Poem of the Week

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Charles

January 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a humorous, philosophical name poem about the common error of thinking you are in control.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Charles undoes his silver studs.

He then rolls up his sleeves

And waves his arms as honking swans

Rejoice at his decrees.

Long may he wave, the swamp frogs rave,

Each joining in the din,

Singing just for him!

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

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Hrithik

January 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a superstar.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hrithik lives inside a superstar,

Resolutely relishing his role.

Intensity pours out from every pore,

The screaming fans demanding ever more.

Habit turns charisma into gold.

In every moment Hrithik plants a bar,

Knowing well what goods ought not be sold.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/hrithi.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a Hanukkah and name poem about making one’s living in the theater.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So you want to make your living in the theater!

Easier to burn without oil for eight days!

The point of Hanukkah is that God has his ways.

However ...

And what kind of miracle are you looking for, anyway?

No miracle is going to give you back your life:

Days of dreams, days and nights of despair, years and years

and years of hope...

Living at the heart of creation;

Of all the dry movement, flakes of dead talk,

Retakes, rituals, favors for the files,

Rendering one perfect, sparkling scream ...

A miracle takes a lot of rehearsal.

In between, one works and wonders, wonders and counts the days.

Nodding from exhaustion, one says yes, yes, yes,

Even this, yes, even this ...

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/theate.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

Monday, January 8, 2018

Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is about how actors reveal themselves while pretending to be someone else.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Actors wear a special mask:

One that's most revealing.

When they pretend they're someone else

They hang themselves to dry.

The tears and screams they've made their task

Leave nothing for concealing.

Each wound must bleed again, or else

The audience won't cry.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/actors.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how actors might convincingly capture a character’s feelings.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Feelings are not easily counterfeited.

In each there is a telltale watermark.

Faces may emote, the tense brows knitted,

The eyes and anguish may be finely fitted,

Yet audiences sense the missing spark.

The trick is not to be, but to become,

Here within a moment yet to be.

Remember that the whole is not the sum.

Each soul has depths no character can plumb;

Each word's a window onto mystery.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/feelin.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphany, both for the holiday that was celebrated yesterday, January 6^th, and in the sense of any sudden insight or perception of meaning.

Today’s poem is a number poem about epiphanies that seem to come from an alien voice within.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fly upon imaginary wings

Over every dark and windswept storm.

Rise above all turbulence and harm

To where the white-robed angels praises sing,

Yearning for eternal peace and joy.

Even as the winds your worlds destroy,

In you there is an alien voice, and calm,

Giving forth the word that rapture brings:

Holy, holy is all life and death!

There is a paradise within each breath.

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

This week’s theme: New Year’s/Epiphany

January 1: Happiness Is Something that One Settles for

January 2: Joy Leaves a Bit of Wonder in Its Wake

January 3: There Is Much Pleasure in the Love of Learning

January 4: Cyberspace, Silent Space

January 5: You Think You Can Just Dive into the Sky

January 6: Each Year Again the Gifts Are Given Gladly

January 7: Fly upon Imaginary Wings

Each Year Again the Gifts Are Given Gladly

January 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epiphany, both for the holiday that is celebrated today, January 6^th, and in the sense of any sudden insight or perception of meaning.

Today’s poem is a poem for Epiphany about the meaning of gifts.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each year again the gifts are given gladly,

Perhaps because one wants to be a gift.

In goods there can be good, yet sometimes, sadly,

People get the thing but not the drift.

How could the wise men come without a token,

A gift to give the child, new born a king?

Nor could their words speak as their gifts had spoken,

Yielding love incarnate in a thing.