Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting

March 31, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a former union president.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death came to me while I was at a meeting,
Opened up my chest and wandered in.
Nor did it leave until a few days later,
Satisfied it need not come again.
It was a death both unforeseen and fitting,
Living as I did for what I did,
Being one averse to merely being,
Engaged in service to the world I would.
Remember me, then, as I was when death
Made its sudden entrance to my heart:
Attentive in my seat, my wife beside me,
Night come, the meeting just about to start.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/death2.html. For more epitaphs, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html.

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
> March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth
March 31: Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting

All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth

March 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a social scientist with a sense of humor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All I wanted was to find the truth,
Subtle and elusive though it be,
However insusceptible to proof,
Ever stranger than the world we see,
Revealed to us as probability.

And so I found in humor a fit foil,
Rendering the world a tad askew.
I would with relish expectations roil,
And with a wry pun pertly turn the soil,
Not distant from a different kind of true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
> March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth

Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace

March 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a proper Englishwoman who died of lung cancer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Endure your pain with patience, grit, and grace.
Do your work with pleasure and with care.
Nor should you let your troubles cloud your face
And veil the sunshine that you else might share.
Cheerfulness disarms adversity.
One muddles through on pluck and with a smile,
On courage and a proper cup of tea.
Nor should such sense be just a passing style.
Even though I suffered monstrous pain,
Yet with whole heart would I live again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace

Shadows Haunted Me

March 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for someone who visited with dead loved ones before she died.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Shadows haunted me. I welcomed them,
Yearning for the dead who went before me,
Loved ones long lost, now delivered to me
Vividly, as though alive again.
I often did not know what I was seeing,
As past and present equally seemed real.
Reason can't compete with what we feel.
Ultimately, love transfigures being.
Beauty is a wanderer that goes
In and out of consciousness. One knows
Not what foregone confusions might be freeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/shado3.html. For more epitaphs, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html.

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me

Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

March 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about choosing happiness through a life of faith and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness has much to recommend it,
A choice, though hard, that often satisfies.
Passing joys, pursued, bid fair to end it,
Perhaps because their truths turn into lies.
Yet one may choose a life of faith and love,
Even dogged by doubt and ripe with lust,
Ample as a river on the move
Singing down the balustrades of dust.
To love is to step forward into light,
Embracing what would else return to night,
Redeemed, redeeming by this act of trust.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ13.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding
March 26: Heaven Has No Exit to Despair
March 27: Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

Heaven Has No Exit to Despair

March 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about the twin errors of too absolute a faith and no faith at all.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Heaven has no exit to despair.
A faith too pure’s a prison in disguise.
Passion is the impetus for prayer,
Pleading for more hope than meets the eyes.
Yet lack of faith can, too, be too complete,
Emancipating one from all that matters,
A separate, though quite equal, self-deceit,
Sustained by reason, that one’s flailing flatters.
Truth demands fidelity to pain,
Ecstasy that comes and goes again,
Revealing nothing but a faith in tatters.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/heave2.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding
March 26: Heaven Has No Exit to Despair

Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding

March 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem questions God about the purpose of Creation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Grant us all the peace of understanding
Why it is that anything is here.
Happiness or horror notwithstanding,
The point of the whole thing is far from clear.
If You are perfect, why this botched creation,
Replete with hunger, torture, lust, and greed?
Why suffer on the cross for our salvation?
I understand the end, but not the need.
A perfect being needs no son, no heaven,
No purposes, no places, priests, or prayers,
No stars or sepulchers, no souls, not even
One dead fool, about whom someone cares.
Could it be perfection could not be
Without my love for You, and Yours for me?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding

Each Year We Celebrate Christ's Resurrection

March 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about how faith can be beautiful even for those who don’t share it.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each year we celebrate Christ's resurrection,
Although some of us do not believe it.
So does faith become our common myth,
The beauty of which we must grapple with,
Even if the truth, as we conceive it,
Remains the moonlight of our own reflection.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eachy2.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection

Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain

March 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about the difference between telling the tale of Christ and attempting to model one’s life on His.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even though passions are common as rain,
And we must pass by as God’s children are slain,
Smiling while crossing their rivers of pain,
Telling the tale of Christ risen again:
Even as we do our best to stay sane,
Redemption comes only to those who remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain

Each of Us Eventually Will Be

March 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem expresses faith in personal resurrection and redemption.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us eventually will be
A soul in waiting, neither here nor there.
So shall we wait until Messiah comes
To take us with Him to His Heavenly home,
Embracing us with love. This is our prayer,
Redemptive faith, life-giving prophecy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eacho6.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be

Even in the Depths of Longing

March 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about how the beauty of being turns every moment into joy.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even in the depths of longing,
All one is and sees is light.
So the moment, barren, burning,
Touches bliss beyond one's sight,
Embers of a flame so bright,
Reason turns to joy, to dancing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eveni3.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing

St. Patrick's Day Commemorates the Turning

March 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about why St. Patrick’s Day is meaningful to everyone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the turning
To Christianity of Irish clans.
Perhaps, if you’re not Irish, there’s no burning
Ache to march, so you’ve got other plans.
The day, however, marks a special moment
Regarding the persuasion of us all.
Islands are not islands of the spirit;
Callings come to more than hear the call.
Know that we are one, and Irish monks
’Ere we were born redeemed us with their prayers,
Sang our chants and gave our gracious thanks,
Died our deaths and climbed our golden stairs.
All changed for all after Patrick’s day;
Years turn, and yet their winds within us play.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpat2.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes
March 20: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

March 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about casting out inner snakes.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

St. Patrick rid the emerald isle of snakes,
Though only those that crawl upon the ground.
Perhaps not even he had what it takes,
Although a puissant saint, and well renowned,
To cast out those whose children still abound.
Remaining in our hearts, as when of old
In Eden green they tempted us to sin,
Cold and lean they grow more passing bold,
Knowing we’ve cast out the saint within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatr.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
> March 19: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

March 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick, asking God to save His rage for those who enabled the rape of children.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So let them be, who have had sex with children!
And turn Your rage on those who turned their eyes,
Intending to defend Your church with lies!
Nor were they ever fit for Your dominion!
These hypocrites are far worse than the poor
Polluted souls they moved from place to place,
Avid to avoid undue disgrace,
Trafficking in silence to be sure.
Remember them when You return! For they,
Instead of proper penance, yet remain
Cardinals, bishops, princes in Your name,
Knowing well what price they ought to pay!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/solett.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean

March 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is one for St. Patrick’s Day about saints and sin.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Saints are rarely saints, if you know what I mean.
They're human, with desires, hungers, sins.
Perhaps you thought sin stops where grace begins,
Arrested in such souls as faith redeems.
Then think again. Though angels might be seen
Resting on the wind with rainbowed wings,
In blissful choirs as the sunlight sings,
Can one, ought one be of all sins clean?
Knowing Christ Himself was human, and
'Mid flesh and sin lived out His few short years,
Still human as He suffered and cried out,
Demands that we obey the same command
And follow Him through suffering and tears,
Yet struggling in the heart with faith and doubt.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/saints.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean

Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

March 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is one in which St. Patrick asks God for forgiveness and grace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sinners all, we ask for Your forgiveness
As we await the hour of Your return.
If only grace were something one could earn!
Nor can we hope to imitate Your goodness.
The saints know well the hopelessness of being
Put upon the pedestal of faith
As though we had already gained Your grace.
The heart is naked to Your restless seeking.
Regard us all, then, equally with love:
In saints and vicious pederasts find lovers,
Cherishing not one above the others,
Knowing none has anything to prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/sinner.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

