So Who Said It Was Easy

December 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is a Hanukkah poem about keeping the flame of love alive.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So who said it was easy to keep old flames burning?

Even experts could use a little divine help now and then.

The easy part is to go out and be brilliant as Shakespeare.

Harder--much harder--to be the light dancing in someone else's eyes.

Lights such as love require more faith than fuel.

Of all leaps, the most dangerous is into the mind of your lover.

Regarding miracles: What is less explicable than

Remaining in love through the long icy anguish of anger?

All lovers long for freedom only slightly less than they fear it.

In the end, love burns not desire but fear.

Not one of us would be capable of keeping the fire burning

Except for the knowledge that it is the sweetest, best, and most

beautiful thing in our lives.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 20: Can Anyone Love Christmas Who’s Not Christian

December 21: Three Holidays! Hooray! Hooray!

December 22: Santa Lights the Hanukkah Lights

December 23: So Who Said It Was Easy

Santa Lights the Hanukkah Lights

December 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Santa lights the Hanukkah lights

Eight days in a row,

As Jews sing carols winter nights,

Songs they love and know.

Out of many, one, but one

Need not reduce one’s faith.

Some love love, wherever from,

Glad to share the grace.

Remember that identity

Endures through love alone.

Exclusive faith eventually

Turns loving hearts to stone.

Into your well-chosen cup

Now pour a blended soul,

Giving not one blessing up,

Savoring the whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/santal.html. For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 20: Can Anyone Love Christmas Who’s Not Christian

December 21: Three Holidays! Hooray! Hooray!

December 22: Santa Lights the Hanukkah Lights

Three Holidays! Hooray! Hooray!

December 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is for a child of a mixed marriage about celebrating all three end-of-year holidays.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Three holidays! Hooray! Hooray!

Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s Day!

And we celebrate all three

‘Cause we’re a lucky family.

Jewish, Christian, American,

We cherish all the days we can,

Loving all, and not just one,

‘Cause all of them are lots of fun!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/3holid.html. For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 20: Can Anyone Love Christmas Who’s Not Christian

December 21: Three Holidays! Hooray! Hooray!

Can Anyone Love Christmas Who's Not Christian

December 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is about appreciating Christmas even if you’re not Christian.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Can anyone love Christmas who’s not Christian?

How, if one does not believe in Christ?

Remember that in life no truth is certain.

In loving beauty, doubt is quite all right.

So one can see the beauty of the story

That God came down to Earth in human form.

Maybe all can share the hope and glory

Angels sang of when that child was born,

Singing songs of joy on Christmas morn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/canan2.html. For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 20: Can Anyone Love Christmas Who’s Not Christian

Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is about the seasonal pairing of Chanukah and Christmas.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hanukkah and Christmas go together,

A pair of holidays quite complementary,

Pleased to have become more elementary,

Pleased to have become birds of a feather.

Yet once, of course, they were antagonistic,

Having more to do with their religions,

On which they long depended for their visions,

Lest faith become increasingly heuristic.

In our time, the holidays are friends,

Delivered by the same inclusive heaven,

A pair of pastries all puffed up with leaven,

Yeasted well for mercenary ends,

Sweetened well to bind once-bitter blends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hanuk2.html. For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

So Might One Turn from Winter into Spring

December 18, 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 that takes us through the seasons, ending with the holidays at the beginning of winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So might one turn from winter into spring,

Emerging from the season's icy womb

Alight with life, with all the world in bloom,

So sweet a scent one cannot help but sing;

Or turn to summer as the blossoms fade,

Now whistling as one waters well one's garden,

Sensing one's terrain begin to harden,

Growing what would thrive in sun or shade;

Ramble through the summer into fall,

Each day a generous gift of lilting light,

Even though the cool wind hints of night

Too quickly, as one wishes time would stall;

Into winter turn with holiday cheer,

Needing joy to light the darkened way,

Grace that lingers through the lengthening day,

Silent celebrant of each new year.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

December 18: So Might One Turn from Winter into Spring

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