Happiness Breaches, Bursting from the Deep

December 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem about the comings and goings of happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness breaches, bursting from the deep,

And then sounds, submerged for humdrum days,

Playing with the heart as music plays,

Passionate, peaceful, poised to laugh or weep.

Years of happiness are tidal, turning,

Having silent commerce with the moon,

Overwhelming sand and flowering dune,

Leaving with an outbound rush of yearning.

Implanted in the frozen soil of winter,

Days of celebration blossom still,

A sign of life’s resilience as the will

Yields nothing to the season, dark and bitter,

Singing of happiness through good and ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ80.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

December 6: Somewhere There’s a Magic Door

December 7: Holidays Have Changed over the Eons

December 8: Holidays Are Happy Days

December 9: Happiness Is Often Background Music

December 10: Happiness Breaches, Bursting from the Deep

Happiness Is Often Background Music

December 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem about holidays as the festive markers of time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is often background music,

A song one hears but rarely listens to,

Perhaps because the lyrics aren’t new,

Perhaps because one does not often choose it.

Years are gifts to cherish day by day.

However, one remembers year by year --

On birthdays, holidays, days of ritual cheer,

Life’s festive markers placed along one’s way.

In unmarked days is where one’s happiness happens,

Days of work, of longing, of routine,

A quiet happiness, a gentle green,

Yielding, yes, at times to cares and passions,

Still savoring the moment and the dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ79.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

December 6: Somewhere There’s a Magic Door

December 7: Holidays Have Changed over the Eons

December 8: Holidays Are Happy Days

December 9: Happiness Is Often Background Music

Holidays Are Happy Days

December 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a holiday poem for a child explaining why the holidays come at this time of year.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays are happy days,

Full of gifts and sweets!

There are lots of games to play,

And lots of toys and treats!

But why does all this happen

At just this time of year

When it is so cold and dark,

With little cause for cheer?

The day that is the shortest,

With the longest night,

Is when the heavens start to give

Each day a bit more light.

And so we mark the turn towards light

With holidays that say

That light’s a miracle, and joy

Can light the darkest day.

And so it is in life: The darkest

Hours will be when

The light will turn, and with it hope

Will be reborn again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/holi11.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

December 6: Somewhere There’s a Magic Door

December 7: Holidays Have Changed over the Eons

December 8: Holidays Are Happy Days

Holidays Have Changed over the Eons

December 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem about the differences between ancient and modern holiday celebrations.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays have changed over the eons

As we evolved from hunters into peons,

Pausing by the graves of mysteries

Preserved for family feasts and shopping sprees,

Yearning for what life was meant to be,

Having lived so long unnaturally.

Once upon a time a holiday

Looked a lot more like a holy day,

In which through ritual joy and chanted prayer,

Dancing, dancing, passionately there,

A person might the restless self erase,

Yielding to a ravenous embrace,

Singing, dancing with unearthly grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/holi10.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

December 6: Somewhere There’s a Magic Door

December 7: Holidays Have Changed over the Eons

Somewhere There's a Magic Door

December 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a holiday poem for a child about finding gifts.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Somewhere there’s a magic door

That opens to your touch.

Within you’ll find the special gifts

That come with who you are.

Of course there might be many more,

But these are quite enough

To bring you all that you might wish

Upon your favorite star.

Perhaps you’ll find the gifts of grace,

Intelligence, or art,

A way with words or numbers, or

A knack for fantasy.

All you find you will embrace

And hold within your heart,

The gifts that are intended for

The gift that you 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/somew7.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

December 6: Somewhere There’s a Magic Door

How About Those Holidays

December 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays about the continued need for holidays even as one grows older.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How about those holidays!

A festive time of year,

Perhaps because the shortened days

Presuppose an inward gaze,

Yet stir a need for cheer.

How about those holidays?

One knows that they are near,

Listening as the music plays

In stores and squares the songs of praise,

Delightful to the ear.

Although the childhood dream decays,

Yearning that no reason sways

Still holds the season dear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 5: How About Those Holidays

Hints of Happiness Are All Around You

December 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is holidays, in honor of the holiday season.

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem about appreciating the beauty that lies beneath the sentimentality.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hints of happiness are all around you,

Alive within the sentiment for sale.

Perhaps because the holidays surround you,

Placed ubiquitously, their passions pale.

Yet truth is often smothered in cliché,

However lean and healthy simply broiled.

One can love the rituals of the day,

Lingering over what cannot be spoiled.

In Hanukkah, in Christmas, and in New Year's,

Delight is ancient, having long survived,

Antidote for what had been true fears,

Yearnings for a sun each year revived,

Shining wanly on a land that died.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/hints2.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Holidays

December 4: Hints of Happiness Are All Around You