You Wish to Live a Long and Healthy Life

September 17, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Yom Kippur about the relationship of the individual to the community.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You wish to live a long and healthy life
On friendly terms with everyone around you,
Married to a lovely, loving wife,
Knee deep in the good causes that surround you.
In truth, however, you’re not in control,
Planted where you are by wind, not will,
Placed where sun and shade might shape your soul,
Ultimately child of the whole,
Repenting for us all, for good or ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

September 10, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week a poem for Rosh Hashanah about worshipping a God you don’t really believe in.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revelation strikes you as absurd,
Out of whack with what you think you know.
Still, you love the beauty of the words,
However much you mind the undertow.
How might you participate in prayer
Absent faith in God? It makes no sense.
Still, the urge to cleanse the soul is there,
However unappealing the pretense.
A world of unsolved mysteries surrounds you,
Nor can you shake the spirit that confounds you,
Aware of truths that cannot be expressed,
Here so beautifully in scripture dressed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html . For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

September 3, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is poem for Labor Day about the importance of a living wage.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let every worker earn a living wage,
And every family have enough to eat.
Better bellies full of bread than rage.
One finds no better peacemaker than wheat.
Really? Can we get around inflation?
Demand increases; what about supply?
Affluence reduces population.
Yet some prefer to see poor people die.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html . For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

Here You Are, Already Eight

August 27, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is birthday poem for an eight year old.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here you are, already eight!
It must be something that you ate!
Or is it just the proper date
For someone your age to be eight?

Just yesterday you weren’t eight.
You were still seven. Isn’t it great
In just one day, on just one date,
To suddenly jump from seven to eight?

So Happy Birthday! Happy Eight!
From early dawn to very late!
And till again you see this date,
Have a good time being eight!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more birthday poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html . For more poems to children, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Never Do What You Resent

August 20, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a psychological poem about making good choices.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Never do what you resent,
But give your choices your consent.
And what you would no longer choose,
Have the courage to refuse.

Giving is a gift that one
Gives oneself when all is done.
For to be whole, one must be part,
Well connected through the heart.

A gift should be for love or beauty,
Never solely out of duty,
Never out of guilt or fear
Of seeming something less than dear.

So choose your chains, if such there be,
And keep your sense of sovereignty,
Doing freely out of love
What else might fortune’s bondage prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more psychological poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

The Only Hope for Happiness

August 13, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical number poem about the nature of happiness.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The only hope for happiness
Has neither eyes nor ears.
Instead it sings a melody
Reason rarely hears,
The descant of its gratitude:
Yearning, love, and tears.

For it, all things are equable
In Being's golden light,
Vast as everything that is,
Embracing bloom and blight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Adeline

August 6, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name poem for Adeline, who likes old-fashioned things.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Adeline likes old-fashioned things:
Dirt roads twisting through hand-tended fields;
Eggs from hens that strut across the yard;
Long wooden tables, faded, pocked, and scarred;
In steel containers, milk that butter yields;
Night unlit, that far-flung glory brings;
Ebullient day, that buzzes, chirps, and sings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html. For more name poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .