Poem of the Week

Friday, September 22, 2017

Reason Ought Not Be the Enemy

September 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began on the evening of September 20 and ended on the evening of September 22. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about the relationship between reason and myth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Reason ought not be the enemy

Of myth, but rather its interpreter,

Showing one what else one might not see,

Hindsight to which faith might well refer.

Holding on to myth does not require

A blindness to what science has to say.

Salvation is not merely a desire

Hoped for in some long-outmoded way.

A myth, like art, sustains itself through beauty,

Not only true, but doing double duty

As both the cast of conscience and the fire,

Habitude no argument need sway.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/reaso5.html. For more poems for Rosh Hashanah, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

September 20: Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

September 21: Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

September 22: Rosh Hashanah Opens Up the Book

September 23: Reason Ought Not Be the Enemy

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Rosh Hashanah Opens Up the Book

September 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began on the evening of September 20 and ends this evening, September 22. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about the power of repentance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Rosh Hashanah opens up the book

Of life, that we might be inscribed therein.

So does the will work wonders with the wind,

Harrowing the leaves that tempests shook.

How might we make our peace with death and pain?

As terror stalks our steps, how might we dance,

Singing through the vales of circumstance,

Happy to be alive through loss or gain?

All we have are justice, hope, and love,

Nor will these weak or insufficient prove

As we repent our evil once again,

Having faith it will not be in vain.

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

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

September 20: Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

September 21: Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

September 22: Rosh Hashanah Opens Up the Book

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

September 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began last evening and ends on the evening of September 22. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about the need to pray for, and atone for, everyone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Rosh Hashanah opens to the page

On which is writ, for good or ill, our fate.

Still wrestling with angels, we engage,

Harrowing our hearts, our future state.

However, "we" encompasses us all,

As though we were but droplets in a wave

Suspended on its journey to the shore,

Hard put to any single droplet save.

And so we pray not only for ourselves,

Nor only for our family, friends, or tribe:

All must be our congregation, else

How might we turn to God to turn the tide?

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/roshh2.html. For more poems for Rosh Hashanah, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

September 20: Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

September 21: Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

September 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins this evening, September 20. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about those who come to synagogue only for the High Holy Days.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Return each year to test the ancient waters,

Opening the unaccustomed heart.

So may you retain a Jewish soul,

Having given it its yearly outing.

Here your parents meet your sons and daughters,

A junction wrought by well-established art,

Severing the person from the role,

Having scripted thoroughly the routing.

All you're left with is what really matters,

Needing, to be whole, to be a part,

At least this once a year a Jew of old,

Holy in this place despite your doubting.

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

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

September 20: Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

Monday, September 18, 2017

Remember the Utility of Shame

September 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins on the evening of September 20. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about the usefulness of shame.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Remember the utility of shame,

On which in part our decency depends.

Such sentiments evolved to serve our ends,

Having given ballast to one’s name.

How apt that to ourselves we be revealed

As time pauses in between the years,

Season of incantatory tears,

Harrowed for the sins we have concealed.

Allow your shame full access to your heart,

Nor flinch from bearing witness to your part,

As only what is treated can be healed,

Here, now, while your fate is still unsealed.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/remem2.html. For more poems for Rosh Hashanah, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Righteousness Ought Not Be for One's Self

September 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about righteousness and self-righteousness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Righteousness ought not be for one’s self.

One’s righteousness must serve to save one’s soul.

Self-righteousness makes righteousness the goal,

Having failed to cross that inner gulf,

Heart self-satisfied to heart of shame,

And found faith waiting on the distant shore.

So must one be less to compass more,

Having held one’s goodness to the flame

And watched it turn to ashes instantly.

Nor can one be righteous on one’s own,

As one finds one’s unassuming home

Hard by the heart of one’s community.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/right3.html. For more poems for Rosh Hashanah, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Thank You for Being Our Heroes and Friends

September 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is terrorism in memory of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem from a child to the soldiers and first responders who protect us from terrorism.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for being our heroes and friends,

Having the courage to make us secure.

A child needs someone attentive and strong

Nearby to be certain that nothing is wrong.

Kids can get frightened and like to be sure.

You are the saviors, unselfish and pure,

On whom our bright vision of fortune depends,

Unstained as the innocent hope of our song.