Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

May 28, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about charity written for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly.

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 there be joy, always joy in giving,
In serving those who cannot serve themselves.
There is no better gift one gets from living
Than that sweet will that from the heart upwells.
Let there be pleasure in giving others pleasure,
Enjoyment in giving others joy,
Sheer happiness, beyond all one might measure,
In toiling in a loving God's employ.
So may we be the instruments of love,
The flesh of God's will working in the world,
Each a thread within the banner of
Redemption, to the winds of time unfurled.
Sacrifice is then no sacrifice,
Obligation then no obligation,
For what is gained has neither peer nor price,
There being none remotely in relation.
How might one find sanctity in service,
Each menial task a grateful act of prayer?
Perhaps if one believed that life was senseless,
Old folk were simply woe one wouldn't share.
Only love gives dignity to all,
Restoring faith in those who heed its call.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/xW9PUXQtBQo.

Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

May 21, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Memorial Day about the joy and pain of memories.

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

Memories evoke a painful joy,
Evoke a harsh and bitter tenderness.
Maybe that’s the price of happiness:
One loves what time or tempest will destroy.
Remember, then, those whom you have loved
In mingled joy and sorrow. Sing a song
As beautiful as is your love, and mourn
Like one who is by some chance blessing moved.
Days of mourning are a celebration,
A dance whose healing grace sustains relation,
Yielding grief that will redemptive prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/om4Kup534M8.

Glad to Graduate and Sad to Leave2

May 14, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a college 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

Glad to graduate and sad to leave.
Ready and not ready for what’s next.
Afloat on buoyant dreams and deep in debt.
Determined both to give and to receive.
Uncertain what the future has in store.
Aware of an enormous inner change
That makes these years worthwhile, a greater range
In which to ramble, seeking to learn more.
Open to a richer world of mind.
Now moving forward as I look behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/fcfRuEsDH5Q.

Glad to Graduate and Sad to Leave2

May 14, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a college 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

Glad to graduate and sad to leave.
Ready and not ready for what’s next.
Afloat on buoyant dreams and deep in debt.
Determined both to give and to receive.
Uncertain what the future has in store.
Aware of an enormous inner change
That makes these years worthwhile, a greater range
In which to ramble, seeking to learn more.
Open to a richer world of mind.
Now moving forward as I look behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/fcfRuEsDH5Q.

How Might I Repay You for Your Love

May 7, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a single mother 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

How might I repay you for your love
And all those years of lonely sacrifice?
Perhaps no homage would sufficient prove;
Perhaps there are no words that would suffice.
Yet in my heart there’s music I can’t sing,
More beauty than my poor voice can express,
Oceans from which I these few drops wring,
Tokens of a tearful tenderness.
How did you bear those years when you alone
Embraced, supported, guided us, and not
Reproached your fate, or even in your tone,
'Mid all that drudgery, resent your lot?
So might I learn from you the secret of
Desiring what life brings to one through love,
And so, perhaps, by who I am repay
Your yearning as I could no other way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/0GzlQ5cABzc.

Happy Fifth Anniversary

April 30, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a fifth anniversary poem with angels.

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 fifth anniversary!
Angels hover near!
Perhaps you cannot see them, but,
Pleased as punch, they're here!
Yet if you doubt, just listen,
For music does not lie.
In zillions they are singing;
For you they fill the sky,
Their rainbowed wings aflutter,
Hosanna-ing on high!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/5YmJh5BpUvw.

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.