March 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is a love poem for St. Patrick’s Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing me a love song for my Irish boy;
Take from me my heart, my head, my home;
Pass to him my body, life, and joy;
Add to his my fields of fertile loam.
To him I am and will be earth and heaven,
Resting in the sanctum of his fire;
In me he’ll find all his gods have given,
Creating dynasties of his desire.
Know, my love, that I will come to you
’Ere this sun has set on Patrick’s Day;
So you must find the courage to be true,
Daring to give other dreams away.
After this leap, all loneliness is past:
Years may come and go, but love will last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singme.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

Sing in Celebration of Your Race

March 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about the need to be aware of one’s national history and culture.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing in celebration of your race,
The anonymous composer of your song,
Passionate provider of your grace,
A host to which you cannot help belong.
Take a day to sing of who you are,
Rejoicing in the choice of what must be,
In gratitude for what, beyond the bar,
Chooses in dark joy one’s history.
Know the lineaments of ancient lore
’Ere you feel and act, and know not why.
Stories long forgotten lie in store,
Destined for revision by and by.
All you are and do is not by chance,
Yet you may face your partners as you dance.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singi2.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

Please Don't Mind if I Make Love to You

March 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about the need for lust in marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Please don’t mind if I make love to you
Imagining another in my arms.
No one special - anyone will do
Whose claims have not yet sanitized her charms.
Lust loves not love, but finds its joy in power:
To stir someone to sunlit ecstasy;
To purchase someone’s person by the hour;
To force the flesh to yield the fantasy.
Love loves not lust, but finds its joy in giving:
Pleasure, yes, but passion slowly fades.
Affection, yes, but one needs more from living:
The knife-sharp edge of lust that love betrays.
Give then, my love, the flesh that spurs the dream,
As I for you, that lust might love redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/pleas2.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust
March 12: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
March 13: Please Don’t Mind if I Make Love to You

Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

March 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about choosing between a life of love and a life of lust.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn’t stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self’s less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust
March 12: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

Let the Love Be Free of Lust

March 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about how lust and the imagination help a marriage survive.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the love be free of lust
And watch the marriage die.
Devils dance on days of dust
As desperate lovers lie.

Yet how might lust survive the years
Of naked intimacy,
The thousand nights of talk and tears,
The flesh too tame to free?

The answer lies in lovers' dreams
Made flesh in lovers' play,
Where each becomes the other's means -
White canvas, willing clay;

A mutual acceptance of
A mutual desire
For lust, a generous act of love
That fuels the inner fire;

Still themselves, still faithful to
A marriage of the heart,
Making old love ever new
With chaste and playful art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/letth4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust

Supine but Unyielding

March 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about a woman who needs lust but is afraid to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Supine but unyielding
She undisposed lay,
Ready for pleasure,
Unready for play.

The point was relentless,
The orgasm long,
The aftermath ugly,
The aftertaste strong.

Driven by need
She opened her pelt,
Too angry and bitter
To open herself.

And so the rage rotates,
And so the world turns:
The love that one risks
Is the love that one earns.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding

I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

March 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

In today's poem a misogynist serial lover warns his next victim to beware.

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

Yours,
Nick Gordon

I would not sink my teeth into your heart
Nor leave you in your naked need alone.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I'll pursue your love with all my art,
Then thrust my hatred in you, bone to bone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart

And drag you off to ravish like some tart
Whose body will disgust me when I'm done.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I will rip your rhapsodies apart
And turn your sweet illusions into stone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart.

Instead, I'll share with you the funeral cart
That slowly takes our love to its last home.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

As you attempt our harmonies to chart:
I will not for one agony atone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart,
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwoul4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

Passion's a Preliminary Pleasure

March 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about passion’s place in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion's a preliminary pleasure,
An introduction to the themes of love.
Some mistake it for the greater treasure,
Sustaining it by keeping on the move.
In beginning time and time again,
One makes oneself the centerpiece, and then
None can of one's heart the object prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/passi3.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure

The Difference Between Love and Lust

March 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about the difference between love and lust.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The difference between love and lust is:

Lust is about me.

