The Sun Is Filtered Through a Canopy

April 23, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about moral ecology, or how each of us shapes the world in which all of us live.

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

The sun is filtered through a canopy
High above the limits of your senses.
In cool, lush shade you live a sheltered life,
Refreshed by love, restored by child and wife,
There being little need for strong defenses.
You know, then, just how precious is each tree.

The life of each shapes all life equally.
Happiness and sorrow know no fences.
Roots serve the soil even in their strife.
Each fingered branch has larger consequences.
Each thought comes from beyond what you can see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/2exE9_apIDs.

Reconcile Yourself to Self

April 16, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about the self and the soul.

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

Reconcile yourself to self,
The messy, muddled you,
Limited in leverage,
Unlimited in view.

There is no better vantage point
From which a soul might see,
Nor better little porcelain pot
In which a soul might be.

Being is a miracle,
And you, the miraclee,
And every moment of your life
Is eternity.

And everything you come across,
And everything within,
Packages the infinite,
Being without end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/QrGdCHMhFb0.

The Glad/Sad/Scared/Mad Menu

April 9, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for children about the secret of happiness.

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

THE GLAD/SAD/SCARED/MAD MENU

Little Jackie in the playground
Wanted to go home.
All her friends were somewhere else,
And she was all alone.

Her mother said that she should play,
But on what? And with whom?
She was sad, and she was mad,
And she was full of gloom.

Her mother said, “Why don't you ask
Someone to play with you?”
But little Jackie was too scared
To talk to someone new.

Then a little bee buzzed by
And noticed her distress,
And said, “Dear Jackie, don't you know
The trick of happiness?

“Life is like a menu from which
You can pick your mood.
Glad, sad, scared, or mad –
It's like choosing food!”

Then the little bee buzzed off,
And Jackie thought awhile.
If life was like a menu, well,
Then she would choose to smile.

And as she smiled, her world was lit
By her inner sun.
And by herself, all by herself,
She was having fun!

She swung on swings and slid down slides
With friends she never knew --
A porcupine, a panda, and
A passing kangaroo.

She raced around with teddy bears
And an orangutan.
And as she played, she sang a song,
And this is what she sang:

Life is like a menu from which
You can pick your mood.
Glad, sad, scared, or mad –
It's like choosing food!

Then a little girl came by,
And Jackie said, “Hello!
Would you like to play with me?”
The little girl said, “No.”

“OK,” said Jackie. “That's OK.”
And sang the menu song.
The little girl said, “Do you mind
If I sing along?”

“Oh, please!” said Jackie. “Sing with me!
Together we can sing
The menu song, and see what fun
Being friends can bring.”

And so they sang the song together,
Choosing to be glad,
Unafraid to make a friend,
No longer mad or sad.

Pick your mood and sing, dear friends,
Sing little Jackie's song!
Choose glad, not sad, or scared, or mad,
And then just sing along!

Life is like a menu from which
You can pick your mood.
Glad, sad, scared, or mad –
It's like choosing food!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/KhhxqIO4cpE.

Praised Be Those Who Worship God with Love

April 2, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for both Passover and Easter about the need to respect all religions.

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

Praised be those who worship God with love
And set aside the enmities of old.
Salvation is a tale often told,
Sensing what one can’t be certain of.
One’s faith precisely is what one can’t prove,
Vivid though one finds it to behold,
Each touch of truth a moment wrought in gold,
Revealing what no turmoil can remove.
Even so, belief must be a choice,
As fact ought not, nor probability,
Sure only of what can be proven wrong.
The muse of faith requires an inner voice
Emanating from a soul that’s free,
Respecting all that each might find her song.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/V7zGdF2QCT8.

Stand Up for Justice, but Always Do It Justly

March 26, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is an epitaph for someone who lived a conscientious life.

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

Stand up for justice, but always do it justly,
Easing conscience conscientiously.
You cannot hope to render right but rightly.
Means are ends, though unintentionally.
One must be the world that one envisions,
Unwaveringly creating what one would,
Requiring that each of one’s decisions
Embody only what is just and good.
In life I tried to be my own ideal,
Careful to remain at heart naïve,
Having a good sense of what is real
Even as I lived as I believed
Life should be, leavening what I must leave.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

Lovers and Good Friends Are Joined by Longing

March 19, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Lovers and good friends are joined by longing,
The glue that holds humanity together.
We have an innate hunger for belonging,
Designed to make us love each other better.
So do not think dependence is a failing.
It is inseparable from who you are.
You might have a yen for solo sailing,
But loneliness still haunts you from afar.
Allow yourself your weakness. It’s a strength
To have the courage to accept your needs.
Lovers find that courage, or at length
Find, as passion fades, that love recedes.
Passions are tides that, restless, come and go.
But love is a spring that draws from deep below.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/cooo5yQ0fmI.

Mothers Are Not Only of the Womb

March 12, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mothering Sunday (British Mother’s Day) about non-birth mothers.

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

Mothers are not only of the womb.
One can mother children not one's own.
The love one gives makes gardens out of stone,
However one is kindred to each bloom.
Even as we render tribute due,
Remember that it also is for you,
Song to one who would the task assume.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/qxtwH66_Ljg.