Weekly Poetry from Poems for Free: A Poem for Winter and More
WINTER IS THE WORLD’S LONG SLEEP
Winter is the world’s long sleep,
In which the soil gets its rest,
Naked ‘neath its blanket white,
Tucked in for the frigid night,
Earth by bitter north wind blessed,
Restored to life by slumber deep.
WE MET FOUR YEARS AGO WHILE HUNTING DEER
We met four years ago while hunting deer,
And ever since that time we’ve been close friends.
I’m the killer, he’s become the bear:
I love the layered message that this sends.
He drives two Chevy GMC’s–one black,
And a red one that he calls the General.
Four-wheeling down some bumpy backwoods track
Is what makes him and me most comfortable.
We’re buddies, even though a boy and girl,
And through the years our friendship’s only grown.
Life gets to you sometimes as troubles swirl,
But he’s the best ear I have ever known.
We have, of course, compatibility;
But, deeper, love and rough equality.
LAST NIGHT, TODAY, TONIGHT I’VE THOUGHT OF YOU
Last night, today, tonight I’ve thought of you,
Your fear of loving me, your fear of pain,
My own reluctance soon to love again,
And why we often flee what we pursue.
I’ve thought: if we could make time disappear,
Prune past and future, make the moment flower,
Lobotomize all save this single hour,
Then we could love with neither hope nor fear.
But when we pause to watch the moment flow,
Beneath we see eternity and space,
So thin a moving film is time and place,
Removing us, and all we love and know.
I cannot but anticipate the end:
Desire a lover, yet fear to lose a friend.
THE THOUGHT ELECTRIC WINGS ACROSS THE SHALLOWS
The thought electric wings across the shallows,
Wheeling like a cry from friend to friend.
Each virtual lover feels so well connected,
Neither needed, nor apt to be neglected,
That intimacies swiftly dart and blend,
Yet separate unerringly as swallows.
Soon will our dreams emerge from eaves and hollows,
Entering one dreamer without end:
Visions into messages, reflected
Each by instant each, as each thought follows
Nothing that we now can comprehend.
EVEN ANGELS TIRE OF ECSTASY
Even angels tire of ecstasy.
Very few can stare at God with pleasure
Eons upon eons, as the sea
Lies featureless across its teeming treasure.
Yet we have grace to look and then recover.
No joy but fades, to give way to another.
SIXTY YEARS IS QUITE A LENGTHY STROLL
Sixty years is quite a lengthy stroll
In gardens both exotic and familiar.
Xylophones run faintly with the wind,
Tinkling across from far Sicilia,
Yearning for some long-accomplished goal.
Years like leaves whisper in the wind,
Each both intimate and unfamiliar,
As hand-in-hand in shade we peaceful stroll,
Remembering the heat of far Sicilia
Sighing ‘cross some long-forgotten goal.
HOW MUCH CAN ONE PERSON LOVE ANOTHER
How much can one person love another?
A universe exists in time and space,
Placed within the boundaries of one place,
Pressed into a point far from forever.
Yet love comes to us from some quite other,
Visiting our sorrow with its grace,
Answering our rage with its embrace,
Lending us the wisdom of its wonder.
Even as I say this, you are there,
Nestling in where need undoes the day,
Taking up your small infinity.
Inside my window, you are everywhere,
Nor could I tell how much such love might weigh,
Even were it salient as the sea.
About the Author
Nicholas Gordon is a poet and the webmaster of the popular poetry site, Poems for Free at http://www.poemsforfree.com. He holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Stanford University. For most of his working life, he taught English at New Jersey City University, in Jersey City, NJ.
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