Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

April 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the psychological significance of mountains:

Mountains mark the boundaries of our dreams.

Over them lies nothing more than Heaven.

Use them to take well your wistful measure,

Nor can you enter them without the pleasure

That comes from being dwarfed by one great given,

As Being becomes just the God it seems.

In awe one finds a tonic for the soul,

Needing to pay homage to the whole,

Silent angel swelling sacred streams.

© 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/mount2.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

Global Warning

April 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about our responsibility to save all of life from our destructive ways:

Global warning,

Likening us to lichens

Or pairing us with pandas

Because we are bone of one bone

And flesh of one flesh:

Life can end.

What would we?

Are we driven to be driven?

Revved to rev?

Need we what we need?

If each cell is a cellmate,

Now all may lose all,

Given that life is not a given.

© 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/global.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

And These Are the Islands

April 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated today, April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the increasing destruction of hurricanes and typhoons due to global warming:

And these are the islands, tiny green drops

On the broad bright blue canvas of tropical seas.

And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops,

Swallowing mountains as the sea swallows rocks,

Swallowing churches and children and trees,

Swallowing islands like tiny green drops

With their warehouses, schoolhouses, dollhouses, shops,

With their dreams and intentions and sweet fantasies,

All smashed by the great white wheels spinning like tops

That gorge on the profits of energy stocks

And the fumes of our lust for convenience and ease,

Heedless of islands like tiny green drops

And the people who live on them tending their crops

Or working in offices, homes, factories,

Devoured by monsters spinning like tops

In a line of disasters no tragedy stops

Despite the raw poignance of powerless pleas …

And these are the islands, tiny green drops.

And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops.

© 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/andthe.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

Each Soul Is like a River Bearing Love

April 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover was on April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated today, April 21^st.

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

An Easter poem about soul and the self:

Each soul is like a river bearing love

Across a desert thirsty for its treasure,

Sliding towards the sea, where it will lose

The self, which would its burden weigh and measure,

Even as it irrigates green fields,

Rewarded by the grace its gift reveals.

© 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/eachso.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

4/20: Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

4/21: Each Soul Is like a River Bearing Love

Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

April 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover was on April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A poem for both Easter and Passover for someone who is of both Jewish and Christian heritage:

Every holiday makes life more special

And waters well the roots of one’s relations.

Some are more and some are less essential,

Though all are built upon the same foundations.

Each holiday, of course, has its own story,

Religion, rites, meaning, icons, beauty,

Practices that perpetuate some glory,

All mitzvot combining joy and duty.

Still, if one’s a bridge between two cultures,

Savoring the holidays of both,

One can see, beneath their varied pleasures,

Vaults haunted by the same primeval ghosts.

Each soul depends on holidays to be

Restored to an else unclaimed legacy.

© 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/everyh.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

4/20: Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

April 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is tonight, April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A Passover poem about the Seder, or Passover meal:

Perhaps a meal ought not bear so much weight.

A dining room is not a synagogue.

Sometimes, however, food's a pedagogue.

Sometimes one's best text is what one ate.

One finds in food the sense in many senses,

Vested in a symbol that will last.

Even as a people needs its past,

Ritual foods dismantle time's defenses.

© 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/perha6.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

Here We Have a Story for the World

April 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A Passover poem about the universality and endurance of the story of Passover:

Here we have a story for the world,

A tale of justice served and freedom won,

Principles of goodness, universal,

Printed out on stone by God's own hand.

Yes, the past was bloody, and the old

Promise was by faithlessness undone.

And wonders ceased, memories turned brittle,

Shadows fell, and love turned into land.

Still, the story breathes the air of worlds

Old and new, a tale not writ in stone,

Vast as the hard history of a people

Ever changing, ever one, a grand

Recital running through time's glass like sand.

© 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/herew2.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World