The Only Hope Is that There Is No Hope

March 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem argues for the benefits of not believing in a life after death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The only hope is that there is no hope,

For then one's vision can adjust to darkness.

Life after death might help a body cope,

But one should savor life in all its starkness.

With Heaven gone, the heavens, free to speak,

Tell us of a universe uncaring,

Vast and violent, with storms that wreak

Havoc on what worlds might be life bearing.

How sweet just to admit that death's the end!

Of course, of course we've known it all along!

Despite millennia of myths, we tend

To doubt when the insistence seems too strong.

This we know: We perish and are gone.

Beneath the moment's fertile soil is stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/theon2.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

March 1: The Only Hope Is that There Is No Hope

I Wish that I Could Bring You to the Lord

February 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is to a dying friend, wishing that he or she could believe in God.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I wish that I could bring you to the Lord

Before you die, for I have faith that you

And I could be together if you knew

The truth that shines like laughter in His word.

I wish I had the hope that I could be

The instrument through which you'd understand

The love that waits upon your silent hand

To rush into your anguish like a sea.

I wish that you could feel the joy that I

Am filled with now I'm open to His love,

The miracles that daily in me move

So deep there is no need to question why.

I wish, I wish, I wish I could do more

To reach into the raptures of your heart.

But I can only do my humble part

While you and He meet naked at your door.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwishi.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

One Night I Saw Aaron

February 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the sudden death of a friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One night I saw Aaron,

The next he was dead.

Now I can't remember

The last thing he said.

There is no reason,

No reason at all,

Why this one last thing

I need to recall.

The last night I saw him,

He, Mark, and I,

I had no idea

He was going to die.

It was just the usual

Basketball game,

Joking and cheering,

All just the same.

The Earth should have screamed,

Some song should have played,

Some mark should have told us,

All gross and decayed.

But the game simply ended

And we left the gym.

And that was the last

I'll see of him.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/1night.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

The Murderous Middle Class

February 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about the role of the middle class in injustice and oppression.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The murderous middle class has no

Hard evidence of harm.

Each paddles round the cubicle,

Maintained by what goes on.

Unburdened by communion with

Romantic harmonies

Discerned by a too-willing heart,

Each dreams of grace and ease.

Reason serves the scavengers, while

Only nightmares tell,

Unspeakable, the evils wrought

So they might thrive in hell.

Middle classes mind the store,

Indentured to the wind,

Demanding nothing but their due,

Decent, honest, kind.

Little do they contemplate,

Entrapped in loss and gain,

Canticles of misery

Lamenting lifelong pain.

As they consume, they wonder why

So many others have to die,

Strangled in their name.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/themur.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

February 25: Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

February 26: The Murderous Middle Class

Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

February 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about taking positions on political questions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Position was always one of your favorite words,

As in, What is your position on ...?

Here it means opinion, yet

It also means pose,

Not as in pose a question,

But as in positioning oneself in front of a camera,

Going public.

Since the Hungarian Revolution I have preferred

Not to go public. My positions

Seem too awkward to expose.

What my camera sees remains

Undeveloped. I am in no position

To have positions.

My position is that of a scientist who knows

That the last time he was certain of anything

He turned out to be looking into a mirror.

Shaken, I place my questions

Into a mosaic of wonder.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/positi.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

February 25: Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

When the World Is Laid Waste

February 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about after we have destroyed our planet Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

When the world is laid waste,

And its celebrants are cinders,

And its clothes ashes;

When it is once again a dead rock,

Like the rock that encircles it,

Its dust open to the poisonous wind;

When we have wrought what we've wrought

And done what we've done,

And there is no one left to look back in sorrow or anger:

Ah, then, what a song will never be sung!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/whenth.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the ambition to lead a nation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What might make a person want to lead,

To bear the brutal burden of a state?

Power is for some a noble need

That only shaping history can sate.

One wishes to do good, but on what scale?

The wounded world lies heavy on one’s heart.

One’s gaudiest ambitions tend to pale

Upon the stage on which one plays one’s part.

So there are just a few who would ascend

To where one’s choices change the way things are,

And over many years to one’s will bend

The iron bolts that one’s bright visions bar.

And yet such power corrupts, unless one sees

The need to search one’s soul upon on one’s knees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/whatmi.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

George2

February 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is a name poem for George Washington, who was famous for not telling lies.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

George does not admit to telling lies,

Even as he tells them every day.

One lives in a perpetual disguise,

Reduced to a self-marketed display.

Great men wear life well, for they are wise

Enough to know the things that none need say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/georg2.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about politicians from the point of view of an apathetic electorate.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What promises they make and cannot keep!

Each year like well-trained dogs they bark and yelp,

An annual charade they cannot help,

Knowing well where they must drive their sheep.

Their vetted visions sow what none might reap;

Their practiced platitudes are off the shelf;

Their chief constituent remains the self;

Still, we vote and then go back to sleep.

We do not care how much they lie and steal

So long as streets are clean and taxes low,

And we are taken care of, more or less.

OK, the self-served suffering may be real

Of those poor souls we do not care to know.

But what has that to do with happiness?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/whatpr.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is a President’s Day poem about the wisdom of the separation of powers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who would distribute power,

Reconciled to bickering and waste,

Enduring, even in the darkest hour,

Such hacks as pander to the popular taste.

In such a system, life can be frustrating,

Demanding patient tolerance to rule.

Everyone has blessings worth berating,

Nor need one much at stake to be a fool.

The president is forced to be a leader

Since all are free to follow or oppose;

'Mid maelstroms, both captain and conceder,

Deftly tacking when a headwind blows.

All know divided power leads to strife,

Yet few would yield to one vain will their life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais4.html. For more President’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

Valleys Are Where People Live

February 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about how beneath the need for ecstasy remains the need for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Valleys are where people live, where farms

Are rich, the soil fertile, and rivers flow

Like braided bloodstreams through the heart.

Even so, one longs to live on mountains,

Not satisfied with happiness, or with

The beauty of fresh flowers and old trees.

In the cupped palm of a gigantic hand,

Near heaven in a world of sculpted stone,

Each moment needs an ear, a hand to hold.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/valle2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

February 18: Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

February 19: Valleys Are Where People Live

Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

February 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about the love that created both the universe and the love within us.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vast the stars, yet each has its own glory,

A beauty and a passion all its own.

Let love lend its grace to every story,

Each star that lives and dies, but not alone.

Nor does the love that kindled the Creation,

That is what is, with neither start nor end,

In every heart an inborn conflagration,

Need to tell its light to homeward bend.

Enduring love embraces greater love.

‘Mid time it finds a timeless inner longing,

Sense that would to ancient rhythms move,

Dancing to the music of belonging.

As all are made of love, and for delight,

You are my love, the glory of my night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vastth.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

February 18: Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

Happiness Is like a Song

February 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem compares the happiness of love to an angel’s song.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is like a song

Angels cannot help but sing,

Praising Heaven loud and long,

Pleased to make the heavens ring.

Yet though we may not angels be,

Vested in our hearts is love,

An angelic melody

Like those sung rapturously above.

Each of us is lit with longing,

Needing both to get and give,

To feel the beauty of belonging

Inundate the life we live.

Nor is my joy an angel's joy

Except your love my spirits buoy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ76.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about life as the garment of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vivid garments of our love: A walk

Along a rocky, jasmine-scented coast;

Little snips of playful nonsense talk;

Enjoying back and forth a swift riposte;

Need like a wave hungry for the shore,

Then rising, rising, rising till it breaks,

Imploding, crashing, till it is no more,

Nothing but a wash of bliss and grace;

Each taking turns with pain, but not alone,

‘Mid agonies, a melody of love

Singing in a silent world of stone,

Dancing where no muscle would dare move;

And underneath these precious, treasured clothes,

Yearning still, two tender, naked souls.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vividg.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about love and memory.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vistas of the past are all around me,

A gallery of memories long gone.

Love in all its variants surrounds me,

Embracing every scene I look upon.

Now is no more near to me than then.

Time is not a highway but a room

In which all moments mingle, mine again.

Nor can I tell the temple from the tomb.

Enduring through this chaos is your love,

‘Mid memories the thing that is most real.

So may my heart through loss and longing move,

Delivered by a fortune I can feel.

As I roll upon that restless sea,

You are the anchor holding me to me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vistas.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

Be My Valentine, My Love

February 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about love as the gift of paradise.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine, my love,

As I will be for you,

And we will love the whole day long,

And love our whole lives through.

For love has no parameters

And does not end with time,

But is the gift of paradise,

A pinch of the sublime.

So let us take this holiday

To resubmit our love

To those within that know no sin

And with the angels move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyv3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about asking someone to be your Valentine.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To ask you to be my Valentine

I'd have to talk to you,

Something that in all this time

I've managed not to do.

I'd have to get past "Hi!" somehow

To show you that I care,

But the right time is never now,

Especially when you're there.

It's as if a wall of fear,

Transparent yet profound,

Came hurtling up as you come near,

Cutting off all sound.

I fear I won't know what to say

And strike you as a fool,

Or you'll be glad to get away,

Polite not to be cruel.

Easier to dream than act,

To hope than to find out,

So fearful of the force of fact

I wait in fear-filled doubt.

But now the day of love has come,

And I must cross its line,

And so I ask you through this poem

To be my Valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/toasky.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

Forty-Four3

February 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and love poem about ecstasy and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-four finds happiness at home,

Old enough to know the price of love.

Regarding ecstasy: It comes and goes,

Though with affection will enduring prove.

Yet ecstasy cannot bring joy alone.

For one must ever choose the love one chose,

Opening a door that else would close,

Uniting souls with words that would hearts move,

Restoring gardens to a world of stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/44c.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 6: I Look at You and Think: I Cannot Live

February 7: You Have an Angel’s Face, a Loving Heart

February 8: We Separated Many Years Ago

February 9: You Taught Me How to Laugh Again

February 10: When We First Met You Seemed a Timid Doe

February 11: We Started Out as Friends and Now It’s Love

February 12: Forty-Four

We Started Out as Friends and Now It's Love

February 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about how friendship turned to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

We started out as friends and now it's love.

How beautiful to move so easily

From comradeship to passionate intimacy,

Pure gain, with no rough edges to remove.

This turn was nothing I'd been thinking of,

No maybes or perhapses, consciously.

I knew desire, but love was not for me

Until I felt my heart from friendship move.

I never felt so happily at home

As I do now, so rich in what life brings.

Your pleasure now is mine, as mine is yours.

I never realized that my life alone

Flitted like a ghost among dead things,

Glancing in through other people's doors.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/westar.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 6: I Look at You and Think: I Cannot Live

February 7: You Have an Angel’s Face, a Loving Heart

February 8: We Separated Many Years Ago

February 9: You Taught Me How to Laugh Again

February 10: When We First Met You Seemed a Timid Doe

February 11: We Started Out as Friends and Now It’s Love