Poem of the Week

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Every Friday Night I Bless My Children

July 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is faith.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of the Jewish tradition of blessing one’s children before the Sabbath meal.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every Friday night I bless my children.

I put my hands upon their inclined heads

And say the words my father said to me:

"May God shine His countenance on you."

I put my hands upon their inclined heads,

Chanting with a pure, intense delight.

"May God shine His countenance on you,"

I pray as though my love might make it so.

Chanting with a pure, intense delight,

Each week I play this part with equal joy.

I pray as though my love might make it so,

That God might live with them as He with me.

Each week I play this part with equal joy,

And say the words my father said to me,

That God might live with them as he with me

Every Friday night I bless my children.

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

This week’s theme: Faith.

July 18: I’ll See You When the Sun Goes Down

July 19: Lest You Leave Your Longings in the Sunshine

July 20: Every Friday Night I Bless My Children

Monday, July 18, 2016

Lest You Leave Your Longings in the Sunshine

July 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is faith.

Today’s poem is a poem for the Lunar New Year about how the beauty of traditional worship can help guide faith.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lest you leave your longings in the sunshine

Unprotected from night's bitter shade,

Now you may take them on the lunar wind,

Alive to phantoms vivid as your face

Reveling in front of Reason's door.

Nor could your own inventions offer more,

Even those transfigured from your race,

Which, privatized, seem downsized, somehow thinned.

Yet here is all the wealth the past has made,

Each relic well preserved in ancient brine,

A treasure-trove of comedy and grace

Resting where your faith would else be blind.

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

This week’s theme: Faith.

July 18: I’ll See You When the Sun Goes Down

July 19: Lest You Leave Your Longings in theSunshine

Sunday, July 17, 2016

I'll See You When the Sun Goes Down

July 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is faith.

Today’s poem is a Christian poem to a dead loved one about how faith helps one bear grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'll see you when the sun goes down

And all the stars go crazy,

And Christ returns to claim His throne

Upon this erring earth.

And you and I will be amazed

At all that now seems hazy;

For now is faith, but then will be

The glory of rebirth.

Death will die, and we will sing

With angels at our ears,

And all my love for you will pour

Like rivers from my song.

And joy will never end, for we

Will be beyond the years,

And time before the end of time

Will not seem very long.

How beautiful Creation will

Then be! Much more than now,

When visible to faith alone

As we endure our pain.

How wonderful the gift of grace

From Christ that will allow

Me well to bear my grief until

I see you once again.

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

This week’s theme: Faith.

July 18: I’ll See You When the Sun Goes Down

In Heaven I Met Karl Marx

July 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about meeting five revolutionary figures in Heaven.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In Heaven I met Karl Marx.

Lenin was there, too, Stalin,

And Hitler along with Jesus Christ.

There was no Hell.

I asked Karl to explain the justice in this arrangement.

He said there was no way of measuring

The good in a person's life.

He admitted he had been wrong

About history and some other things

And expressed regret about all

Who'd been slaughtered in his name.

Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin did, too,

Along with Jesus Christ,

Who was sad that more than any

Had been broken and burned for him.

All said it was a consequence

Of being so sure they were right.

None of them made excuses.

Ilyich did not blame Josef,

Adolph did not plead madness,

Neither Karl nor Jesus balanced

The bad with the good they had done.

Instead they seemed at peace

Completely with what had been,

In a clarity of repose

Which seemed quite perfect for Heaven.

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

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 13: Those Who Have Power and No Pity

July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

July 15: The World Might Well Be Remedied

July 16: Proverbs on Ideology

July 17: In Heaven I Met Karl Marx

Saturday, July 16, 2016

July 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs on ideology.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

PROVERBS ON IDEOLOGY

1.     Ideology is like blinders that allow a horse to go in a single direction without distraction.
2.     It is more satisfying, logical, and effective to see life as a coherent whole. It is also reductive.
3.     Religion is more or less ideological depending on the degree of fundamentalism.
4.     A cult is an extreme instance of ideology.
5.     What makes ideology so attractive is that it simplifies life, allowing the current of feeling to flow unimpeded by eddies and counter-currents. Which is precisely what makes it so dangerous.
6.     People who adopt an ideology sometimes feel as though they have been reborn into a world in which their lives have purpose and meaning. Naturally, they then come to deny or ignore any part of truth that threatens that precious sense.
7.     A cult of personality is a common feature of ideology, which is often personified by a charismatic authority figure who takes advantage of the fact that his or her followers have abandoned skepticism.
8.     Far more evil is done by people who believe they are doing good than by people who believe they are doing evil.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution.
July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime
July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True
July 13: Those Who Have Power and No Pity
July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide
July 15: The World Might Well Be Remedied
July 16: Proverbs on Ideology