Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

January 15, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about never reaching the promised land.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Moses never reached the promised land,
And I, too, died upon that distant mountain,
Resting on the laurels of my dream.
There is no end to struggle, no safe refuge
In which one can say, yes, I have arrived,
No longer feel the guilt of privilege,
Let go the fierce anxiety for justice,
Untie the knots of conscience in one’s soul.
The promised land’s a vision, not a place,
Held within the unrelenting heart.
Each generation must behold its beauty,
Reach for its uncompromising goodness,
Know that its long looked-for realization
Is in a time zone one will never see.
No matter. There’s a joy in going forward
Greater than the joy of going home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Go Gently, Gently into That Good Night, a play on Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

January 8, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a play on Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Go gently, gently into that good night.
Let the sunset crown the end of day.
Do not rage against the dying light.

Wise men at their end know dark is right,
Life and death one blessing, and so they
Go gently, gently into that good night.

Good men, looking back upon the bright
Dream that kept their inner brute at bay,
Do not rage against the dying light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
Then grieved it as they danced along its way,
Go gently, gently into that good night.

Grave men blessed by love with blinding sight,
Knowing too much beauty to be gay,
Do not rage against the dying light.

And you, dear reader, when you reach that height
And look down on the abyss with fear, I pray,
Go gently, gently into that good night.
Do not rage against the dying light.

© by Nicholas Gordon