Saturday, December 14, 2019

Seasons Come and Go; the Love Remains

December 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about letting go ambition and will to make poetry of your love:

Seasons come and go; the love remains.
Each year the winter tolls the passing time
As holidays provide a welcome sign,
Summoning the joy that life sustains.
O Wanderer, let go ambitious aims,
Nor seek to make your days and dreams align!
Seek instead what’s never yours or mine,
Gift of one who goes by many names.
Remember that your love’s your only home,
Embracing what you have as what you will,
Even when your heart is full of yearning,
The music that turns sorrow into song.
In every deep-felt passion there’s a poem
Needing only some deft writer’s skill.
Go, then, write your verses, turning, turning,
Sure as ever of where you belong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seaso3.html. For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/9: Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned
12/14: Seasons Come and Go; the Love Remains

Friday, December 13, 2019

Sing of the Holidays That Send One Home

December 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the holidays as a communion, if not of faith, then of art:

Sing of the holidays that send one home,
Each family gathering to celebrate
A miracle, a myth, a meal, a date,
Some rite each generation makes its own.
O sing of ancient tales out on loan!
Nor need one faith to fill a festive plate,
Singing of the symbols that relate
Grace and love to energies unknown.
Remember, then, to keep the holidays
Even if their universe has changed,
Even if the faith that once sustained them
Takes a leap that will not cross one’s heart.
In rituals one walks the ancient ways,
Nor ought one by reason be estranged,
Given one has chosen to retain them,
Sharing the communion of their art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing16.html For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/13: Sing of the Holidays That Send One Home

Thursday, December 12, 2019

So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year.2

December 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the beauty of celebrating holidays in the vestibule of winter:

So shall the changing seasons mark the year,
Earth tilted at an angle towards the sun,
As all dance to that rhythm, everyone
Singing down the days, sun-drenched or drear.
One needs holidays to make things clear,
Needs rituals to choreograph time's run,
Singing as the cycle’s almost done,
Glad still to be although the cold winds near.
Remember that this time of celebration
Endures within the vestibule of winter,
Endures because one’s joy in life requires
That one undo the dark with inner light.
It needs an unremitting affirmation,
Not least because the season can be bitter,
Grace consuming one’s lifelong desires,
So beautiful one dances into night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sosha4.html. For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/12: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

December 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about how one with a scientific bent might enjoy the holidays:

Sense is not the sense of celebrations.
Each holiday is founded on a myth.
And though it might be good for good relations,
Some would stamp it fantasy forthwith.
Oil for one day never lasted eight,
Nor did a virgin once give birth to God.
Stories store beliefs long out of date,
Gifts of faith that there's no need to prod.
Rejoice, then, in a sensibility
Embracing both the fable and the fact,
Each, in fact, an equal mystery,
Though one's a working truth and one's an act.
If one can find a way to look both ways,
No nagging doubt need dim the holidays.
Giving voice to what by right is wrong,
Sing of the truth in the beauty of the song.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sensei.html. For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

December 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the many faces of the holidays, some beautiful and some crass, and how to enjoy them anyway:

Some sense soon the sense of celebration,
Elevating spirit, mood, and song,
And some just wait for it to come along,
Succumbing to the common inspiration.
Others will insist it's the creation,
Not of ancient myth or psychic need
So much as avarice and corporate greed
Grasping any chance for exploitation.
Remember, then, that it is all of these,
Embracing what is there and moving on,
Enjoying fun and laughter, love and grace
Through right and wrong, through beauty, death, and pain.
In ritual one finds an inner ease,
Nor ought one's use of it depend upon
Granting every claim of time and place,
So long as its sweet touch goes with the grain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/somese.html. For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

Monday, December 9, 2019

Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned

https://www.poemsforfree.com/sentim.html
December 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A Season’s Greetings poem about the beautiful, nostalgic sentimentality of the season:

Sentimental moments are well planned,
Entering the heart on schedule.
Although for some the feeling may seem canned,
Some find resonance in ritual.
On certain days there is an expectation,
Nostalgic in advance, of happiness,
Stirred by rich, repetitive sensation,
Graced by care, italicized by stress.
Render, then, your holidays with such
Emotion as befits the time and place,
Evoking what will never be too much
To feel within the beauty you embrace.
In sentimental moments there's a sense
Not merely of the will but of the whence,
Good feeling that is resident within,
Summoned up to sing what long has been.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sentim.html. For more Seasons Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Season’s Greetings
12/9: Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Here Are Moments Sweet and Everlasting

December 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week as we enter the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A Happy Holidays poem about how love is both of and beyond time:

Here are moments sweet and everlasting,
A time for celebration, song, and cheer.
Perhaps it’s something more than joy in passing;
Perhaps it’s something more than simply here.
Yes, love exists in time, like us, like sunlight,
Having, like us, a contingent cause.
Over time, however, it, like starlight,
Leads us to what seem like higher laws.
In love one finds the gravity of living,
Desire for joy, for ecstasy, for life,
A force that grants more goodness in the giving,
Yielding parent and child, man and wife,
Solicitude that binds all souls in meaning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herea2.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays
12/8: Here Are Moments Sweet and Everlasting