Love is about us.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust

I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself

March 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

In today’s poem an abusive mother, years after her children are grown, asks for understanding.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I had a rough time with three kids by myself,
And I know that I didn't do well.
Counseling, fights, children's services, courts:
What I put you through must have been hell.

But I loved you - all of you - all of that time,
When my heart seemed to break every day,
When crushed, and crushed, and crushed against stones,
I would that the wind were my way.

And I tried - how I tried - to be what you needed
And show you the love in my heart.
But often the fantasy crashed and exploded,
And all that I was came apart.

And now you are grown, I don't ask forgiveness,
Just some understanding will do,
Of the person, however imperfect, whose life
And whose love was devoted to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ihadar.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me
Mar 5: The Pain Will Never Go Away
Mar 6: I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself

The Pain Will Never Go Away

March 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is to an abused child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The pain will never go away;
The wound will never heal.
The evil that was done to you
Is now your eyes, your heart.

The black will never turn to gray;
The blood will not congeal.
The violence is never through;
The past does not depart.

Time will merely make you whole,
Consuming what you are:
Part sufferer, part comforter,
Part victim, part new song;

Part mother of an angry soul,
Part child of despair,
Part witness and part conqueror
Of all that did you wrong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thepai.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me
Mar 5: The Pain Will Never Go Away

You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me

March 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

In today’s poem an abandoned child, now old, dreams of his mother.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You told me in a dream you always loved me.
I wept with joy at what with joy you said.
My sadness was not there. It was so lovely.
And with you was my darling, also dead.
The sky was with an early sunrise burning,
Yet still with ample darkness for the moon,
Which held the secret of its youthful yearning
Although it knew that it would vanish soon.
How wonderful, I thought, at last to hear you
Say what I had known but never heard!
Abandoned, I have long longed to be near you
And find my long-lost refuge in a word.
I saw the truth of it within your eyes
And blessed the dream that ends but never dies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youtol.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me

Caitlynn

March 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a girl abandoned by her father.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Caitlynn, like us all, has just one father,
A person whom she loves but does not see.
In fact, he has decided not to bother
To be the person only he can be.
Losing him, for her, is like a head-on:
Years and years of unremitting pain.
Nor will she ever feel quite free to let on,
Numb with rage, the fear that she’s to blame.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/caitly.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn

I Never Thought that I Would Do to You

March 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a poem about child abuse from the point of view of the abuser.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I never thought that I would do to you
The terrible things my father did to me.
But here I am consumed with bitter rage,
Beating you with fists I can't control.

It is as though my father were within me,
Smirking at my helplessness as I
Do the things I can't believe I'm doing,
Slapping, punching, growling like a dog.

"You see? You see?" he says. "I couldn't help it!
My father did it to me, and I to you.
And now you to your son. Come join the circle,
And when he has a son, he'll join us, too!"

"No! No!" I answer silently. But I
Go on beating, beating, beating who?
Myself? My father? But it is only you
Who lies there screaming, scrunched into a ball.

Why? Why do I do this? Why? I wonder
As I watch myself go on and on.
Then suddenly I'm done. The thing is over.
And you, as I once did, weep to the wall.

I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, so ashamed.
I touch your shoulder gently, and you shudder.
The remorse is so much worse than was the beating.
I remember. But I cannot help it.

I take you in my arms. You lie unmoving,
Surrendering your body, not your heart.
I know that I will never, never reach you.
And still I hope without hope for your love.

My fear and shame are like a dark cocoon.
They were when I was you, are with me still.
I'm safe within our shared disgust and horror.
I know like me you'll never say a word.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ineve7.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You

Adelaide

March 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a grown-up victim of child abuse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Adelaide is gracious to a fault,
Desiring harmony more than she does desire.
Each disagreement threatens to turn dire.
Likes and dislikes never leave the vault.
A child of war becomes adept at peace.
Intuitively she skirts the hidden mines,
Determined not to cross long-vanished lines,
Eluding rage long after rage has ceased.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/adelai.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide