Thank You All for Coming Here

December 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Saying Thank You.

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

A poem to thank guests for coming to a birthday party:

Thank you all for coming here

To celebrate my life.

But most of all I'd like to thank

My lovely, loving wife.

One gives up a lot for love

In freedom, time, and tears,

And makes commitments that must last

For lifetimes, not just years.

What one gets I can see here --

A world one can call home,

A space that's safe for innocence,

A common comfort zone.

And so I'm glad that you have come,

All gathered in this place

To share this bit of birthday joy,

To share this glimpse of grace;

To share this meal with me as I

Another year accrue,

That I might know the happiness

I wish for all of you.

© 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/than45.html. For more thank-you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You

12/16: Maybe There’s No Way That I Can Thank You

12/17: Thank You All for Coming Here

Maybe There's No Way That I Can Thank You

December 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Saying Thank You.

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

A name and thank-you poem about the inadequacy of art to express the fullness of one’s gratitude:

Maybe there’s no way that I can thank you.

I would, however, certainly like to try.

Caring needs no cause or reason why.

Hardwired to happiness, it sustains you.

And so there is no way to recompense you

Equal to the joy that meets the eye.

Let this be, then, merely a reply,

A bit of fancy that I hope might please you.

Nor can the song that sings within my heart

Descend upon the stage of my desire,

Prepared to turn my feelings into grace.

Out of thwarted need, I turn to art,

Like settling for the painting of a fire,

Less than a true rendering would require,

Yet what I would now tender in its place.

© 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/mayb17.html. For more thank-you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You

12/16: Maybe There’s No Way That I Can Thank You

Seasons Sing with Unrelenting Passion

December 15, 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 the seasons shape one’s inner life:

Seasons sing with unrelenting passion,

Each delighted utterly to be.

All are beautiful in their own fashion,

Singing songs that shape the way we see.

Oceans dance to music not their own,

Needing moon and wind to shape their will,

‘Mid mind and act a choice, but not alone,

Shifted by the shore, yet dancing still.

Grace comes from without and from within,

Receding and then turning back, like tides,

Enduring as desire, as faith, as whim,

Enduring where one’s sense of life abides.

The seasons come and go, the rhythm of

Imagination, longing, will, and love.

Nor can one be whole except as part,

Giving voice to a collective art,

Singing, singing to a common heart.

© 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/seaso4.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

12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

12/12: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

12/13: Sing of the Holidays That Send One Home

12/14: Seasons Come and Go; the Love Remains

12/15: Seasons Sing with Unrelenting Passion

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

12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

12/12: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

12/13: Sing of the Holidays That Send One Home

12/14: Seasons Come and Go; the Love Remains

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

12/9: Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned

12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

12/12: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

12/13: Sing of the Holidays That Send One Home

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

12/9: Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned

12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations

12/12: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

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

12/9: Sentimental Moments Are Well Planned

12/10: Some Sense Soon the Sense of Celebration

12/11: Sense Is Not the Sense of Celebrations