Alessandra

June 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who strives for holiness every moment of her life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Alessandra savors solitude,

Looking for connection to the whole.

Each of us is all, and so includes

Such rapture as resides in every soul,

Selfless self, with neither will nor goal.

Anticipating death, she undoes life,

Needing nothing, wanting, wishing nothing,

Delivered from what would engender strife,

Relinquishing all but simple acts of being,

A conqueror of all that's worth the winning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/alessa.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about how Ramadan continues to affect the mundane activities that follow.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Evening, and at last the fast is over!

It remains a gift we celebrate,

Delighting in our prayers as in a lover,

Abstaining with a joy no meal could sate.

Let us gather now with food and drink,

For now we turn again to mortal Earth,

Intended to desire, and love, and think,

To savor what is ours 'twixt death and birth,

Reminded by our faith what things are worth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eveni2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the transition from Ramadan to more mundane forms of worship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each moment is like sunlight on the heart,

Infinity within infinity.

Descend now from the whole back to the part,

As fast gives way to feast, and One to me.

Love is worship, as is pure, chaste pleasure;

Food is worship, music, dance, delight.

Immersed in talk, we savor what we treasure,

The days of fasting fading fast from sight,

Returning, turning, burning through the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eachm2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which begins today, June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the heightened recognition of holiness during Ramadan.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment equally is holy.

In Ramadan, we recognize it more.

Days of fasting preach throughout the body;

Appetite obeys a higher law.

Let us now return to the mundane

Fortified by what we have enjoyed,

In lives neither prophetic nor profane,

Toiling daily, gainfully employed,

Restored by holiness, our spirits buoyed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/every5.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

We've Been Together Since We Were

June 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from elementary school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

We've been together since we were

Just barely more than babes,

Holding onto Mommy's hand,

Missing two front teeth.

Some of us now have to wear

A bra and some to shave,

Adults in what our hearts demand,

Still children underneath.

Together we learned how to read,

Together learned to play,

To add and multiply our friends,

To give and to receive.

Our teachers taught us how to lead,

To put our tears away,

To separate our means and ends,

To work and to achieve.

And now we step across a line;

Our childhood is gone.

Soon, just like a morning dream,

The memories will fade.

But if we turn out good and kind,

Rejoicing in the sun,

We'll know to thank these sheltered years

Where our first joys remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/wevebe.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 24: Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

June 25: We’ve Been Together Since We Were

Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

June 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from middle school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Middle school is a time of yearning

For what's ahead and what is left behind:

Neither child nor adult, but burning

Unrestrained with love and fear combined.

Now that we must leave, we have the pleasure

Of moving one step nearer who we are,

Knowing that we lose the equal treasure,

Bit by bit, of leaving dreams ajar.

How lucky we have been this awkward moment,

Shifting from the shade into the sun,

To have this school as our communal parent,

Guiding us as well as you have done!

More than skills improved or knowledge gained

Are intellects inspired and gifts unchained.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/junior.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 24: Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem looking forward to bittersweet memories.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduations are like stepping through

A veil into another, larger room.

Behind, where we can never go again,

Are memories like a shipwreck full of gold.

Strange, the harmonies of pride and sadness,

The dawn and sunset of the new and old,

The bittersweet good-byes while looking forward

To things unseen beyond the ridge of time.

Numb with too much life we stagger through them,

Time passing in the ordinary way.

Relatives and friends all swarm around us,

Buzzing round the silence of the real.

And once the ceremonies and the parties

Are over, and the sweet days come and go,

All we've lost comes back to us as music

Of love departed, never to return.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through