Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

January 1, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A New Year’s Day poem for the beginning of the new millennium:

Midnight is a purely human thing
In which a day, a year, a century,
Leaves behind its bloodstained legacy,
Looking to what good the next might bring.
Each of us, this new millennium,
Near midnight will begin to feel the awe,
New wondering what this universe is for,
Immersed in what has been and is to come.
Under midnight's gaze something will end
More beautiful than we can comprehend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/midnig.html. For more New Year’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/newyearsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live
January 1: Midnight Is a Purely Human Thing

Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live

December 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A philosophical congratulations poem for a new home:

Out of who we are comes where we live,
No less shaped by spirit than a shell
Yielding to the one imperative
On which all must depend to live life well.
Underneath the word is the desire,
Rembrandt to the image that we see,
New vesting in old verities its fire,
Evangelist for ambient ecstasy.
We choose from somewhere deeper than intention,
Having for such clarity no eyes,
Older than the moment of dimension
Manifest in fast-exploding skies,
Ember of which in that chamber lies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/outofw.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement
December 31: Out of Who We Are Comes Where We Live

Congratulations on Your Retirement

December 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A congratulations-on-your-retirement poem to someone who was forced to retire:

Congratulations on your retirement!
One makes a virtue of necessity.
Nor can one argue with reality,
Given its regard for sentiment.
Remember that one cannot judge one's fortune,
As what else might have been, one cannot know.
To choose what is remains the only option,
Unless one would be strangled by one's woe.
Let there be ironic celebration!
A moment of nostalgia and release,
The swift goodbye to long-sustained relation,
In which there is an element of peace.
Open doors await, to who knows where?
Now is ever, ever wholly there,
Singing with a grace that does not cease.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congr6.html. For more retirement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/retirementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned
December 30: Congratulations on Your Retirement

Revel in the Moment! It's Well Earned

December 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A retirement poem bidding farewell to a colleague about to begin a new life:

Revel in the moment! It's well earned.
Enjoy the praises of your many friends.
The people of the place you've so well served
In joy and sorrow see you on your way,
Rejoicing with you, though they'll miss your grace.
Each gift of love is in Time's memory burned,
Music that for much can make amends,
Enduring pleasure that is well deserved,
Now bittersweet on this, your farewell day,
The shared hug that ends your long embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/revel4.html. For more retirement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/retirementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen
December 29: Revel in the Moment! It’s Well Earned

To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen

December 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the new year is new beginnings.

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

A number poem for a thirteen-year-old about beginning her teen years:

To be thirteen is to be, well, a teen,
Having crossed at last that boundary line.
It is, more than an age, a state of mind,
Reflecting more than any gloss might glean.
Then set off on your journey towards adulthood,
Eager to become what lies ahead!
Eventually, you'll look back instead,
Nostalgic for this springtime of your selfhood.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tobe13.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: New Beginnings
December 28: To Be Thirteen Is to Be, Well, a Teen

Make Not Much of What You're Missing

December 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A philosophical Christmas poem about finding satisfaction:

Make not much of what you're missing;
Each gets gifts as they come due.
Rest assured, regarding wishing:
Riches are reserved for you.
Years of want require wanting;
Christmas gives what one receives.
Happiness ought not seem daunting,
Renting space in what one grieves.
In your heart is all you need,
Sustained by giving it away.
Though you burn and break and bleed,
Mere suffering's no place to stay.
As you are is as you will,
Sure of winds that wish you well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeno.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys
December 24: Could There Be Angels Waiting in the Wings
December 25: Glad Tidings Are a Coat of Many Colors
December 26: Charity Begins Where Interest Ends
December 27: Make Not Much of What You’re Missing

Charity Begins Where Interest Ends

December 26, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A philosophical Christmas poem about charity and selflessness:

Charity begins where interest ends,
Having little interest but in giving,
Removing self from self, that there be space
In which a much-loved guest might feel at home.
So might one find delight, though ravens rend
The unembroidered fabric of one's being:
Miracle of unrequited grace,
A wave of wonder welling up from stone,
Singing as it breaks of selfless grieving.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chari3.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas  Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys
December 24: Could There Be Angels Waiting in the Wings
December 25: Glad Tidings Are a Coat of Many Colors
December 26: Charity Begins Where Interest Ends