Poem of the Week

December 27, 2007 #466

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a New Year’s poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have another new beginning,
Another chance to be what we are not.
Praised be those who recognize the rot,
Portion out the guilt, and go on living.
Years change far more frequently than we,
Nor are our changes more than painted screens,
Each placed to maximize our meager means,
Windows on a world that none can see.
Yet, truth be told, we know well what’s within.
Each resolution fails to touch the heart,
As in the end we are, as at the start,
Remorseful reprobates, half hope, half sin.

Poem of the Week

December 20, 2007 #465

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Christmas poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make the most of every Christmas morning
Even when the weather’s not so clear.
Riches come and go with little warning,
Rendered only to what souls are there.
Yet some would spend their Christmas at hard labor,
Choosing to ignore the gifts of grace,
Having much, though little that they savor,
Resigned to serve the lords of time and place.
In Christmas there is work and there is pleasure,
So interfused one cannot separate
The labor from the loving, common treasure
Made from giving, much beloved weight,
A burden and a blessing both, that one
Should relish till the precious day is done.

Poem of the Week

December 13, 2007 #464

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Season’s Greetings poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Simple pleasures rest on complex piers
Engineered to stand against the wind,
A latticework of love that lasts the years,
Steel lace on which we ply our passions blind.
On certain days, however, we recall
Necessary links to worlds below,
Seasons of remembrance that with small
Gifts of grace rekindle what we know.
Revel, then, within, and celebrate
Each tangled thread that binds you to your life,
Embracing the regrets that are your fate,
Traveling again the roads to light.
In such sweet seasons love, however wrought,
Neither what you feared nor what you sought,
Grants audience to sentiment unstained,
So pure but treasured tinctures are retained.

Poem of the Week

December 6, 2007 #463

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Chanukah poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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.

Poem of the Week

November 29, 2007 #462

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for the holiday season.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays are taken best with food
As empty stomachs lead to irritation,
Particularly bad for conversation,
Prone to undermine a festive mood.
Yet holidays with food can often be
Helpful in maintaining a relation,
Offering a timely celebration,
Locus for extended family.
In holidays a temporary junction
Delays eventual disintegration
As generation follows generation,
Years of culinary dedication
Sensing well the beauty of its function.

Poem of the Week

November 22, 2007 #461

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a Thanksgiving Day poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the harvest and the healing,
Health, wealth, hunger, all the goods of Earth,
All that we inherited at birth,
Need, joy, love, pain, grief, desire, feeling.
Know that we are grateful for our being,
Singing silent praises in our hearts,
Giving in the temples of our arts
Invocations to the act of seeing.
Vain though it may be to think you’re hearing,
In us there is an ancient urge to speak,
Not for any answers that we seek,
Glad just to converse—like love, like breathing.

Poem of the Week

November 15, 2007 #460

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in her songs,

In which she finds a mirror for her grace.

For her the morning gathers in the mourning,

Tucking it away where it belongs

Yet making sure it has sufficient space.

Nor does she give regret the pride of place,

Instead preferring tuning forks to tongs,

Needing but the sweetness of her singing,

Elegant and pure, to light her face.