Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

January 10, 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 name poem for someone who has dropped out of the race for success:

Zachary lets go a long-held longing
Amid his contemplation of the race.
Chastening a tide of heartfelt yearning,
He goes to some quite ordinary place.
As life unfolds, he dances through its shadow,
Redundant as a grain upon a meadow
Yielding to the wind across its face.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/zachar.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
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends
January 9: Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light
January 10: Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light

January 9, 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 for someone immersed in the beauty of the moment:

Sixty-eight sings silently of light,
Inner song reflecting inner grace.
Xylophones send messages by wind:
Tapestries no hand can hope to trace;
Yearnings no beatitude can blight.

Even in the fortress of the mind,
Intimations of the coming night
Give way to what no fortune can rescind:
Here, and only here, is paradise,
The moment that gives beauty time and place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/68b.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
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends
January 9: Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light

Robert Is a Light unto His Friends

January 8, 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 name poem for someone who struggles to live the means while letting go of the ends:

Robert is a light unto his friends.
Old wisdom whistles sweetly through his day.
Before breakfast he puts his hopes away,
Eager to clear a passage to his heart.
Robert wrestles daily with his art:
To live the means and let go of the ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/robert.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
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends

Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures

January 7, 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 name poem for someone who is able to preserve his pleasures by embracing his pain:

Lewis is a symphony of pleasures,
Embracing much that, shunned, would bring pure pain.
While death and illness, loss and hunger reign,
In him there is a treasuring of treasures:
Simple savoring, sweet-tongued and sane.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lewis.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
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures

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