Watching My Son Conduct the Nutcracker

 

A father’s beautiful memory of his son:

 

Watching my son conduct The Nutcracker,
I danced across the memories of my heart,
Feeling once again the joy and wonder
Of witnessing his first ascent to art.
He was a child then, decades ago,
Sawing away in the second violins,
Beethoven's Fifth, that rising tremolo
Leading to a blast of brass and winds.
As the music flew into the sun,
Bursting into waves of molten gold,
My tightly held composure came undone,
And life itself became too much to hold.
Now my son's the maestro, yet the grace
I felt then is touched by neither time nor place.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/watchi.html. For more poems about children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

May Your Marriage Be as Blessed as Ours

 

A wedding blessing from parents to children:

 

May your marriage be as blessed as ours,
As full of love, as joyful, rich, and sweet,
Lifelong soulmates, friends, erotic partners,
Each for each, the angels that watch keep.

May your home be blessed with friends and family,
With music, laughter, pleasure, passion, life,
With learning, knowing, caring what comes after,
Together, one, as husband and as wife.

May you ever be sustained by beauty
In what you see and feel, create and do,
In who you are, what you enjoy and value,
And in the dreams that we pass on to you.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Emotional Love Theme. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mayyo5.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

There Are Things I Can No Longer Do

 

A poem in which an aging parent passes on some family responsibilities to the next generation:

 

There are things I can no longer do
Once essential to my sense of me.
It seems so strange to pass them on to you,

Strange and very beautiful, as you
Take on the burdens of the family,
Doing what I can no longer do,

Things I cannot, even should not do,
And understand why you can't leave to me.
I want to say how proud I am of you,

How grateful we can all rely on you
To take my place as head of family,
Taking care of what I used to do,

Switching roles, which I've found hard to do,
And to accept what's happening to me.
More and more I must depend on you

To do the things I can no longer do,
As less and less I can depend on me.
How strange! What I routinely used to do,
I must, with much regret, pass on to you.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bittersweet. By SYBS. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther52.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html . For more villanelles, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/villanelles.html .

War May Not Be the Answer

 

A political poem about slogans:

 

War may not be the answer,
But what is the unanswered question?
Peace? Safety? Justice?
Or, perhaps, simply survival?

For what was the answer to Hitler?
Did Munich buy "Peace for our time"?
And how might peace pacify Putin?
Contrast Ho Minh with Kim Sung.

The desire for peace can be used
To serve the interests of war.
Peace demonstrations and missiles
Can equally weaken defenses.

Statements one cannot prove false
Prove to be excellent slogans,
Bearing the burden of bonding,
Stirring the passions of hope.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allemande. By Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/warmay.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

Thirty-Seven Enjoys His Bright Midsummer

 

A number poem about someone devoted to persuading people to think logically:

Thirty-seven enjoys his bright midsummer,
Halfway in between his spring and fall.
In every faculty he’s at full strength,
Reasoning adroitly and at length
To challenge the beliefs of almost all.
Yet myths are hard to wake from such deep slumber.

Sing of the love that underlies such labor,
Every thought, fact, instance he can scrawl
Vested in what should be evident,
Enduring source of content and content.
Nor can he resist its siren call.

 © by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A New Beginning. By Esther Abrami. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/37i.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

Riffs Are Invocations

 

An epitaph for a jazz scholar:

 

Riffs are invocations,
Odes direct to soul,
Brief improvisations,
Each a perfect whole.
Rhythms subtly shift
The syncopated rhymes,
Grace the complex gift
Of this, my own sweet times.
Let me be their chronicler,
Days of seers and signs.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Runnin Partner. By Aaron Lieberman. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/riffsa.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

 

A political poem for Bastille Day warning of the dangers of revolutionary chaos:

 

Before the terror comes the tyranny.
A bloodstained flower has roots in bloodstained soil.
Some would steal the fruit of others' toil,
Then claim it as a right of property.
In revolutions, though, if chaos reigns,
Legitimacy is lost, and many will
Look back with less distaste at former ill,
Eager more for order than for gains.
Days of terror yield dictators new,
As the many yield power to the few,
Yearning for the clarity of chains.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .