I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun

January 6, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical poem about the realization that the gifts of life come from beyond the self:

I know I cannot satisfy the sun
Nor earn the pleasures of a quiet day;
Spring is not a prize that I have won,
Nor am I here because I've had my say.
My thoughts are not the product of my wits,
Nor are my myths the product of my dreams;
I am a confluence of moments -- bits
Of longing borne by cold and laughing streams.
Love also is a gift beyond deserving:
Large-eyed, nocturnal, armed with delicate paws;
Nudging shameless for affection, serving
Equally my need and its own laws.
Miraculously delivered, drunk with light,
I stagger towards the long-expected night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iknow8.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun

Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being

January 5, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem about someone who has learned that losses in one area of life can result in gains in another, and vice versa:

Forty-three finds happiness in being
Open to the unreflective wind.
Reason would reduce the untrimmed sail,
Though love would run full speed ahead, and blind,
Yearning for what there's no hope of seeing.

The beauty of the run itself is freeing,
Having left safe harbor far behind.
Remember: One does not succeed or fail,
Ever losing what one wins in kind,
Ever granted grace without agreeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/43b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being

Fifty-Seven's Not Afraid of Silence

January 4, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem about a woman who visits the altar of her soul:

Fifty-seven's not afraid of silence,
In which the self can take a well-earned breath.
For her there is no urgency to time,
There being an eternity till death.
Years are but the borders of remembrance.

So does she find the doorway to her presence,
Entrance to which needs no shibboleth,
Visiting an oft-neglected shrine.
Even as she walks her length and breadth,
Not moving, she beholds her radiance.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/57.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence

Single Life Is Hard for Those Who've Shared

January 3, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A number poem for someone who has lost his or her spouse and must begin a new life alone:

Single life is hard for those who've shared
Each day with someone whom they've deeply loved.
Valuing the quiet loneliness,
Even pain and everyday distress,
Needs a joy in life that's unimpaired.
There's no secret way to happiness,
Yet love is known to have great sadness moved.

For you I wish a garden of bright days
In which you stroll among sweet-scented flowers.
Vistas of great peace must fill your hours,
Even as your sad-tinged music plays.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/single.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live
January 1: Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing
January 2: Here’s to Chey and Corey
January 3: Single Life Is Hard for Those Who’ve Shared

Here's to Chey and Cory

January 2, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A wedding poem in the form of a toast to a couple with a child about to begin a new life:

Here's to Chey and Cory!
To a long and happy life
In an Eden of their making
As a husband and a wife.

Here's to Chey and Cory!
To the passion and the will
That has brought them here together:
May it long sustain them still!

Here's to Chey and Cory!
And to Adria - all three!
And to the grace and courage
That creates a family.

May they love each other
With a love that binds them fast
To the things in life that matter
And the ecstasies that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/heres.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live
January 1: Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing
January 2: Here’s to Chey and Corey

Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

January 1, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A New Year’s Day poem for the beginning of the new millennium:

Midnight is a purely human thing
In which a day, a year, a century,
Leaves behind its bloodstained legacy,
Looking to what good the next might bring.
Each of us, this new millennium,
Near midnight will begin to feel the awe,
New wondering what this universe is for,
Immersed in what has been and is to come.
Under midnight's gaze something will end
More beautiful than we can comprehend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/midnig.html. For more New Year’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live
January 1: Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live

December 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A philosophical congratulations poem for a new home:

Out of who we are comes where we live,
No less shaped by spirit than a shell
Yielding to the one imperative
On which all must depend to live life well.
Underneath the word is the desire,
Rembrandt to the image that we see,
New vesting in old verities its fire,
Evangelist for ambient ecstasy.
We choose from somewhere deeper than intention,
Having for such clarity no eyes,
Older than the moment of dimension
Manifest in fast-exploding skies,
Ember of which in that chamber lies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/outofw.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live