Could We Have the Clarity of Fate

October 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the mystery of what lies just over the horizon.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Could we but have the clarity of fate

Or see the future as we do the past,

Little would we crave the mystery

Unknown to those who know what lies ahead.

Mountains make horizons definite,

Blocking off infinity, the last

Unbroken wave upon this solid sea,

Singing songs that we have long since heard.

Do, then, those few sailors celebrate,

Alone amidst the watery wilderness,

Yet seeking grandly what it is to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 15: Could We But Have the Clarity of Fate

Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of a life of change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Clear away the cobwebs from your eyes --

Old ways of thinking, doing, wanting, dreaming!

Learn that present truths are future lies,

Undone by what is now well past redeeming.

Make of life a vast experiment

Blessed by passion, toil, terror, pain,

Unafraid to scuttle what you meant,

Sure only that no failure is in vain.

Do this, and you will have a chance to be

A sailor at the edge of what you see,

Yet yearning for what no one can attain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

Chasing the Horizon

October 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the ecstasy of the voyage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Chasing the horizon

On a windy sea,

Land fast disappearing,

Underway and free!

Maybe there is something

Beyond that distant line,

Ultimately nothing

Senses can define.

Days may seem like moments,

And moments seem like years.

Yet the wind is mine!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the need for obsession to bring about change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Changes find their agent in obsession.

Old visions do not yield but to a sea.

Life is myth undone by mystery.

Underneath the truth lies the expression.

Meaning is the mask of history,

Best worn by those in undisturbed possession.

Ultimately, there is no progression.

Sing, then, of change, and savor what will be!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang2.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the sacrifices necessary for a life of discovery.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Challenging the veil does not come cheap.

One gets to know the provenance of hunger,

Living off the energy of wonder,

Unwilling to trade ecstasy for sleep.

More than life, one must want to be

Bestride the instant of the revelation,

Uniting image and imagination,

Seeing first what now the world might see.

Dread and longing dance across one's dreams,

Alive with hope for charismatic schemes.

Years wearied, wasted, wait impatiently.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about new voyages of discovery in outer space.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Care to come with me to outer space?

On wings of will we fly across the void,

Landing in a wilderness of wonders.

Unchain yourselves from now! The present plunders

More than you imagine, dreams destroyed

By labyrinths no longing can retrace.

Ultimately, one pursues the grace

Sought by the heart, or finds oneself employed

Doing what must one's sweet substance squander.

As in my time, great seas, of sails devoid,

Yet beckon to the winds that guide the race.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which is celebrated today, October 9.

Today’s poem is about discovery as a natural part of the human condition.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Can one ever see what lies beyond?

One cannot help but sail for shores unknown,

Leaving everything one loves behind.

Ultimately, one must live alone.

Maybe that's OK. One needn't weep.

Blessed are those who sail willingly,

Unafraid to lose what they can't keep,

Singing to the silence of the sea.

Do, then, dare to choose your mortal state

And relish the adventure of your fate,

Yearning only for the grace to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond