone adores her little brother,
Recently emerged not far behind.
Remember how one reads the book of life,
Alternating happiness with tears,
Journeying towards love as man or wife,
Unready else to bear the weight of years.
Let her read the lesson of her longing
In her jealousy and fierce affection,
And get to know the labor of belonging,
Needing such travail for her protection,
Not least to tell life's blessings from perfection.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Chasing the Horizon

October 9, 2014

Dear Subscriber:

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

Chasing the horizon
On a windy sea,
Land fast disappearing,
Underway and free!
Maybe there is something
Beyond that distant line,
Ultimately nothing
Senses can define.
Days may seem like moments,
And moments seem like years,
Yet the wind is wine!

© by Nicholas Gordon.

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.