It Was Pure Chance You Got the Name Irene

January 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is names – what they mean, what they are not capable of meaning, and how well the meaning of the name fits the personality of the person who bears the name. .

Today’s poem is a poem about the match between the person and the name.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

It was pure chance you got the name Irene,
For no one at your birth foresaw the flower
The sprite contained, nor could some lover glean
Such grace as would become you at this hour.
Nor can you now, even in late spring,
Imagine what your name will mean tomorrow,
What evanescence those sweet sounds will sing,
Or from what naked cry their sense will borrow.
No heart can summon up, nor courage dare
Encompass all the life a name has known;
Too much of what we love lies buried there,
Once again mere sound upon a stone.
How lovely the attempt, and yet absurd,
To brave both death and time with just a word.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Names.
Jan. 11: It Was Pure Chance You Got the Name Irene

There Is No Being at the Heart of Being

January 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is an epiphany that reveals that there can be no epiphanies,

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no being at the heart of being,
No soul beneath the shifting shards of self,
No way of seeing past the act of seeing,
No faith enough to walk across that gulf.
There is no love more loving than our loving,
No meaning that means more than we can mean,
No proof that we are capable of proving,
No grace that pain and sorrow might redeem.
Nothing is the object of our passion,
The void within the vastness of the void,
The rule no rule can rule nor reason ration,
In which all is created and destroyed.
The sea lies lucid in the morning light;
Yet when we dive, we dive towards perfect night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther20.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
Jan. 6: Each of Us Might Follow a Bright Star
Jan. 7: Agostino
Jan. 8: There Is No Greater Paradise
Jan. 9: Zecharia
Jan. 10: There Is No Being at the Heart of Being

Zecharia

January 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a name poem about the difficulty of being a modern prophet, whose epiphanies must be of the natural world.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Zechariah wanders in his longing
Even as he cherishes his state.
Choosing reason rather than belonging,
He feels the pathos of his complex fate.
A modern prophet must be only human,
Relinquishing the myths of god and tribe.
In visions passionate, he must illumine
A glory that needs neither faith nor bribe,
Having a domain he can describe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/zechar.html . For more name poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.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
Jan. 7: Agostino
Jan. 8: There Is No Greater Paradise
Jan. 9: Zecharia

January 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a poem proclaiming that every moment is an epiphany.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no greater paradise
Than simply being here.
The proof is in the agony
That willingly we bear.

A moment is beatitude;
A year, eternal grace;
A life, a window wide upon
The transcendental face.

Our gratitude's ubiquitous,
The stuff of every day,
The ground bass of an ecstasy
That never goes away.

And yet . . . and yet this wonder lies
Like grass beneath the snow:
Above we fear the brutal wind,
Eternal spring below.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther11.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
Jan. 6: Each of Us Might Follow a Bright Star
Jan. 7: Agostino
Jan. 8: There Is No Greater Paradise

Agostino

January 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a name poem for a man who has had a revelation and been touched by grace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Agostino has been touched by grace,
Giving him the gifts of faith and love.
Of him it can be said he lives in joy,
Singing thanks and praise beneath each breath.
To see him is to be in his embrace.
In him there is a love no loss can move,
Nor passion still, nor evidence destroy,
Only peace along the edge of death.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/agosti.html . For more name poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.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
Jan. 7: Agostino

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