So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about the ancient roots of the winter holidays.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So ancient a festival ought touch the heart,

Even in its rather recent forms.

As light returns, the looking glass of art

Still reflects one's paleolithic norms.

One knows the days have reached their darkest hour,

Needing some shared sign to mark their turn,

Sensing that in symbols there is power,

Given inner depths one might discern.

Remember, then, that mangers and menorahs

Elucidate a more inclusive need,

Embodying what testaments and torahs

Try to say to those whose hopes recede.

In everyone, beneath the ice of reason

Now swim the joyful offspring of the season,

Grateful for the miracle of light,

Singing through the bitter winter night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touchthe Heart

Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem for a singer/songwriter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would sing to celebrate the season,

Elevating feeling into beauty.

A graceful melody requires no reason;

Still, one often finds one's muse in duty.

Of year-end holidays then sing, for they

Need music, art, and myth to weave their spell.

Sing, and add your pleasure to the day,

Grateful for the joy you render well!

Revel in the gift you have been given,

Even as you give what gifts you can,

Embracing the delight for which you've striven,

Tunesmith in a raucous caravan.

In love find what you need to play your part,

Not least, the secret sharer of your art,

Granting you, you do not know from where,

Songs to fill the cold, crisp winter air.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/somew6.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate theSeason

Here Is Common Cause for Celebration

December 11, 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 celebrating the turn towards longer days and shorter nights.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here is common cause for celebration

As light lengthens, a harbinger of spring.

Perhaps the cold will be of long duration:

Patience, for you know what time will bring.

Yearning is the partner of sensation,

Heightening the glory of the thing.

Open, then, your heart to dark December;

Listen to the silent turn of time,

In which the light is scattered into embers,

Days on which the remnants barely shine,

As miserly and cold as you remember.

Yet here in darkness starts the upward climb,

Stepping towards the downward days of summer.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hereis.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

December 7: Happiness Is Not a Holiday

December 8: How Have the Years So Suddenly Gone By

December 9: Happiness, Even in a Desert

December 10: Hard By Celebrations There Are Tears

December 11: Here Is Common Cause for Celebration

Hard By Celebrations There Are Tears

December 10, 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 the sadness that often comes with celebration.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hard by celebrations there are tears,

A lonely longing for what cannot be.

Perhaps one lets it enter foolishly,

Passionate to weep for vanished years.

Yet living in the moment one is free,

Having jettisoned regrets and fears,

Open to the grace of eyes and ears,

Losing self in silent ecstasy.

In celebrating, one is marking time.

Deep beneath the ritual ballet

A tide removes the trite and the sublime,

Yearning, turning, churning through the day,

Sweeping all one cherishes away.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hardby.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

December 7: Happiness Is Not a Holiday

December 8: How Have the Years So Suddenly Gone By

December 9: Happiness, Even in a Desert

December 10: Hard By Celebrations There AreTears

Happiness, Even in a Desert

December 9, 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 celebrating the holidays in a hot, dry desert.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness, even in a desert,

Adjusts well to what moisture it can find.

Perhaps it takes a little extra effort;

Perhaps one needs to keep it more in mind.

Yet one must still depend on celebration,

Holidays transferred from colder climes,

Offering the blessing of relation,

Love that takes the stage at special times.

In such reunions, happiness takes root

Deep enough to tap the deepest well,

Alive and blooming, bearing succulent fruit,

Yearning, yes, for some well-watered dell,

Still able to survive, as time will tell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ42.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

December 7: Happiness Is Not a Holiday

December 8: How Have the Years So Suddenly Gone By

December 9: Happiness, Even in a Desert

How Have the Years So Suddenly Gone By

December 8, 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 celebrations as stations in our journey through time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How have the years so suddenly gone by?

As though we were distracted on a train,

Perhaps absorbed in fantasy, terrain

Passing shuttered from the inner eye.

Yet when the train stops, shuddering through each car --

Holiday or birthday, wedding, wake --

Old enough to feel time's wistful ache,

Looking up, we wonder where we are.

In time, we see the need for celebration;

Days unmarked are lost within the flow.

A journey needs its moment in the station,

Yielding motion to restored relation,

So fleeting one is loath to let it 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/howha2.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

December 7: Happiness Is Not a Holiday

December 8: How Have the Years So Suddenly Gone By

Happiness Is Not a Holiday

December 7, 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 hold families together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is not a holiday.

An everyday will do, an any minute.

Perhaps one lingers briefly by the way,

Pausing to breathe in the infinite.

Yet holidays are necessary pleasures,

Holding open else-neglected doors,

Offering a wealth of well-known treasures

Likely to renew depleted stores.

In doing what the holiday demands,

Delighting in its long-obeyed commands,

A separated family now joins hands,

Yielding to a deeper harmony,

Still together, though infrequently.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ75.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

December 7: Happiness Is Not a Holiday