Each of Us Might Follow a Bright Star

January 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a poem for Epiphany about the dangers of attempting to impose a personal epiphany on society.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us might follow a bright star,
Perhaps to a redemptive revelation,
Intending, then, to change the way things are,
Passionate to socialize salvation.
However, please beware of what you do:
Ambition, even selfless, can turn sour.
No truth fits all, though burning inside you,
Yearning less for paradise than power.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eacho4.html . For more Epiphany poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Epiphanies.
Jan. 4: Every Moment Is a Revelation
Jan. 5: Rare Is the Thing that Makes a Point
Jan. 6: Each of Us Might Follow a Bright Star

Rare Is the Thing That Makes a Point

January 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a poem about the sudden epiphany that occurs in those rare and precious moments when we encounter things directly, free from the words in which they are clothed.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com . The most efficient way to receive the poem of the day is to follow my blog by email by entering your email in the FOLLOW BY EMAIL box at the top right.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Rare is the thing that makes a point
Of its integrity.
Most lie swaddled in our words,
Indifferent to ideas.

But every once in a while one
Insists on our surprise,
Penetrates our cinema,
Reveals to us its silence.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epiphanies.
Jan. 4: Every Moment Is a Revelation
Jan. 5: Rare Is the Thing that Makes a Point

Every Moment Is a Revelation

January 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphanies, in honor of the Christian holiday of Epiphany, which falls on January 6.

In Christianity, Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day, celebrates the coming of the Magi to see the infant Christ in Bethlehem. But the word epiphany refers to any sudden insight or realization. This week’s poems will relate to epiphany in both of its meanings.

Today’s poem is a poem for Epiphany about the yearning for revelation yet the difficulty of bearing too great a truth.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment is a revelation
Placed behind the scrim of what one sees.
In every unremarkable sensation,
Poised to dance, some truth awaits a breeze.
How might one then step behind the veil,
Alive in ways one was not meant to live?
None can bear such beauty long, nor fail,
Yet yearning, to revere what grace might give.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every6.html . For more Epiphany poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/epiphanypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Epiphanies.
Jan. 4: Every Moment Is a Revelation

How Sad, the Year Just Passed

January 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a New Year poem for 2001, which was the year of 9/11.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How sad, the year just passed! A year the past
Arose like smoke from deep beneath the rubble,
Pouring up through fissures in the heart,
Perhaps our own as much as those of others.
Year of hatred writhing in raw pain,
Near mad with certainty arrayed in faith,
Each aggrieved alight with righteous anger,
Whirlwinds swirling through their swathes of rage.
Yet let us in the new year look for justice,
Ever the rock on which to live in peace,
Administered with love for every soul,
Regarding every evil as our own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howsad.html . For more New Year’s poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This three-day week’s theme: New Year Poems.
Jan. 1: Here Again We Have a New Beginning
Jan 2: New Year’s Falls at Just the Darkest Hours
Jan 3: How Sad, the Year Just Passed

New Year's Falls Just at the Darkest Hour

January 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a poem about beginning the new year together.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

New Year's falls just at the darkest hour,
Even as the sun lies sick and dying.
When the darkness turns hope starts anew,
Year by year a lesson ever true,
Each of us the bitter cold defying.
All my life I want to be with you,
Restoring year by year our love-vined bower.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyea.html . For more New Year’s poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This three-day week’s theme: New Year Poems.
Jan. 1: Here Again We Have a New Beginning
Jan 2: New Year’s Falls at Just the Darkest Hours

Here Again We Have a New Beginning

January 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

This year begins a new direction as the poem of the week turns into the poem of the day. Each week will have a theme that the daily poems will explore and expand on.

Those of you who don’t want to receive so many poems can unsubscribe by clicking on the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. But I hope that most of you will enjoy reading poems that explore a variety of topics from a number of perspectives.

The poems for today and the following two days will be New Year poems: one about the new year as a new beginning, one a romantic poem about beginning the new year together, and one written for the new year of 2002 looking back at the catastrophic year of 9/11.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A New Year poem about beginning once again:

Here again we have a new beginning,
An old refrain to start a brand-new verse.
Perhaps the belly droops, the hair is thinning;
Perhaps each year the memory gets worse.
Yet new beginnings always start with hope,
Needing hope to nurture innocence,
Endeavoring to find a way to cope
When nothing deeply thought about makes sense.
Years come and go; Eden doesn't change.
Each new year we toddle forth again,
Afoot into a world that's ever strange,
Restored by some great turning tide within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hereag.html . For more New Year’s poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This three-day week’s theme: New Year Poems.
Jan. 1: Here Again We Have a New Beginning

December 31, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for New Year’s Eve about loneliness and freedom.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

New Year’s Eve is hard to spend alone
Even when one wants no company,
Willing to be lonely to be free,
Yearning for a life pared to the bone.
Even so, one feels an inner tug
As hope curls over memory’s undertow,
Roiling the restless tidal flow,
‘Mid well-worn thoughts, a longing for a hug.
So does the heart respond to holidays,
Embracing what the mind would else ignore,
Vividly in search of something more
Enduring than the self, which time betrays.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/newye3.html . For more New Year’s poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .