For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a friendship poem about breaking out of the prison of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For most of us life passes like a dream,

Revealing only what is on our minds.

Inside the prison of the self we see

Each object as a shadow on our wall.

Nothingness awaits, as sure as night.

Did I not have you, dear friend, I might,

Shadow on a shade, not be at all.

How much we need a word beyond our sea:

In love and laughter, thoughts of different kinds,

Perhaps, with luck, unraveling a seam.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 20: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

Courtney

March 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for an excellent friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Courtney is an all-embracing friend,

Open to the winds of whim or need.

Underneath her smile is a smile

Radiating outward like a sun.

To her the joys of friend and self are one,

Nor is her cheerful deference a style:

Each moment is a perfect book to read,

Yet not with any passion for the end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

March 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which was celebrated yesterday, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem with a more secular view of selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Souls and selves are organ tones and tunes.

The soul is deep, unchanging, it abides.

Placed in time, but not of time, it rides

Above the silence, alike in graves or wombs.

The self is full of feeling as it croons,

Restricted to a shallow range, but wide.

In constant flux, it flits from side to side,

Changing as it nears its bliss or doom.

Know that soul and self sing one sweet song.

‘Mid sense and sentiment, eternity

Sings the deepest organ tone of being.

Do, then, bound for death, please sing along,

A chorister transfixed by beauty, singing,

Yielding to the rich, full harmony.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/soulsa.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 18: Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated today, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick about the difference between selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,

As what might change is never what must be.

In one we find pure light; the other, coals,

Now burning, now burned out, now memory.

The self is something that can grow and change,

Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,

Alive to faith or innerly estranged,

The lonely witness to what one has been.

Remember that the soul is also you,

Is what is, which is eternal love,

Called to love by love you know is true,

Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/selves.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is spoken by St. Patrick about relinquishing personal ambition.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would satisfy their utmost longings,

Always reaching for what lies beyond.

I know well the soul has no belongings,

Neither short-term lease nor long-term bond.

Though I long for You, I know You're with me.

Peace comes through delivery from desire.

All Your love for all burns right through me.

There is nothing left that I require.

Rich in faith, I can be poor in fashion,

Intending but to be Your instrument.

Called to this green land, I preach Your passion.

Kings come to me through You, their crowned heads bent.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/somew3.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day to the descendants of Irish immigrants.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the home that you have never seen,

The place your ancestors once called their own!

Play the music of that island green,

And dance the dances dear to those long gone!

Time again to fill their dancing shoes,

Reawakening the ghosts within,

In touch with some incendiary muse,

Channeling the beauty that had been.

Knowledge is not merely of the mind:

'Tis of the arms and legs, the throat, the heart.

Sing, that you not lose your soul to time!

Dance, that you might nurture it through art!

As all your passions quickly become past,

Yet you may give life to things that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo4.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a poem for St. Patrick’s Day about how Ireland, like the rest of the world, is becoming multi-racial.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of Ireland, that salad bowl!

The greens are tossed with bits of yellow and brown.

Perhaps the tossing might make some folks frown,

Although the taste be tangy to the soul.

There is no past for which the bells don't toll,

Regardless how its ways are handed down.

In time its heroes, once of great renown,

Come faded to the fun house of the whole.

Know, then, that the Ireland of old

'Ere long will be what none alive remember,

Save for remnants treasured by a few.

Deep within the heartache that takes hold,

An ancient ecstasy becomes an ember,

Yielding over years to Irelands new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo5.html. For more poems for St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl