Ramadan Reminds Us that the World

June 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Ramadan, which begins on June 7.

Today’s poem is about the role of Ramadan in reminding us of the primacy of eternal life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ramadan reminds us that the world

Around us is a temporary place

Made for an equivocal embrace

As we ride this rock through vastness hurled.

Dance upon the Earth with joy and laughter

As long as you remember what comes after.

Nor will you find your home in time and space.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ramad2.html. For more Ramadan poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith.

June 6: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within

June 7: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World

Rapture Comes Most Easily Within

June 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Ramadan, which begins on June 7.

Today’s poem is a Ramadan poem about the relationship between discipline and rapture.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Rapture comes most easily within

A discipline that divvies up the day,

Making time for timelessness, and space,

A rolled-up rectangle holy anyplace,

Dear temple of delight where one might pray,

Assigned some sweet-tongued verses to begin

Now hallowing this hollow cask of clay.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith.

June 6: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within

Make My Sorrow Pride

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the pain of grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make my sorrow pride.

Enter me with light.

Mourning turns to morning,

Or so I would believe.

Reach me with your tide.

Inundate this blight.

Awaken me with longing,

Lest I live to grieve.

Deaf, dumb, blind inside,

All I am is night,

Yet too frail to leave.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/makem2.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

May 30: Maybe in the Grip of Pain

May 31: Make of Me Whatever You Desire

June 1: Memories Respond to Invitations

June 2: Memory’s an Antidote for Death

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 4: Maybe There Is More to Life Than Living

June 5: Make My Sorrow Pride

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

June 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about how life is a gift that is sometimes worth giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there is more to life than living.

Existence has more meaning as a means.

Maybe life's a gift that's well worth giving

Once the sacrifice distills the dreams.

Remember, then, the heroes we have squandered

In ignorance and fear and lust and greed.

All sacrifice ought equally be honored

Lest we confuse the courage with the need.

Destiny decrees the undreamed end

As some die for the dreams they would defend,

Yet yearning for what lies beyond the deed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe3.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

May 30: Maybe in the Grip of Pain

May 31: Make of Me Whatever You Desire

June 1: Memories Respond to Invitations

June 2: Memory’s an Antidote for Death

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 4: Maybe There Is More to Life Than Living

There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the saving grace of grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is in grief a saving grace,

A melody of love

So beautiful no angel could

A mourner's heart so move.

The pain is just a measure of

The value of the loss,

A gift that will remain a gift,

For life can be no less.

The love's not lost, nor will it be

Eroded by the wind,

But will become the soil in which

You plant new seeds each spring.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther35.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

May 30: Maybe in the Grip of Pain

May 31: Make of Me Whatever You Desire

June 1: Memories Respond to Invitations

June 2: Memory’s an Antidote for Death

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

Memory's an Antidote for Death

June 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about memory and death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memory's an antidote for death.

Each love remembered does not wholly die.

Maybe one thinks loved ones will recall

One’s sacrifice preserved in ritual,

Redeemed by more than meets the buried eye.

In homage do the fallen draw their breath.

All, then, have a stake in memory,

Living in the hope of honor due.

Death might all obliterate, but all

Act with their post-mortem lives in view,

Yet longing to be loved in worlds to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/memory.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

May 30: Maybe in the Grip of Pain

May 31: Make of Me Whatever You Desire

June 1: Memories Respond to Invitations

June 2: Memory’s an Antidote for Death

Memories Respond to Invitations

June 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the need for memorials to keep the memory of those long dead alive.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memories respond to invitations,

Electing in their interests to attend.

Moments of remembrance moor sensations

On shadows shifting gently in the wind.

Remember to remember, then, those passed

In whom we vested hope in days of strife,

Again among the trenches, dropping fast,

Lost now to love as once they were to life.

Do honor them with rituals that last,

A list of names reduced to battered brass

Yet hallowed by a hell we cannot end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/memday.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

May 30: Maybe in the Grip of Pain

May 31: Make of Me Whatever You Desire

June 1: Memories Respond to Invitations