Twenty-Seven4

January 31, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is a number and friendship poem about online friendships and the interdependence of selves.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-seven's often found online

Writing to her followers and friends.

Each thought leaps from her fingers into time,

Now urgent in a stream that twists and bends,

The conduit on which the heart depends,

Yearning for a grace it can't define.

Selves are not themselves till they combine,

Each needing something yours to mirror mine,

Vetting visions through another's lens,

Ending where who knows a person ends,

Never more than I nor less than thine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/27d.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

January 30: Friends Are Prisoners of Expectation

January 31: Twenty-Seven

Friends Are Prisoners of Expectation

January 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is about the mutual need for others in order to be oneself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends are prisoners of expectation,

Reflected in the mirror of their need.

Instead of being happy on their own,

Each knows that one cannot survive alone,

Nor think unless another plants the seed.

Dependent all for selfhood on relation,

So to be fed, must one the other feed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/frien2.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

January 30: Friends Are Prisoners of Expectation

Meditation Is an Empty Room

January 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem describes the experience of meditation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meditation is an empty room.

Enter it, and you will be at peace.

Desire and decay, blight and bloom,

In you for just this timeless time will cease.

These are moments one can simply be

A windless lake, a mirror to the sky,

The selfless self, in whose infinity

Immersed, one will become an I-less eye.

One’s thoughts, fatigue, desire knock on the door.

No matter, the wind whispers from the shore.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/medita.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 26: Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

January 27: There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever

January 28: Take Me, for Example: I’m Pretty Attractive, No

January 29: Meditation Is an Empty Room

Take Me, for Example: I'm Pretty Attractive, No

January 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for this year’s Chinese New Year, The Year of the Rooster, from the rooster’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Take me, for example: I’m pretty attractive, no?

How can people say I shouldn’t flaunt it?

Every woman everywhere I go

Yearns for me. I cannot help but want it.

Even so, they say I am conceited,

Arrogant, and too full of myself.

Rest assured, they’re jealous and feel cheated,

Or they would take their own goods off the shelf!

For me there is no shame in showing off

The beauty of my body and my voice,

Having enough ego to put forth

Each morning some fine fanfare of my choice.

Revealing what I have to give the world

Ought not be a cause for disapproval.

One should keep one’s majesties unfurled,

Singing as one is through glory hurled

Towards one’s curt and ultimate removal.

Exuberance in life cannot be wrong.

Remember well my loud, well-crafted song.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/takem2.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 26: Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

January 27: There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever

January 28: Take Me, for Example: I’m PrettyAttractive, No

There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever

January 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Monkey, from the monkey’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no point in being merely clever,

However much one likes to call the tune.

Each bit of insight leads one to forever,

Yielding thoughts that make the moment bloom.

Even so, some prostitute the mind

As they exchange intelligence for things,

Rewarded more than amply, but resigned

Over time to living without wings.

For me the mind is for perceiving beauty,

The glory and the radiance of being.

However cleverly one does one’s duty,

Each labor won is leisure lost for seeing.

Maybe one should use one’s mind for good,

Obliged by conscience to serve others’ needs.

No doubt. But while doing as one should,

Know where such self-sacrificing leads.

Each life’s a light that is for moments lit.

Yet one can spend them in the infinite.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther38.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 26: Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

January 27: There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever

Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

January 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Boar, from the boar’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tolerance is hard to tolerate,

Hinting, as it can, of condescension.

Even so, it has a good intention,

Yielding an alternative to hate.

Embracing difference truly can create

An overwhelming love for all expression,

Resulting in a singular impression

Open to all sides of a debate.

For me, the truth's a wilderness of stars,

The universe revealed in all its glory.

How can one choose just one small bit of sky,

Estranged by one's beliefs from all the rest?

Being isn't bounded by one's bars;

Oceans aren't summed up in one story.

All that is will inundate one's why,

Removing walls long laid across one's quest.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/tolera.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 26: Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Rabbit, from the rabbit’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are those who shy away from being,

However smart or talented, the leader,

Each eagerly behind the scenes, agreeing

Yet again to serve all those who need her.

Everyone is wary of such tension

As being in the spotlight must entail,

Reigning over chaos and dissension,

One who takes the blame when others fail.

For me it is impossible to think

That I for just one moment might be there --

Head of something headed for some brink,

Etched frozen in the flashbulb's frigid glare.

Rabbits tend to run -- that's what they do,

Acting well only when well hidden.

Best if you know best what's best for you --

Better off the bidder or the bidden.

I know myself, and so am satisfied

To be the one backstage, where I can hide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther28.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being