Silence Is a Quality of Snow

December 17, 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 beauty and grace even in the dead of winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Silence is a quality of snow.

Eager to hear it, I trudge through virgin fields,

Awake at the heart of nothingness, and so

Seized press on, as the world's white oneness yields.

Oh, what happiness! Though the deadly cold

Numbs the extremities, traveling inward,

'Ere it reaches the heart, I turn, the old

Songs singing in my head as I head homeward.

Give thanks, then, for the unforgiving silence,

Revelation in white swaddling clothes,

Eden's seed asleep as we find radiance

Even in the bleak December snows.

To be is to contain the holy light,

In nothingness the being ever born,

Never more the locus of delight,

Grace the equal gift of day and night,

Shining like a candle until dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 16: Shine like a Moon upon Your Field of Snow

December 17: Silence Is a Quality of Snow

Shine like a Moon upon Your Field of Snow

December 16, 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 need for seasons to enrich one’s sense of life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Shine like a moon upon your field of snow!

Each buried root awaits the touch of spring

As you to your own celebrations bring

Such glory as reflects from down below.

Of mirrors let us sing, and holy light

Not ours, that yet we spread across the darkness,

'Twixt eternity and nothingness

Shining to illuminate the night.

Gardens wait, and naked stands of trees;

Rivers wait, and lakes, and frozen streams.

Eden waits to try again its dreams,

Enduring underneath our cruelties.

The world reflects your moonlight, white and still.

In what you see is what you are, though time

Needs cycles of the wind and of the will,

Granting to each sentiment its clime

So you may each sense of life fulfill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 16: Shine like a Moon upon Your Fieldof Snow

Silent Night.The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 15, 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 winter holidays and faith.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Silent night. The whole world holds its breath.

Each faith has its own seasonal salvation,

As myth becomes the antidote for death,

Sorrow turned to cause for celebration.

Of those who have no faith but just look on,

None need believe to join the pageantry,

Singing with a joy that’s not put on,

Glad for holiness that one can see.

Reason ought not scoff at myth, but find

Enduring beauty in the fictive frame,

Embracing subtleties of heart and mind

That else a soul would be hard put to name.

In faith one sees the power and grace of art

Not on a wall but seated in the heart,

Grace honed well by centuries of prayer,

Salvation one might savor if not share.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World HoldsIts Breath

Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 14, 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 genetic roots of the winter holidays.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the rhythms of life,

Each creature’s genetical dance

As choreographed by light –

Such as each season grants!

O sing of the seasonal change,

Now summer, now winter within,

Solstices senses arrange,

Glad tidings as tides turn again!

Remember to sing of the subtle

Endocrine wisdom that all

Employ, though great cities may muffle

The music of mind with their sprawl.

In everyone there’s a grace

No civilization can kill,

Granted the whole human race,

Sense of Earth’s harmony still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singo7.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 Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

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