Cold Comfort in the Chastity of Sorrow

December 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about the need for faith if one is to find true comfort in life:

Cold comfort in the chastity of sorrow,

Having turned in pain towards innocence,

Reaching through the madness for the marrow,

Intent, for once, on yielding all pretence;

Sensing the necessity of love

Though feeling none but hunger well within,

Meaning nothing more than one might prove

As one finds little proof in death and sin:

So it was one night in Bethlehem.

© 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/coldco.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

12/28: Cheer Is Not What You’d Expect from Christmas

12/29: Cold Comfort in the Chastity of Sorrow

Cheer Is Not What You'd Expect from Christmas

December 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about how love survives the hassles of Christmas:

Cheer is not what you'd expect from Christmas:

Headaches are more like it, lack of sleep,

Raw nerves, rough words, waits to make you weep,

Irritable hours, days, intense, relentless.

So much money, time, so many dreams

Tied to one quick wanton winter's morning,

More an orgy than a merry dawning,

A ritual divorced from what it means.

Still, each year the love within it gleams.

© 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/cheeri.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

12/28: Cheer Is Not What You’d Expect from Christmas

Can the Wind Across the Snow

December 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem about returning to childhood hope and love at Christmas time:

Can the wind across the snow

Howl enough of frozen pain?

Return to where the children go.

In love and hope begin again.

So did Christ return to Earth

That lovers might renew their love.

May all your longing bring to birth

A passion that no wind can move,

So strong no wind can stronger prove.

© 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/canthe.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

12/27: Can the Wind Across the Snow

Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

December 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which was celebrated yesterday, December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem to his or her family from someone who will miss the celebration:

Can anyone explain the glow of Christmas?

Holidays are candles in the night.

Rebirth comes from family and friends

In one bright blur of food and talk that ends

Still burning as a peaceful inner light.

There is no way to substitute for Christmas.

Miss it and no circumstance feels right.

All my heart's with you, yet I must miss this

Season thick with love and rich delight.

© 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/canany.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

12/26: Can Anyone Explain the Glow of Christmas

Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

December 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated today, December 25^th.

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

A Christmas poem to a child about angel horses on Christmas Eve:

Angel horses flap their wings

High above the winter night.

Far below an angel sings

Of peace and joy, of love and light.

Down, down, down the horses fly,

Down through stars, across the moon,

Down through clouds and cold, dark sky

To where the angel sings her tune.

And there the angel horses wait,

Listening to her song of love,

Far from home and Heaven's gate,

Far from sweet green fields above,

Listening to the angel's song,

So beautiful it makes them weep,

Hovering over us all night long

While we are fast asleep.

© 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/angelh.html. For more Christmas poems, go to xmashttps://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

12/25: Angel Horses Flap Their Wings

If All Were Now as It Was When

December 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which will be celebrated tomorrow, on December 25^th. Tonight is Christmas Eve.

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

A Christmas poem questioning whether there is any difference between one’s fear of faith in Christ’s time and now:

If all were now as it was when

Christ came to save us all,

And Christmas Day were Christmas Day,

Not some day we recall;

And in the East we saw a star

Exceptionally bright,

And wondered what was going on

That ordinary night;

If God were walking in our midst,

Saying what He said,

And we were not His followers,

But trod where He would tread;

And we were witness to His word

And looked Him in the eye,

And found His message interesting

But too bizarre to buy;

If we were in Jerusalem

And watched Him bear the cross,

And suffered with His suffering

But feared to share His loss;

And saw Him die in agony,

And wondered at it all,

And this were something we ourselves,

Not printed books, recall:

What would be the difference,

Had we known Him that way,

Between the faith we feared to feel

And what we fear today?

© 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/ifallw.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas

12/24: If All Were Now as It Was When

Send a Little Sunshine to Your Heart

December 23, 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 are worth the effort required to sustain them, even to people who do not believe literally in their myths:

Send a little sunshine to your heart

Even as the gloomy days return.

A holiday's the work of will and art,

Sweet gift of time one nonetheless must earn.

Old memories and new combine to give

No little charm to your anticipation,

Singing of the love it takes to live

Gracefully, the light of all relation.

Reason sees the reason for the rite,

Even though the myth is mystical;

Even though a rational being might

Take exception to the miracle.

In full embrace of what the story means,

Not for what it says, but what it dreams,

Give voice to joy, and sing the festive song

Sung with such pure pleasure for so long.

© 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/sendal.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

12/23: Send a Little Sunshine to Your Heart