Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is artistic creativity.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the power of songs and the difficulty of writing them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Songs lend thought the persuasive force of beauty,

Enduring longer than the naked word.

Vested in a song, one does one’s duty,

Ever the evangelistic bird.

Nor ought one’s passion strike one as absurd.

The gift of song comes with the gift of yearning,

Years and years of wanting, wishing, burning.

Sing, then, of song, and of its intimate power,

Each singer in the grip of its embrace,

Vividly reworking, listening, learning,

Ever on the ragged edge of grace,

Needing patient urgency to flower.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

Summer4

August 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a calendar poem about the ecstatic joy of summer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Summer is the zenith of the year:

Upward spring, sweet summer, downward fall.

Maybe life sings like sun-drunk cicadas,

Music drowning beds of squash and taters,

Each tiny creature pouring out its call,

Rejoicing in the joy of now and here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

August 5: Linda

August 6: Summer4

Linda

August 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who loves long summer afternoons.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Linda loves long summer afternoons.

Inside voices hush, the wind subsides.

Night waits as golden sorrow bathes her heart,

Deep cleansing beneath angry lips of wounds,

Absorbing pain where hunger still abides.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

August 5: Linda

Thirty-Five

August 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how deep scars can hide beneath thick summer bloom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five's a whisper in the sunlight

Half-submerged in butterflies and bees.

Intimations run like rutted scars,

Remembrances of wounds beneath delight

Thick with summer bloom like rainbow seas.

Yet night brings on a wild rage of stars.

For what is this ejaculate of light?

In pain and wonder, awe and agony,

Viewing silent, distant ecstasies,

Estranged from love by strong, protective bars.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/35.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

Brittany

August 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a name poem for someone who, in the summer of her life, yearns for childhood innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Brittany is a white winter morning

Residing momently on summer grass:

Innocence remains, but the sun soon

Turns crystal sprites to life-giving tears.

The radiant images of childhood years

Are dancing in the dream light of her moon.

Now she looks with pleasure as they pass,

Yearning for a love that’s ever dawning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a love poem about a summer separation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The summer is a desert between mountains

Lavish with the joys of spring and fall.

I look across that bleak and lonely wasteland,

Seeing no redemption there at all.

I cannot think how I will cross without you

To reach the golden hillsides of my dreams.

I try not to imagine how I'll miss you,

And not to look too hard at what that means.

Time, the enemy of helpless lovers,

Must compensate at last those it bereaves.

I cannot wait until, once more together,

We can share the blaze of turning leaves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August

August 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is summer.

Today’s poem is a calendar poem for August about how amid its beauty there are hints of coming darkness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

August starts to shade a bit towards shade,

Upon the cusp of full tide and retreat,

Grace, poised upon a turning point of time,

Unwilling to welcome what it can’t decline,

Sweet season no foreboding can defeat.

Though evenings earlier begin to fade.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August