You Wish to Live a Long and Healthy Life

October 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the relationship between the individual and the community:

You wish to live a long and healthy life

On friendly terms with everyone around you,

Married to a lovely, loving wife,

Knee deep in the good causes that surround you.

In truth, however, you're not in control,

Planted where you are by wind, not will,

Placed where sun and shade might shape your soul,

Ultimately child of the whole,

Repenting for us all, for good or ill.

© 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/youwis.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

10/9: You Wish to Live a Long and Happy Life

You Find but Little Solace in Success

October 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the emptiness of conventional success and the feeling of self-importance that so often comes with it:

You find but little solace in success,

On which you long have hung your self-esteem.

Maybe you expected happiness,

Knowing how the self-important seem.

Instead, you feel a gnawing at the heart,

Perhaps because you know where you've gone wrong,

Purporting to be whole when you are part,

Unable yet to simply sing along,

Restored to worship by the grace of song.

© 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/youfi2.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

October 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the difficulty of true repentance:

You cannot think the Book of Life will close.

Opportunity must seem a right.

Most days contain a trace of paradise,

Kindling the hope that God is nice

Instead of just or loving or pure light.

Prepare for what is not what you propose:

Perhaps you think your prayers will suffice,

Unburdening your heart with hunger slight.

Repentance takes much more than you suppose.

© 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/yomkip.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

Would You Know the Tally of Your Time

October 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

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

A philosophical poem about whether one would really like to know how much evil and good one has done:

Would you know the tally of your time,

The good and bad you’ve caused, the joy and pain?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine,

The number no self-knowledge dare assign,

The weighted roster of the saved and slain.

Would you know the tally of your time?

And would you see that number as a sign

Of your self-worth, a judgment that is plain?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine,

For numbers are like labels that confine

One’s feeling for oneself to pride or shame.

Would you know the tally of your time,

The blunt assessment you cannot refine,

The sum that gives a thousand words one name?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine.

Thank God I can’t! I might my heart resign,

Self-satisfied or full of self-disdain!

Would you know the tally of your time,

Or would you not? I know I would not mine.

© 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/wouldy.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

10/4: Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

10/5: Ritual Recalls the Revelation

10/6: Would You Know the Tally of Your Time

Ritual Recalls the Revelation

October 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

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

A poem for Rosh Hashanah about the need for ritual music to sustain revelation:

Ritual recalls the revelation.

Once the eternal enters time, it fades.

So might we sustain it through sensation,

Having melodies to serve as aids.

Hear, O Israel, the ancient words

As song, and savor both the sense and music!

Sing with the bright cadences of birds,

Holiness so sweet you can't refuse it!

A synagogue is sanctified by song,

Nor ought familiar prayers be simply read.

All one's heart is where it must belong,

Here singing with the living and the dead.

© 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/ritual.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

10/4: Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

10/5: Ritual Recalls the Revelation

Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

October 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

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

A poem for Rosh Hashanah about the need for forgive others if one is to ask for forgiveness for oneself:

Revenge is often taken in the mind.

Open wounds untreated tend to bleed.

Some who else would be both good and kind

Hate others in the thought, if not the deed.

Have mercy, then, upon yourself, and clear

Away the anger twisting you inside,

Sanctifying for the coming year

Heart and spirit, cleansed of pain and pride.

As you ask forgiveness, so forgive,

Nor need you lose your honor with your fury.

All find their just reward in how they live,

Held to account by a less partial jury.

© 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/reveng.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

10/4: Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

October 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

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

A poem for Rosh Hashanah about someone who has no faith but still sees value in the Rosh Hashanah service:

Revelation strikes you as absurd,

Out of whack with what you think you know.

Still, you love the beauty of the words,

However much you mind the undertow.

How might you participate in prayer

Absent faith in God? It makes no sense.

Still, the urge to cleanse the soul is there,

However unappealing the pretense.

A world of unsolved mysteries surrounds you,

Nor can you shake the spirit that confounds you,

Aware of truths that cannot be expressed,

Here so beautifully in scripture dressed.

© 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/revel2.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd