Some Would Sing a Melancholy Song

December 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the cold, gloomy winter being as necessary a part of the year as death is a necessary part of life:

Some would sing a melancholy song

Even at this festive time of year.

After all, the frigid nights are long,

Sinking into daylight, harsh and drear.

O Earth, why do you lean away from joy?

Night rules the North, nor does the South long savor

Sunlight, as its dreams will hearts destroy,

Granting only longing for their labor.

Remember, then, that winter is a gift,

Even at this nadir of its night,

Even as the cold, white whispers drift,

Tailing into long, thin wisps of light.

In every moment everything exists,

Nor ought the mind rail, though the heart resists.

Grace is one, as life and death are one.

So sing of beauty till the song is done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somew8.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

12/21: Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

12/22: Some Would Sing a Melancholy Song

Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

December 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about how the holidays dress up the gloomy season:

Sing of simple pleasures of the season,

Each a gift to cherish and to savor!

Although we dread the winter, with good reason,

Still, we give its early days full flavor.

On every street we hear the festive music,

Never less than angels on the brass,

So beautiful that we are loath to lose it,

Given that the season soon must pass.

Radiance consumes the early night,

Each lawn ablaze, each storefront window burning,

Each main street strung with unrestrained delight,

The joyful counterpoint to year-end yearning.

In every gathering there's much to taste,

Nor do we have much toil or time to waste.

Grace comes and goes so quickly every year.

Sing, then, of gifts and love and winter cheer!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing11.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

12/21: Sing of Simple Pleasures of the Season

Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

December 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about all days as holy days:

Suppose there were no special times for greetings,

Each day equally a holy day.

All things are holy just because of being

Shards of Being, lightning wrapped in clay.

One might then be merry all the time,

Needing no occasion for good cheer,

Seeing in each moment the sublime,

God born in every child throughout the year.

Reasoning thus, one need not leave bereft

Each everyday not specialized for joy.

Eden is a place we never left,

Though smoke and smog our view of it destroy.

In paradise all time is time for glory,

Nor do the angels choose one sacred story.

God is in all things with grace to be,

Shining in all seasons equally.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/suppos.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

12/20: Suppose There Were No Special Times for Greetings

Short Days Augur Longer Ones

December 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the time lag between the turn of a season towards light or darkness and one’s sense of the season as light or dark:

Short days augur longer ones

Even as the cold

Alights upon the early gloom,

Sailing on the wind.

One feels the chill inside one's bones;

Night too soon takes hold.

So we light the festive room,

Gathering within.

Remember those long summer days,

Each a little shorter?

Evenings had a touch of grief

Trailing behind.

In each sharp turn, time delays

Not only change of weather.

Gripped by passion or belief,

Slowly we unwind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shortd.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

12/19: Short Days Augur Longer Ones

Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

December 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying the religious holidays without being religious:

Secular celebrations seem so spare,

Even with religious ancestry,

As though the brick beneath what had been there

Stood unadorned where stuccoed grace should be.

Old prayers and praises now sound insincere,

No longer fitting where but reason reigns.

'Tis the season, nonetheless, for cheer;

Scoured of mystery, mystique remains.

God aside, the dark still turns towards light;

Revolving Earth still tilts into the sun;

Each gift of breath still fills one with delight;

Each child is still all being new begun.

The miracles one celebrates are questions

Implying answers too remote to know.

Nor need one not have faith in the directions

Given those whose fate it is to go

Step by careful step towards what is so.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/secula.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

12/18: Secular Celebrations Seem So Spare

Seasons Are like Seasonings

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, as we approach Christmas and New Year’s, is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying the special tastes of each season:

Seasons are like seasonings,

Each a complex taste

Amplifying appetites of

Souls with senses graced.

Open up your windows,

Nestle in your beds,

Scent the scents of wakening fields,

Gaze at golds and reds.

Revel in the tang of time

Even now when night

Ends too soon the caravans

Traveling towards light.

In gratitude for being

Now sing that all might hear!

Give the gift of merriment!

Sing of love and cheer!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/season.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings

12/17: Seasons Are like Seasonings

Julian

December 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and friendship poem about the interdependence of every moment of life:

Julian is a true and loving friend.

Underneath his words there is his heart.

Life is not a table set for one.

If one would eat, one cannot eat alone.

All we have we borrow and we lend.

Nor do I breathe without your taking part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/julian.html. For more friendship poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

12/10: Why Did You Change

12/11: Of You I Know So Much

12/12: My Tears Are Not of Loss

12/13: Our Friendship Is as Close as Closest Sisters

12/14: I Have a Friend with Benefits

12/15: May Poetry Flow

12/16: Julian