Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is national identity, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17, and Purim, which fell on March 11 and 12.

Today’s poem is a poem for the Jewish holiday of Purim about preserving identity through ritual.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who remember to remember!

Unless they do, what we do is in vain.

Ritual reserves a time to render

In myth and play a world that else would wane,

Memories now passed along the chain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais5.html. For more Purim poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/holidaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 13: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

Going Home to a Place You've Never Been

March 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is national identity, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17, and Purim, which fell on March 11 and 12.

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem about returning to the country your grandparents left three generations ago.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Going home to a place you’ve never been,

To long-loved landscapes that you’ve never seen,

To where your soul was sculpted by a wind

Your parents’ parents left still young behind.

How long do such ancestral memories last?

When, if ever, can the past be past?

You do not know, but only know right now

This place has gripped your heart like home somehow.

Your plane descends above green hills where once

Your people for millennia learned to dance

The dance you learned third hand, yet dancing still,

You land, weeping hard against your will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/goingh.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 13: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been

Happy Second Anniversary3

March 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 2^nd anniversary poem about the movement from passion to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy second anniversary!

Adjustments have been made, and time moves on.

Pleasure is routine, compulsory;

Paradise is just another dawn.

Yet there is yet a bloom upon the rose

So long as there is charity and will.

Even as the passion comes and goes,

Caring is the best seducer still.

Of time and love there is much to be learned;

No happiness can last unless it's earned,

Depending on your need, desire, and skill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ36.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 6: Freedom Is the Power to Will One’s Fate

March 7: Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 8: Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 9: The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 11: Memories This Day Come Singing, Singing

March 12: Happy Second Anniversary

Memories This Day Come Singing, Singing

March 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name and anniversary poem about memories and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memories this day come singing, singing,

Each a voice in an angelic choir,

Returning with new grace and glory, bringing

Canticles of love and chaste desire.

Even those of sorrow, tinged with tears,

Devoted to a poignant minor key,

Emerge redeemed and softened by the years,

Singing with the rest harmoniously.

Reveries are music two can share.

Over years of love their melodies

Become one sweet and satisfying air,

Embracing all life’s complex harmonies.

Rich, full memories that tuneful prove

This day shall join in one praise song of love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/memor4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 6: Freedom Is the Power to Will One’s Fate

March 7: Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 8: Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 9: The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 11: Memories This Day Come Singing,Singing

There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem in which a marriage is seen from above.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is a mountain somewhere near

The harbor of our love

Where I can go sometimes to view

Our marriage from above.

I see the vastness of the sea

Outside our sheltered bay,

With boats like toys upon the flat

Bare corrugated gray.

I see the shadows of the clouds,

An archipelago

That neither wind nor current breaks,

Nor charts of sea depths show.

I see the green of nearby hills,

The gardens on our land,

The cultivated wildness

Of nature shaped by hand.

I see the waves sweep up against

The rocks upon our shore,

The white spume leaping, oh, so slow;

The heart awaiting more.

And all the peace of happiness

And passion sharp for life

Come slanting bright across the sky

Because you are my wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 6: Freedom Is the Power to Will One’s Fate

March 7: Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 8: Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 9: The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

March 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 13^th anniversary poem about luck in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The luck in love lies mainly at the start,

Having to do with meeting and attraction.

Indeed, the passion that undoes the heart

Remains, at heart, a chemical reaction.

Thereafter, love is on its own, and must

Each hour, each day, each year renew its glory.

Ellipsis may be suitable for lust;

No love lasts long without a proper story.

The luck in love for us lies far behind:

Here love is knowing, wise, and far from blind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 6: Freedom Is the Power to Will One’s Fate

March 7: Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 8: Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 9: The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 13^th anniversary poem about all the reasons thirteen is not an unlucky number.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirteen is a very lucky number,

Having been for years misunderstood.

If thirteen males attended The Last Supper,

Remember, God used Judas for our good.

Though thirteen moons a year might seem too many,

Each extra should be thought of as a gift,

Enhancing nights that else would not have any

Naked lamp to light love’s languid drift.

Yet twelve evokes a masculine perfection,

Embodying a circuit of the sun.

A lunar year, more feminine, needs correction,

Restored by adding beauty, passion, fun.

So may you find this year a lucky one!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/13isav.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 6: Freedom Is the Power to Will One’s Fate

March 7: Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 8: Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number