Heaven Is a Hollow in the Heart

December 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, with the approach of the holiday season, is Happy Holidays.

Today’s poem is about how holidays are occasions to return to the child within.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Heaven is a hollow in the heart,

A little mountain valley fringed by tears,

Pure wilderness, untouched by craft or art,

Pure yearning, undiluted by the years.

Yes, we all have lessons to unlearn,

Having holidays in which to find

Occasional occasions to return,

Leaving burned-out fantasies behind.

Inherent in us all remains the child,

Deep beneath the layers of our lives,

A bit of hope too dear to be defiled,

Yet wandering in an Eden, lost and wild,

Self within the self that self revives.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/heave7.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays.

December 5: Have a Happy Holiday

December 6: Heaven Is a Hollow in the Heart

Have a Happy Holiday

December 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, with the approach of the holiday season, is Happy Holidays.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem for a child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Have a happy holiday!

Have a lot of fun!

And give a little smile to

Give joy to everyone!

Each smile is just like music

Everyone can hear.

Happy, happy music!

A bit of holiday cheer!

The air is full of music,

And you can add yours, too,

The sweet and lovely melody

That comes from only you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays.

December 5: Have a Happy Holiday

Winter

December 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, as the days grow shorter and colder, is the approach of winter.

Today’s poem is about how winter brings us together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Winter howls like winds or wolves or weeping,

Inviting us to witness pain and death.

No truth can better penetrate the shell

That insulates our empathy so well,

Essence of the entropy of breath

Returning us to one another's keeping.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Winter.

November 28: And Now, with the Pensive Coming of the Winter

November 29: January

November 30: The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load

December 1: Take from Winter Just a Bit of Hope

December 2: All Winter Long the Willows Wait

December 3: February

December 4: Winter

February

December 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, as the days grow shorter and colder, is the approach of winter.

Today’s poem is for February, who must bear being the coldest month.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

February knows his fortune well,

Even in the bitterness of dawn

Breaking in the coldest hour of hell,

Revealing but the worst that must be borne.

Underneath the ice the passions sleep

Ablaze with all the beauty of their burning,

Rendering a richness that will keep

Yet warm within the cavern of his yearning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Winter.

November 28: And Now, with the Pensive Coming of the Winter

November 29: January

November 30: The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load

December 1: Take from Winter Just a Bit of Hope

December 2: All Winter Long the Willows Wait

December 3: February

All Winter Long the Willows Wait

December 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, as the days grow shorter and colder, is the approach of winter.

Today’s poem is about willow trees sleeping through the winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All winter long the willows wait,

Nor more nor less than willing,

Glad to be, but just a bit

Entropic in their chilling.

Life longs ever for rebirth,

Awake to its long sleep,

As willows need their leaves for breath,

Numb until they weep.

Do, then, winter well beneath

More blankets than you know,

Immense as any mustard seed,

Content to dream for now,

Holding in your arms a light

As Earth slides through its bitter night,

Ever doomed to bliss and blight

Lest things too easy go.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Winter.

November 28: And Now, with the Pensive Coming of the Winter

November 29: January

November 30: The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load

December 1: Take from Winter Just a Bit of Hope

December 2: All Winter Long the Willows Wait

Take from Winter Just a Bit of Hope

December 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, as the days grow shorter and colder, is the approach of winter.

Today’s poem is about hope and the blessedness of life even in winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Take from winter just a bit of hope

In reckoning the blessedness of life,

Nor wonder why the wind, in bitter flight,

Around our reasoned corners wailing goes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Winter.

November 28: And Now, with the Pensive Coming of the Winter

November 29: January

November 30: The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load

December 1: Take from Winter Just a Bit of Hope

The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load

November 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme, as the days grow shorter and colder, is the approach of winter.

Today’s poem contrasts the bitter cold without with the warmth within.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The wind brings down its icy load;

Curtains close across the sky.

Travelers shudder on the road:

There will be shelter by-and-by.

All one has seen and one has sown

Now feeds the feasts of fantasy.

Merriment goes on within;

Trees and candles dance with light.

Without, the world is grey and grim;

Within the house, all is bright.

How might one stand against the wind

But with the joy one brings to it?

The window hints of happiness;

The wanderer walks quickly past.

The week-old ice is treacherous;

The snow is falling thick and fast.

Shelter cannot be a place

For those whose spirits will not rest.

Bells ring through the chilly air;

People purchase gifts on time.

Windows, doorways, front yards bear

Of inner truth the outward sign:

Love beneath commercial cheer;

Loneliness decked out in din.

The season freezes all but love;

Winter grips the waterways.

Upon white meadows nothing moves;

Life sleeps through the nights and days.

O love! At once both flame and fuel,

Light well what meets the inner gaze!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thewi2.html. For more poems about the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Winter.

November 28: And Now, with the Pensive Coming of the Winter

November 29: January

November 30: The Wind Brings Down Its Icy Load