Patricia

January 14, 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 name poem for a feminist whose name, ironically, is taken from the Latin patrician, or noble, which comes from pater, the Latin word for father.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Patricia is a gentlewoman’s name:
A name that’s rooted in the world of men.
The modern version’s not what you’d call tame,
Rough on shoes and words. But she knows when
It pays to shift her voice to feminine charm,
Choosing to take weakness off the shelf,
Intimate in order to disarm
A passing lover--and, perhaps, herself?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Names.
Jan. 11: It Was Pure Chance You Got the Name Irene
Jan. 12: Audree
Jan. 13: Dakota
Jan. 14: Patricia

Dakota

January 13, 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 place-name poem for a person whose personality fits the place.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dakota is a vast and fertile plain,
Absolute and open to the wind.
Knowledge in this air is crystal clear;
Only those few things one needs are near;
Though merciless, the sun is also kind.
All is sharp and spare, yet rich in grain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Names.
Jan. 11: It Was Pure Chance You Got the Name Irene
Jan. 12: Audree
Jan. 13: Dakota

Audree

January 12, 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 how the spelling of a name might affect the person who bears it.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Audree loves the spelling of her name --
Unusual, yes, but somehow lyrical,
Dancing to a tune more musical,
Regardless that the sound is just the same.
Each bounce of beauty is a miracle,
Enchanting what would else be drab and plain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Names.
Jan. 11: It Was Pure Chance You Got the Name Irene
Jan. 12: Audree

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