Sixty-Three2

July 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a number poem about someone who pauses on the brink of holiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-three suspends her animation,
Intending to replenish her reserves.
X marks the sacred center of her being,
The place beyond her appetites and nerves.
Yet still she hears the sirens of sensation.

To be oneself is to be all creation,
Here in ways no instrument observes,
Replenished by the simple act of seeing
Each windrow with the wonder it deserves,
Each remnant in the robes of revelation.

 © by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/63b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

June 30: Forty-Four

July 1: Sixty-Three

Forty-Four4

June 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a number poem about someone who, living in the mundane world, longs for holiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-four looks within and listens,

Open to the whispers of the soul,

Remembering retreats, now long ago,

That gave him intimations of the whole.

Years may pass; the longing never lessens.

For such encounters, there can be no goal.

One stops one’s inner time within time’s flow

Until, now free of purposes and passions,

Returned to bliss, one can resume one’s role.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/44d.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

June 30: Forty-Four

Alessandra

June 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who strives for holiness every moment of her life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Alessandra savors solitude,

Looking for connection to the whole.

Each of us is all, and so includes

Such rapture as resides in every soul,

Selfless self, with neither will nor goal.

Anticipating death, she undoes life,

Needing nothing, wanting, wishing nothing,

Delivered from what would engender strife,

Relinquishing all but simple acts of being,

A conqueror of all that's worth the winning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/alessa.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about how Ramadan continues to affect the mundane activities that follow.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Evening, and at last the fast is over!

It remains a gift we celebrate,

Delighting in our prayers as in a lover,

Abstaining with a joy no meal could sate.

Let us gather now with food and drink,

For now we turn again to mortal Earth,

Intended to desire, and love, and think,

To savor what is ours 'twixt death and birth,

Reminded by our faith what things are worth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eveni2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the transition from Ramadan to more mundane forms of worship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each moment is like sunlight on the heart,

Infinity within infinity.

Descend now from the whole back to the part,

As fast gives way to feast, and One to me.

Love is worship, as is pure, chaste pleasure;

Food is worship, music, dance, delight.

Immersed in talk, we savor what we treasure,

The days of fasting fading fast from sight,

Returning, turning, burning through the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eachm2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which begins today, June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the heightened recognition of holiness during Ramadan.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment equally is holy.

In Ramadan, we recognize it more.

Days of fasting preach throughout the body;

Appetite obeys a higher law.

Let us now return to the mundane

Fortified by what we have enjoyed,

In lives neither prophetic nor profane,

Toiling daily, gainfully employed,

Restored by holiness, our spirits buoyed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/every5.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

We've Been Together Since We Were

June 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from elementary school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

We've been together since we were

Just barely more than babes,

Holding onto Mommy's hand,

Missing two front teeth.

Some of us now have to wear

A bra and some to shave,

Adults in what our hearts demand,

Still children underneath.

Together we learned how to read,

Together learned to play,

To add and multiply our friends,

To give and to receive.

Our teachers taught us how to lead,

To put our tears away,

To separate our means and ends,

To work and to achieve.

And now we step across a line;

Our childhood is gone.

Soon, just like a morning dream,

The memories will fade.

But if we turn out good and kind,

Rejoicing in the sun,

We'll know to thank these sheltered years

Where our first joys remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/wevebe.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 24: Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

June 25: We’ve Been Together Since We Were