Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season

December 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about enjoying religious holidays even when one is not religious:

Some refuse the pleasures of the season,
Ever the pure acolytes of reason,
Against whatever smacks of superstition,
Severing supply lines to tradition.
One need not be Catholic to be catholic,
Nor be of faith to be towards faith empathic.
Sing, then, with sweet gusto songs that may
Grace the message of a holy day,
Reveling in beauty, though it be
Engaged in service to a mystery,
Enjoying what you never would believe,
Tailoring the torso to the weave.
If one loves the music, one should dance,
Nor need one look the provenance askance,
Granted myths that make the end of year
So lovely one rejoices when they're here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somere.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days
December 18: Some Refuse the Pleasures of the Season

Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days

December 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about lighting the cold, dark days with inner delight:

Share a bit of sunshine on dark days,
Enduring with a smile and a song,
As those lit by your laughter sing along,
Singing down the winter's frozen ways.
Open up your heart to holidays,
Nor can a bit of jollity be wrong,
Singing of life's pleasures loud and long,
Giving voice to all that sadness sways.
Remember that the winterscape is stark,
Each naked branch a-shiver in the wind,
Each grassy field knee-deep in drifted snow,
The white world waiting for an early night.
In such times one's windows light the dark,
Not shuttered that the world might see within
Glimpses of warm inner rooms that glow,
Shining with sincere yet willed delight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sharea.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation
December 17: Share a Bit of Sunshine on Dark Days

Safe Within the Womb of Expectation

December 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the pleasures and the difficulties of returning to one’s childhood home for the holidays:

Safe within the womb of expectation,
Each dancer finds anticipated joy,
A rich routine of choreographed sensation,
Sweet rites no repetition can destroy.
On certain holidays one turns towards home,
Needing to reprise one's childhood part,
Sustain the sense that one is not alone,
Greet again the family at one's heart.
Return, then, to a place you cannot go,
Embracing what you can no longer hold.
Each moment is a print in drifting snow;
The wind obliterates all things but the cold.
Instantly you are a child again,
Not only in your joy but in your pain.
Grace requires all your strength and love,
Serving only those who dancers prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/safewi.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God
December 16: Safe Within the Womb of Expectation

Say There's Neither Santa Claus nor God

December 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem to someone who recently joined the Unitarian Universalist church:

Say there's neither Santa Claus nor God;
Eight days of light require eight days of oil;
All humankind is rich, recycled sod;
Souls can't shuffle off this mortal coil.
One longs for a community of spirit
Not based on faith in something mystical,
Sustained by love of life as we must live it,
Gift that is itself a miracle.
Reason seems to one most reasonable,
Even though there's much it can't explain.
Embracing faith seems inconceivable;
The act of prayer seems poignant but inane.
In such a case, one joins a non-church church,
Needing for one's spiritual search
Grace that comes from the pursuit of good
Shared with those who will the world one would.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/saythe.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season
December 15: Say There’s Neither Santa Claus nor God

Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

December 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Season’s Greetings.

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about why love is especially needed in this season of cold and darkness:

Sing of love, that graces every season,
Eden's child dressed in robes of time,
A dancer through long hallways lined with reason,
So beautiful that few remain behind.
Of love then sing, and kindness, and affection,
Needing warmth as winter settles in.
Sing of loyalty, life-long connection,
Granted those who light the lamp within.
Renew each day that sacramental fire,
Each day again choose love, an act of will
Emanating from life's chief desire --
To love and to be loved and cherished still.
In this season of extended darkness,
Now uncurtain windows full of light,
Giving to the world in all its starkness
Such splendor as will see it through the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing17.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
December 14: Sing of Love, That Graces Every Season

Eight Days the Light Continued on Its Own

December 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is darkness and light, in honor of Chanukah (or Hanukkah), the festival of lights, the first night of which is December 10.

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

A poem for Hanukkah about each of us as oil lamps burning with infinite light:

Eight days the light continued on its own:
A miracle, they say, but not more so
Than ordinary lives of flesh and bone,
Consuming wicks burned ashen long ago.
Within there is a mystic lake of fire,
Fuel-less energy, power uncelled,
Unmeasured fount of obstinate desire,
Hope burning, where no hope was ever held.
Invisible source of all that's seen or seeing,
Unseen light that animates the void;
Unlit spark of indivisible Being,
Shard of One that cannot be destroyed:
To be so vast a miracle till death
Is why we struggle fiercely for each breath.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/8days.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love
December 8: Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window
December 9: Before Earth, Water, and Air Is Fire
December 10: What Is There in the Darkness to Receive
December 11: Blessed Are Those Who Doubt the Word of God
December 12: Careful When You Light the Chanukah Candles
December 13: Eight Days the Light Continued on Its Own

Careful When You Light the Chanukah Candles

December 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is darkness and light, in honor of Chanukah (or Hanukkah), the festival of lights, the first night of which is December 10.

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

A poem for Hanukkah about a possible relationship between rote ritual and faith:

Careful when you light the Chanukah candles!
Have some water nearby just in case
A candle teeters at some crazy angle,
Not having been quite twisted into place.
Unexpected things can sometimes happen:
Kindling can blow in across a flame
And make of a charade a conflagration,
Holy fire furnished by The Name.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/carefu.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Darkness and Light
December 7: And Thou Shalt Love
December 8: Cheerful Lights Dance Within Your Window
December 9: Before Earth, Water, and Air Is Fire
December 10: What Is There in the Darkness to Receive
December 11: Blessed Are Those Who Doubt the Word of God
December 12: Careful When You Light the Chanukah Candles