Look Not on My Body but My Soul

May 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the outer ugliness of a deformed person and his or her inner beauty:

Look not on my body but my soul,

Only on the face behind the veil,

Only with the touch of inner Braille,

Knowing through yourself my being whole.

Nor ought you touch my skin but with your heart,

Only in the tenderness of love.

Though my outer self repulsive prove,

Of me the mask is but a minor part.

Nor should you know me out of charity:

Misfortune can become a kind of grace,

Yielding special wisdom to a few.

Bring mainly for yourself your empathy,

Opening a richer, wider view,

Doorway to a person much like you

Yet fired by the fate he must embrace.

© 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/lookno.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Disabilities

5/20: Light of the Senses

5/21: Jeremy2

5/22: Joanie

5/23: I Lost My Sight and Found My Son

5/24: Look Not on My Body but My Soul

I Lost My Sight and Found My Son

May 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about how blindness brought a new kind of blessing:

I lost my sight and found my son.

I needed you; you came to me.

I thought my joy in life was done.

You showed me what I could not see.

I needed you; you came to me.

How beautiful to have made you!

You showed me what I could not see:

That life and love are ever new.

How beautiful to have made you!

I thought my joy in life was done.

But life and love are ever new.

I lost my sight and found my son.

© 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/ilostm.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Disabilities

5/20: Light of the Senses

5/21: Jeremy2

5/22: Joanie

5/23: I Lost My Sight and Found My Son

Joanie

May 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem about a retarded person who, well taken care of, led a happy life:

Joanie was innocent all of her days,

Only thirteen in her heart and her mind.

All that she wanted was all that she had,

Nor did she ever discover how bad

Illness could be in an ill-favored wind,

Even as she graced all touched by her gaze.

© 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/joanie.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Disabilities

5/20: Light of the Senses

5/21: Jeremy2

5/22: Joanie

Jeremy2

May 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem about a deaf person who is filled with the ecstasy of life:

Jeremy's a light unto the jaded.

Even though he's deaf, his heart can sing.

Reading each day's poetry unaided,

Eventually he learns that life can bring

More ecstasy than one needs to be sated,

Yielding extra to soothe suffering.

© 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/jerem2.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Disabilities

5/20: Light of the Senses

5/21: Jeremy2

Light of the Senses

May 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A cycle of five poems, each from the point of view of a blind artist: a singer, a pianist, a composer, a sculptor, and a poet:

LIGHT OF THE SENSES

SINGER

Each note is like a moonbeam in the night,
More visible in darkness than in light.
You sing with closed eyes; I must sing with none.
Yet equally we would shut out the sun.
For music, like one's passion, seems to be
Purer when there's nothing one can see.

PIANIST

The melody is no more sound than touch.
My fingers sing; I press the keys with such
Grace as I can hear within my heart.
So beautiful to be consumed by art!
Though vision might be wonderful, I know
That I am who I am only so.

COMPOSER

I do not need to see or even hear,
But with a well-trained mental eye and ear,
I have an orchestra that plays within,
Ready every moment to begin.
The music issues forth like God's first light,
Filling with its radiance my night.

SCULPTOR

My hands are my sophisticated eyes,
Knowing better where the spirit lies
Within the shape you survey in the light.
Touch is far more intimate than sight.
I feel by feel the feeling that the form
Wishes to embody once it's born.

POET

I write about a world I cannot see
In images that are part fantasy,
Drawn from other senses that I use
As both my passionate eyes and choral muse.
None sees the world unfiltered through the mind.
Mine is no less lovely, though I'm blind.

© 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/lighto.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Disabilities

5/20: Light of the Senses

Accidents Are Rarely Accidental

May 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem about the psychological effect of believing in divine providence:

Accidents are rarely accidental,

Nor can one sparrow fall but all is changed,

Giving rise to ripples rearranged,

Evidence, albeit circumstantial,

Leading to one's living less estranged

As one finds sense in something sentimental.

© 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/accide.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Religion

5/13: Audrey

5/14: Faith Is What One Cannot Know

5/15: Grace Comes Unexpectedly

5/16: May We Learn to Undergo Your Love

5/17: The Lord Has Been Merciful to Me

5/18: I Want to Go Home

5/19: Accidents Are Rarely Accidental

I Want to Go Home

May 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem of estrangement from the mundane world and longing for the infinite:

I want to go home

To a place I've never been,

And see once more

A place I've never seen.

I long for the arms

Of a love I've never known,

And mourn the loss

Of the things I call my own.

I live in exile

In the land where I was born,

A wanderer

Come to sing, then quickly gone.

© 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/iwan12.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Religion

5/13: Audrey

5/14: Faith Is What One Cannot Know

5/15: Grace Comes Unexpectedly

5/16: May We Learn to Undergo Your Love

5/17: The Lord Has Been Merciful to Me

5/18: I Want to Go Home