Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn

March 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the difficulty of social change:

Change comes slowly, like a dawn.
Hours seem like generations.
As night gives way, we too soon mourn,
Not equal to our aspirations.
Good takes wisdom, wit, and will,
Enduring through a life of ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single
March 14: Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn

Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

March 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem to an uncle about the interplay between society and self:

Ultimately, everyone is single,
Nor does one live or die except alone.
Children, nieces, nephews, lovers, friends
Lie just beyond the dream that never ends,
Even as one's love and longing mingle,
Sweet harmony where nothing is one's own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ultima.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

Shadows Aren't Visible at Night

March 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the negative existence of shadows:

Shadows aren't visible at night,
Empty forms negatively made.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They are pure absence, if we read aright,
Nothingness made visible as shade.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Their temporary presence here is slight --
A cloud floats by, and they abruptly fade.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They diminish and then lengthen as the bright
Sun rises and then sets, to slumber laid.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Sometimes they are vivid black-on-white,
Our avatars on stuccoed walls displayed.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

Eternal Being, to which all else is trite,
What life have they, upon your shores arrayed?
Shadows aren't visible at night.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shado4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night

For Every Disappointment There's a Dream

March 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the flow of time through the landscape of eternity:

For every disappointment there's a dream.
Old, dried-up hopes are soluble in laughter.
Re-vision can restore serenity.
Time flows in a continual surprise:
Yesterday another brief illusion closed its eyes.

One lives in the landscape of eternity,
Not knowing a time before time or after,
Each memory a loss love can redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forev8.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream

The Sun Was Salmon on Water

March 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the desire of youth to escape into an open mind:

The sun was salmon on water;
We watched with blood-red eyes.
Each day dies in splendor;
Night blooms with boisterous friends.
Today we lied with silence;
Yesterday, with words.

For ourselves, we ask only
Open sea on which to think,
Unfastening points of worship,
Removing what seems firm.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thesu4.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water

Life Can Be Quite Ravenous

March 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the need to slow down:

Life can be quite ravenous,
Eating one alive.
At times one needs to slow it down,
Striving not to strive.

Space does not come easily.
One must make space for space,
Leaving room for simply room
And place that's simply place.

The self can be a mirror into
Infinite regress.
Look away, just look away
Into emptiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lifeca.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous

A Life in Six Movements

March 8, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem describing the course of an ordinary life from loneliness through passion, love, hate, loneliness again, and death:

A LIFE IN SIX MOVEMENTS

LONELINESS

The heart's a desert fringed by distant mountains.
Look! The wanderer has lost his way!
See where your restlessness has taken you!
You, who would not settle for your home!

Not even one cloud floats across to shade you.
At night you cannot share the brilliant stars.
Time moves so slowly you can scarcely bear it.
Yet this you would prefer to feeling pain!

PASSION

We are the puppets of an inner master,
Passive playthings pulled along by passion,
Seized by ecstasy, and not let go
Until we tumble senseless on the strand.

Oh, Master, bring to us that touch of Heaven!
That icy fire that lights the whirling stars!
That moment that obliterates the moment!
And play upon us with your golden hands!

LOVE

Did you know we can return to Eden
And recreate the innocence of old?
And unashamed walk naked through the garden?
And take our pleasure in the sacred groves?

Love's a choice - to step out of the self
Into sunlight, into Eden's joy,
Where we might hear the music of our lovers,
And dance with them the dance of grateful giving.

HATE

Betrayed! Yes! We think we are betrayed!
Oh, wanderer in Hell, why do you suffer?
There is no pleasure in your grim obsession,
Nor release from pain except through love.

We must repeat again, again, again
Our livid curses! We lust for bitterness!
And yet the people whom, in savage dreams,
We boil in oil turn out to be ourselves.

INDIFFERENCE

The flame's turned low; the cauldron merely simmers.
The sky is overcast; it does not rain.
We sleep too much to sleep well, dreaming dreams
More frightening and lustful than our days.

We wait for thunder, lightning, wait for rain
In fear and hope, with trembling and desire.
We do not care, we care, we do not care,
We do not want to care, but, yes, we care.

LONELINESS AGAIN

Oh, wanderer, at last you have come home!
The house is empty; everyone is gone.
Is no one with you? What happened to your love?
Never mind. Now it's all the same.

Don't worry, nothing terrible awaits you.
You are and then you're not, it's nothing more.
Come, we'll take you to the dreaded line,
Which, though we're with you, you must cross alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alifei.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements