Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Happy Ninth Anniversary2

August 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A ninth anniversary poem about passion and love:

Happy ninth anniversary!
A moment in the wind,
Pausing to pay tribute to
Passion’s proper end:
Yielding lifelong love.

No lustful seeker could foresee,
If lust from love unwind,
Not able to enjoy a view
That lights life from behind,
How lovely love would prove!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ86.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
8/1: Happy Ninth Anniversary2

Happy Fourteenth Anniversary

July 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A fourteenth anniversary poem about the view forward and back from that day:

Happy fourteenth anniversary!
A saddle on the mountain of your lives.
Pause a moment: The landscape that you see
Peacefully unfolds before your eyes.
Years stretch out like fields beneath blue skies.
For you, the way has turned out steep, but still
On the whole both beautiful and kind,
Ultimately wedded to your will,
Resistant though it might have been at times,
The sort of life which one is blessed to climb.
Every day might equally be such,
Embracing past and future in one view.
Nor would in that case this day mean as much:
The heart could, like an actor, use a cue,
Having lifelong feelings to renew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ85.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
7/31: Happy Fourteenth Anniversary

Monday, July 30, 2018

Happy Sixth Anniversary4

July 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A sixth anniversary poem about moving from a youthful to a more mature love:

Happy sixth anniversary!
A moment in the sun!
Pleased to praise the passing years,
Pleased to mark each one.
Yet as one yields one's youth to time,
Singing as one goes,
In time one's love accumulates,
X-ing out the woes
That come with doubt and loneliness,
Here where none need pose.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ84.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
7/30: Happy Sixth Anniversary4

Saturday, July 28, 2018

To Daydream Is to Stir the Pot of Hope

July 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the significance of daydreams:

To daydream is to stir the pot of hope.
What we most want is up upon a stage,
Eliciting a self-vicarious pleasure.
Nor should we deprecate such homespun treasure,
The source of much delight at any age.
Years pass, yet dreams with dreamers still elope.

Fear not to dream, for dreams are not mere leisure:
Imagination gives one room to cope,
Vivid in its scenes of love and rage
Even as it makes one's world to measure.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/todayd.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/25: Five2
7/27: Adele
7/29: To Daydream Is to Stir the Pot of Hope

To Create a World Requires Passion

July 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the joy and pain involved in writing fiction:

To create a world requires passion.
Hollow hours must be filled with beauty.
Immersed in make believe, one sojourns there,
Reduced to ecstasy and then despair,
Then breaks off for some unurgent duty
Yet can’t put down a phrase one would refashion.

One feels writ small the joy of the Creation,
Nor would one trade it for a huckster’s booty,
Even as one lays one’s person bare.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tocrea.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/25: Five2
7/27: Adele
7/28: To Create a World Requires Passion

Friday, July 27, 2018

Adele

July 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for someone who attempts through dreams to shape her fate:

Adele removes the writing on the wall,
Determined to replace it with her own.
Even though no fate may heed her scrawl,
Like a god she wills what will befall,
Ever staking claim to the unknown.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/adele.html For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/25: Five2
7/27: Adele

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Previous Forecasts Are the Current Needs

July 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the need for fantasy to shape the future:

The previous forecasts are the current needs.
The previous plans are now the policies.
The algorithms of our time and place
Can generate a blueprint of our fates –
Not precisely, but within a range
That in time the outcome will sustain.
Life is shaped by what it cannot be,
The brick and mortar of a fantasy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thepr2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/25: Five2
7/26: The Previous Forecasts Are the Current Needs

Five2

July 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the science-based fantasies of a five-year-old boy:

Five is when the zombie spiders roam
In every nook and cranny of your home.
Velociraptors and colossal squid
Explore the dreams where boogeymen once hid.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/5b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/25: Five2

Monday, July 23, 2018

Fortune's in the Eye of the Beholder

July 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about how dreams try out future plans:

Fortune's in the eye of the beholder.
Out of all you were comes who you are.
Rejoice, then, in each moment of your being,
The you, you would not trade one moment for.
Years pass, yet the moment grows no older.
 
Nor does the yearning of the heart grow colder.
In dreams one tries out fortunes from afar,
Never reaching quite what one is seeing,
Ever drawn to sail across the bar.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fortu7.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo
7/24: Fortune’s in the Eye of the Beholder

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Alfredo

July 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for someone who fills the empty horizon with fantasies:

Alfredo likes to linger in the doorway,
Looking out towards where Earth curves away.
For him space is a muse, inspiring still,
Reverberating through the empty will,
Even as he dreams of icy Norway
Dancing in the dusk of dying day,
Or Spain, whose hot, dry plains horizons fill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alfred.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fantasy and Dream
7/23: Alfredo

Saturday, July 21, 2018

There's No Hurricane

July 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about a vicious, chaotic, ecstatic love:

There's no hurricane
As vicious as my love.
Watch out!
I'll rip off your roof
And scatter your undies all over town.
You'll pay for it
For years.
But you know what?
It'll be worth it!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hurric.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/22: There’s No Hurricane

Pascal Meunier

July 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem for a lover named Pascal Meunier:

The first time I saw him,
In love right away!
My beautiful, blue-eyed
Pascal Meunier.

Ah, Pascal Meunier!
What more can I say?
My beautiful, blue-eyed
Pascal Meunier.

He is the sky
To the wind of my will,
Or the ocean of dreams
Just under my sill;

The word for my meaning,
The name for my song,
My soul and my being
I'll love my life long.

Ah, Pascal Meunier!
What more can I say?
My beautiful, blue-eyed
Pascal Meunier.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/pascal.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/21: Pascal Meunier

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Loving You Is Something That Comes Easy

July 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the easy naturalness of love:

Loving you is something that comes easy,
Like walking in the sunshine to a song,
Like being in a place where you belong,
Like finding reasons when you know you're ready.
Nor do I care that working days are dreary,
The pay's a pittance and the hours are long.
Knowing that you love me keeps me strong,
The light within that lets me see life clearly.
Why is love the music of our meaning,
The lilt that makes our labor worth our living,
The loveliness no platitude can bear?
In you I have a harvest past all gleaning,
A gift arrested in the act of giving,
A moment of delight that's always there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/loving.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/20: Loving You Is Something That Comes Easy

Love Is a Wind That Drives the Will

July 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem from a healthy lover to a sick one about how love might prolong life:

Love is a wind that drives the will
Across the yielding sand.
Although at last the wave must break,
The ride, the ride is grand.

Our love and need and joy are such
That surely we will go
As far, as far as moon and tide
Can still the undertow.

As far, as far as wishes can
Wear rock and stone away,
So love will take us far across
The bar on which we lay,
Far further up the burning sand
Where love farewell might say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/wind.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/19: Love Is a Wind That Drives the Will

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

I'm Not Your Parent, nor Are You My Slave

July 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for fidelity in love:

I'm not your parent, nor are you my slave.
I wouldn't try to say what you must do.
You alone will judge how you behave,
And do what you consider best for you.
But if you love someone, it means you care
How what you do affects the one you love.
It means sometimes that two in love must share
A hard decision one is certain of.
So if your friend still wants you for his* own,
It hurts me that you want him* for a friend.
Our mutual commitment should be known,
And both of us should such encroachments end.
Love is fragile, delicate, and fine;
To keep it whole, one has to draw a line.

*Feel free to substitute "her" if appropriate.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/imnoty.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/18: I’m Not Your Parent, nor Are You My Slave

Monday, July 16, 2018

How Can I Persuade You I'm Sincere

July 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for risk and trust in love:

How can I persuade you I'm sincere,
That my affection equals my desire?
I can tell you what you want to hear,
But there's no way to prove I'm not a liar.
Time may tell, but how much time must pass
Before you are convinced by what I do?
My eyes are eyes, not windows made of glass
Through which you can see clearly what is true.
Love cannot be, but at the risk of pain.
Nothing can be guaranteed to last.
Mere longing leads to neither loss nor gain.
One must bet before the dice are cast.
I know I love you, but you cannot know
My heart unless you trust that it is so.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howc16.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/17: How Can I Persuade You I’m Sincere

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Once More, with Feeling, Please

July 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for something more than physical love:

Once more, with feeling, please! I've had enough
Of lubricated passion come and gone!
Years and years and years and years of stuff
Squirting, squirting, squirt -- and then it's done!
With feeling, please! Companionship, affection,
Shared pain, shared joy, shared silences, shared thoughts.
Not ecstasy fast moving towards rejection,
Frantic with the fear of time and loss.
Slow down, life! Slow down, and be content
Just to be awhile, and let love grow
Or not, as seedlings by the wind are sent
To find their bit of fertile earth, or no.
Let there be no ecstasy until
The plant has been well tended by the will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/oncemo.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
7/16: Once More, with Feeling, Please

Suscilia

July 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A name poem comparing a woman to a modest summer flower in the shade:

Suscilia is a flower in the shade.
Unless one looks for her, she is not there.
Such modesty in loveliness is rare,
Charming in a way that does not fade.
In her there is a calm and quiet space
Lying over thrumming agitation.
Inside she may explode with indignation
As outside one sees dignity and grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/suscil.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/12: Lisa
7/15: Suscilia

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Happy Ninth

July 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

An anniversary poem comparing a couple’s love to a summer garden:

Happy ninth! A time that gathers time
And hands it to you in a bright bouquet.
Perhaps not all is roses, but the flowers,
Plucked from paradise, portray all love,
Yearning for the beauty it reveals.
Nor ought you wonder, for what time conceals
In time will bloom, and scatter seed, and prove
No little portion of your future powers,
The garden that no time can take away,
Herbs and blossoms, mint and eglantine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ38.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/12: Lisa
7/14: Happy Ninth

Thursday, July 12, 2018

The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

July 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A birthday poem comparing the loveliness of the birthday to the beauty of a summer day:

The sunlight is as passionate as flowers
Bordering the sidewalk of a song.
Clouds shape its golden apertures for hours,
Shifting with each breeze that comes along.
The day becomes a mustard-colored sunbeam
Falling through the window of your smile.
Mystical sensations, headed downstream,
Sit upon your windowsill awhile.
How beautifully the choir of the mountains
Sings to its rapt audience of blue!
As dancing down a corridor of fountains,
We toss in coins and make this wish for you:
Long may you love the loveliness of Earth!
And celebrate with joy your day of birth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thesu2.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/12: Lisa
7/13: The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Lisa

July 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A name poem comparing a beautiful woman to a bowl of summer fruit:

Lisa is a sunlit bowl of fruit,
Indian-summer sweet, like juice just pressed:
Still-life apples, grapes in dew drops dressed,
And pregnant pears plucked mellowing and mute.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lisa.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/12: Lisa

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

To Say You Are My World Means

July 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A love poem comparing the beauty of love to that of a late summer evening:

To say you are my world means:
That when I look at the sky
I see your face,
And when I pause alone at the window
I feel your hands on my back.

It means:
That the beauty of a garden
Is half in the words I think to you;
That winter is my fear of losing you,
And that spring is the hope I never will.

It means:
That I have taken the risk of wrapping my life
So completely around yours
That the beauty of a late summer evening is
Inseparable from the beauty of our love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tosay.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/11: To Say You Are My World Means

Thirty-Five3

July 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A number poem comparing a 35-year-old’s yearning for the past to a summer wind:

Thirty-five has reason to remember
How lovely was the life now left behind.
Indeed, though young, no longer in one's youth,
Recalling days awash in golden ruth,
There is much beauty in this summer wind,
Yearning far more simply than September.

For all, time is like music on the mind,
Insidiously bringing one to truth,
Vivid in the vastness of its wonder
Even as one is oneself the singer.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/35c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/10: Thirty-Five3

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Thirty-Two4

July 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A number poem comparing a 32-year-old to a summer storm:

Thirty-two is like a summer storm
Howling in the heat of windless days:
Impassioned in pursuit of promised treasure,
Raging through fields planted deep with pleasure,
The flood of life unleashed on well-worn ways.
Yet, of course, such tempests are the norm.

There is for now but little listless leisure
When passion is itself of passions shorn,
One pent-up dream in one’s ambitious gaze.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/32d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer
7/9: Thirty-Two4

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Principles of Political Economy


July 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4th.

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

A set of proverbs on the relationship between politics and economics:

Principles of Political Economy

1. Political and economic activity are motivated primarily by perceived self-interest.
2. Immediate self-interest is more powerful than deferred self-interest unless one believes that the benefits of deferred self-interest will be equitably distributed.
3. Therefore just laws, strictly and equitably applied by a legitimate authority, are required if deferred self-interest is generally to prevail.
4. Productive activity in pursuit of deferred self-interest is the source of wealth.
5. The following conditions stimulate such productive activity: just laws equitably applied; individual rights and freedoms; security of property and person; political and economic stability; education; equitable distribution of opportunity; equitable distribution of wealth; developed infrastructure for production, transportation, and communication; available credit; a stable currency.
6. Neither a pure market economy nor a State-controlled economy is conducive to the development and maintenance of these conditions.
7. The proper balance of State intervention and market control is measured economically but determined politically.
8. While temporary restraints on trade may be beneficial, in general the freer the movement of goods, services, and investment, the greater the stimulation of productive activity, and therefore the greater the wealth.
9. The productive activity of each contributes to the wealth of all. This is as true of nations within the world economy as it is of individuals within a national economy.
10. The globalization of political and economic activity will increase global wealth only to the extent that the conditions listed in (5) above prevail globally.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed these proverbs, please like, comment on, or share them so that they might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see them on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/poleco.html. For more poems and proverbs about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

Friday, July 6, 2018

The Cancer That Killed You Was Part of You Gone Quite Insane

July 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4th.

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

A poem about the political causes of cancer:

The cancer that killed you was part of you gone quite insane:
The good run amok; death from life bursting awry,
Like a poor paranoid on a bell tower sniping away,
Killing the order that gives all the colony life.

Nature, of course, has madness built into its music,
Disturbing its peace with the agony all artists crave.
Perhaps that's what killed you: the one-in-so-many malfunctions
That chaos requires to shatter the oneness of light.

But chaos is aided in our time by greed in abundance:
Greed like a cancer destroying our colony Earth;
Greed that we eat, drink, and breathe, in our dreams, in our language;
Greed in the nuclei of our dwindling faiths.

What killed you, my loved one, is blended in recycled plastic
Spewing its toxins in micrograms into the sky.
Your life was a goat on the altar of modern convenience,
Bearing the sins of us all towards that merciless god.

We live in a world whose rulers are partners with death;
For whom cancer must be a number that balances out.
You were just perhaps the unlucky percent to be traded
For progress towards some CEO's end-of-year bottom line.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thecan.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/7: The Cancer That Killed You Was Part of You Gone Quite Insane

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Hubris Is a Quality of People

July 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4th.

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

A political poem warning of rulers afflicted by hubris, or excessive pride:

Hubris is a quality of people
Under the influence of being right.
Beware of power wielded in a cause
Restrained by nothing more than higher laws,
Intent on doing good through measured might.
So do righteous rulers' reigns turn lethal.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hubris.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/6: Hubris Is a Quality of People

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

July 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which was celebrated yesterday, July 4th.

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

A political poem about fear and anger stoked for political purposes:

Politics brings out the worst in us.
One is more vile the more there is at stake.
Leveraging a little animus,
It turns mere opposition into hate.
The lava bubbling underneath each heart,
Inhibited by guilt or love or fear,
Comes bursting forth, by scribes with subtle art
Stoked vigorously as new elections near.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politi.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/5: Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Then, There Was No Right to Eat

July 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated today, July 4th.

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

An Independence Day poem about applying Constitutional principles to modern realities:

Then, there was no right to eat, nor was health
A right, nor freedom for a slave. Native
Peoples were simply dispossessed, and wealth
Accrued to men only. The fierce and furtive
Cries for love, gay or straight, were smothered.
Non-human animals had no rights, nor children
Left to drunken fathers or brutal mothers.
Oh, yes, that government governed least, but no one
Could foresee the brood of rights sprung
From words that rang out across the western world
That summer day, rights now nearly won,
That long lay fearful in predawn silence curled.
The founders were wise, but to be true to them,
We must apply their words to now, not then.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thenth.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

Monday, July 2, 2018

Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

July 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which will be celebrated tomorrow, July 4th.

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

A political poem about the next recession or depression:

Now, at last, the time of reckoning.
It had to come. You knew that, didn't you?
After all, nothing can't be something
Even when its stock is on the rise.

Now the panic after the delusion,
The great big yawning pit within the heart.
One sees disaster happening and wonders,
Regrets, resolves, recriminates, sits tight.

O Lord, what will happen now? The hunger,
People on the streets and on the move.
The last depression blossomed into Hitler.
What flowers will this rain of terror bring?

One thing now we know for sure -- again:
That greed unfettered is a luxury car
Without a steering wheel, a mighty engine
That moves us forward into death and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/nowatl.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

Sunday, July 1, 2018

In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

July 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4th.

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

An Independence Day poem about the ubiquity of corruption in government:

In politics corruption is the norm,
Nor can one wield much power without its aid.
Democracy demands that minds be swayed,
Eviscerating efforts at reform.
Perhaps in tyrannies corruption's worse,
Existing without recourse or restraint.
Not even when the ruler is a saint,
Devout and good, can one stamp out this curse.
Each country has some white knights still unstained,
Nor can idealists long remain in power.
Corruption simply waits until their hour
Erodes once their energy has waned.
Depending on its character and press,
A nation might be more corrupt or less,
Yet underneath the law the blight remains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/inpoli.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm