Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

December 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since Christmas and Chanukah fall so near each other this year (Christmas Eve and the first night of Chanukah are both on December 24), this week’s theme is the spirit common to both holidays.

Today’s poem is about the seasonal pairing of Chanukah and Christmas.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hanukkah and Christmas go together,

A pair of holidays quite complementary,

Pleased to have become more elementary,

Pleased to have become birds of a feather.

Yet once, of course, they were antagonistic,

Having more to do with their religions,

On which they long depended for their visions,

Lest faith become increasingly heuristic.

In our time, the holidays are friends,

Delivered by the same inclusive heaven,

A pair of pastries all puffed up with leaven,

Yeasted well for mercenary ends,

Sweetened well to bind once-bitter blends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hanuk2.html. For more Christmas poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html. For more Hanukkah poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chanukahpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Chanukah and Christmas

December 19: Hanukkah and Christmas Go Together

So Might One Turn from Winter into Spring

December 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem that takes us through the seasons, ending with the holidays at the beginning of winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So might one turn from winter into spring,

Emerging from the season's icy womb

Alight with life, with all the world in bloom,

So sweet a scent one cannot help but sing;

Or turn to summer as the blossoms fade,

Now whistling as one waters well one's garden,

Sensing one's terrain begin to harden,

Growing what would thrive in sun or shade;

Ramble through the summer into fall,

Each day a generous gift of lilting light,

Even though the cool wind hints of night

Too quickly, as one wishes time would stall;

Into winter turn with holiday cheer,

Needing joy to light the darkened way,

Grace that lingers through the lengthening day,

Silent celebrant of each new year.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/somigh.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 16: Shine like a Moon upon Your Field of Snow

December 17: Silence Is a Quality of Snow

December 18: So Might One Turn from Winter into Spring

Silence Is a Quality of Snow

December 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about beauty and grace even in the dead of winter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Silence is a quality of snow.

Eager to hear it, I trudge through virgin fields,

Awake at the heart of nothingness, and so

Seized press on, as the world's white oneness yields.

Oh, what happiness! Though the deadly cold

Numbs the extremities, traveling inward,

'Ere it reaches the heart, I turn, the old

Songs singing in my head as I head homeward.

Give thanks, then, for the unforgiving silence,

Revelation in white swaddling clothes,

Eden's seed asleep as we find radiance

Even in the bleak December snows.

To be is to contain the holy light,

In nothingness the being ever born,

Never more the locus of delight,

Grace the equal gift of day and night,

Shining like a candle until dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/silenc.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 16: Shine like a Moon upon Your Field of Snow

December 17: Silence Is a Quality of Snow

Shine like a Moon upon Your Field of Snow

December 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about the need for seasons to enrich one’s sense of life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Shine like a moon upon your field of snow!

Each buried root awaits the touch of spring

As you to your own celebrations bring

Such glory as reflects from down below.

Of mirrors let us sing, and holy light

Not ours, that yet we spread across the darkness,

'Twixt eternity and nothingness

Shining to illuminate the night.

Gardens wait, and naked stands of trees;

Rivers wait, and lakes, and frozen streams.

Eden waits to try again its dreams,

Enduring underneath our cruelties.

The world reflects your moonlight, white and still.

In what you see is what you are, though time

Needs cycles of the wind and of the will,

Granting to each sentiment its clime

So you may each sense of life fulfill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/shinel.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 16: Shine like a Moon upon Your Fieldof Snow

Silent Night.The Whole World Holds Its Breath

December 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about the winter holidays and faith.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Silent night. The whole world holds its breath.

Each faith has its own seasonal salvation,

As myth becomes the antidote for death,

Sorrow turned to cause for celebration.

Of those who have no faith but just look on,

None need believe to join the pageantry,

Singing with a joy that’s not put on,

Glad for holiness that one can see.

Reason ought not scoff at myth, but find

Enduring beauty in the fictive frame,

Embracing subtleties of heart and mind

That else a soul would be hard put to name.

In faith one sees the power and grace of art

Not on a wall but seated in the heart,

Grace honed well by centuries of prayer,

Salvation one might savor if not share.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/silent.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 15: Silent Night. The Whole World HoldsIts Breath

Sing of the Rhythms of Life

December 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about the genetic roots of the winter holidays.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the rhythms of life,

Each creature’s genetical dance

As choreographed by light –

Such as each season grants!

O sing of the seasonal change,

Now summer, now winter within,

Solstices senses arrange,

Glad tidings as tides turn again!

Remember to sing of the subtle

Endocrine wisdom that all

Employ, though great cities may muffle

The music of mind with their sprawl.

In everyone there’s a grace

No civilization can kill,

Granted the whole human race,

Sense of Earth’s harmony still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singo7.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 14: Sing of the Rhythms of Life

So Ancient a Festival Ought Touch the Heart

December 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Season’s Greetings poem about the ancient roots of the winter holidays.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So ancient a festival ought touch the heart,

Even in its rather recent forms.

As light returns, the looking glass of art

Still reflects one's paleolithic norms.

One knows the days have reached their darkest hour,

Needing some shared sign to mark their turn,

Sensing that in symbols there is power,

Given inner depths one might discern.

Remember, then, that mangers and menorahs

Elucidate a more inclusive need,

Embodying what testaments and torahs

Try to say to those whose hopes recede.

In everyone, beneath the ice of reason

Now swim the joyful offspring of the season,

Grateful for the miracle of light,

Singing through the bitter winter night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/soanci.html. For more poems for the holiday season, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings.

December 12: Some Would Sing to Celebrate the Season

December 13: So Ancient a Festival Ought Touchthe Heart