Eleven

April 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a number poem comparing an eleven-year-old girl to a young tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eleven is a lovely, slender tree,

Leaves fluttering like bright green butterflies.

Each root is tuned to murmurs in the skies,

Veering deep dark down deliciously.

Even as the root winds towards its lair,

New winds caress the sapling's long green hair.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/11.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 29: Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast of Light

April 30: Eleven

Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast of Light

April 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a poem for Arbor Day about the inner life of trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even trees awake to a breakfast of light.

In hungry excitement they elevate their leaves,

Great green choirs with ten thousand open mouths,

Hosanna-ing the sun from silent boughs.

Trees know glory with neither sound nor sight,

Yet spread their limbs with phototropic ease.

No one knows the inwardness of trees;

Imagination, though, rapport allows:

Nor sickness, fire, drought, nor age, nor blight

Erodes their silent worship of delight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 29: Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast ofLight

To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a poem to a beloved older brother, comparing him to a tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To my brother, the tree upon my plain,

Open and upright, of love and sunshine made,

My landmark, my windbreak, my shelter from the rain:

You gather my longings into your dappled shade.

Before I spoke, you commandeered my tongue;

Remnants of that lordship linger still.

On your expression all my heaven hung;

The least of what you wanted was my will.

However much may change, this love remains,

Even as new faces new days fill,

Rich in yearning, as when we were young.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a love poem in which a woman waits for her distant lover like a tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

After you leave, I will become a tree

Alone on a hillside, loving wind and sun,

Waiting for you to return home to me

Though centuries of lonely stars may run.

I'll grow tall and give lots of shade,

Sheltering birds and other bright-eyed things.

Pleased with all the progress that I've made,

I'll spread my leafy branches out like wings.

But oh! Every moment of every day

I'll miss you with the passion of the wind,

Gazing endlessly upon the way

That without you must empty, empty wind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/after2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

Ashley (Male)

April 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a name poem comparing a young man to a sheltering tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ashley stands slender on a hill,

Sheltering all sorts of bright-eyed things.

He spreads his youthful arms like angel's wings,

Luring the wind to rustle through his hair.

Easily, he bends through turbulent air,

Yielding when he must, yet upright still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a poem about our spiritual need for trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For ancient trees weeping once a year

Old, dried-out tears that congregate in dreams,

Roots cracking stones, branches thick as tropes,

Threatening roofs and power lines and bones;

Yet these remain our spirits' dearest homes,

Their silence irrefutable as popes,

Wild serenities, hushing all our schemes:

One's life must be more than pride and lust and fear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

People Are a People by Design

April 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22.

Today’s poem is a Passover, or Pesach, poem about how a ritual meal makes a myth real.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

People are a people by design,

Embracing who they were by who they are.

So does history become a meal,

A ritual that makes a memory real,

Calcifying what, beyond the bar,

Has not the substance of a glass of wine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish Identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

April 19: How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 20: Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

April 21: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

April 22: Palpably, You Are in This Room

April 23: Pretend There Were No Memories

April 24: People Are a People by Design

Pretend There Were No Memories

April 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22.

Today’s poem is a Passover, or Pesach, poem about the importance of historical memory.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Pretend there were no memories,

Each generation on its own.

So would miracles and crimes

Alike be lost to their own times.

Crazed witnesses would on their knees

Haunt desperately our doors 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/prete2.html. For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish Identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

April 19: How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 20: Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

April 21: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

April 22: Palpably, You Are in This Room

April 23: Pretend There Were No Memories

Palpably, You Are in This Room

April 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about how God attends the Passover Seder.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Palpably, You are in this room,

A presence just as certain as our own,

Singing with us -- family friend, well-known --

Someone, not just something we assume.

One can know You only intimately.

Vast as You are, You fit into our home.

Every tick of life we're not alone,

Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish Identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

April 19: How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 20: Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

April 21: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

April 22: Palpably, You Are in This Room

Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

April 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about a Jew who wants to keep in contact with the past but no longer shares its faith.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Perhaps your only ritual is the Seder,

All that’s left of what was once a Jew.

Suppose you’ve found the rest’s no longer you,

Still working on a self that surfaced later.

Oh, yes, this one last bit of times gone by,

Vividly alive in prayer and song,

Endures, although the past for which you long

Remains rooted in a faith you now deny.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/perha8.html. For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish Identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

April 19: How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 20: Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

April 21: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

April 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about how the holiday helped preserve Jewish identity through centuries of exile.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Part of being Jewish is a choice

As one becomes an act of preservation.

Seders start the stream of admonition,

Stories meant to bind one to the past.

On words alone the exiles had to last,

Verses reified by repetition,

Each an heirloom of a generation

Reared to give those ancient words a voice.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish Identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

April 19: How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 20: Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

How Best Can We Remember We Were Slaves

April 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 23.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about the need for liberation from slavery in the present as well as in the past.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How best can we remember we were slaves?
After all, it's been three thousand years.
Perhaps in time the ceremony paves
Pleasingly the terrace of our tears.
Yet it happened once, this morning myth,
Past the open window of the wound,
And again, and yet again, the truth
Still streaming from the altars of the doomed.
So must we be the slaves of our own time,
Our holocaust the holocaust of all,
Victorious only when the ancient crime
Exists alone as ritual and rhyme,
Remnants of a myth beyond recall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish identity.
April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
April 19: How Best Can We Remember We WereSlaves

Praised Be Those Who Don't Believe the Tale

April 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith and Jewish identity, in honor of Passover, which begins on the evening of April 23.

Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt, especially when the angel of God passed over the houses of the Jews when inflicting the final plague upon the Egyptians, the slaying of the first born. It is celebrated through a ritual dinner, the Seder, which includes a retelling of the story of the exodus, prayers, songs, and the consumption of symbolic foods.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem about the beauty of the ritual even for those who don’t believe in it.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who don’t believe the tale,

Although they will recite it every year

So as to pass on rather than pass over

Symbols that retain their ancient power.

Old myths survive because they don’t go stale,

Vivid founding fables long held dear,

Epics binding epochs time would sever,

Restoring richness to each passing hour.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais3.html. For more Passover poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith and Jewish identity.

April 18: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe theTale

One Hundred

April 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a 100 year old.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One hundred is a milestone indeed!

Now one knows at least one has lived long.

Even so, life finds much good to read,

Having loved good reading all along.

Underneath the years one still has wonder,

Naked as it was when it was born,

Delighted to be blessed a little longer,

Reluctant to request much of the dawn.

Each year of life's a gift of grace untold.

Do, then, find pleasure rich in growing old.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/100.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

April 13: Sixty-Five

April 14: Melissa

April 15: Seventy-Two

April 16: How Will I Know Which Way to Go

April 17: One Hundred

How Will I Know Which Way to Go

April 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is about how aging can help answer some ultimate questions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How will I know which way to go,

Which way to go, which way to go?

When I go which way I will

And, lost, bow to the wind.

How will I know the reason why,

The reason why, the reason why?

When death unrolls the tapestry

And I see well its grace.

How will I know my time has come,

My time has come, my time has come?

When the melody is gone

And my good friends are home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

April 13: Sixty-Five

April 14: Melissa

April 15: Seventy-Two

April 16: How Will I Know Which Way to Go

Seventy-Two3

April 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a 72-year-old poet.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seventy-two is lucky to be alive.

Each day's a gift, although he knows no giver.

Very grateful to whatever might

Elect to keep him at the edge of night,

Now, this day, again he would endeavor

To get the beauty of the moment right,

Yearning with the joy of those who strive.

Take from him what grace he might deliver,

Whatever words might seem a source of light,

Of which a few he dares hope might survive.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/72c.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

April 13: Sixty-Five

April 14: Melissa

April 15: Seventy-Two

Melissa

April 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman entering the early evening of her life gracefully.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Melissa seems made for summer afternoons:

Evening waits as she walks in the long light,

Leaving us open to the honey sun.

Intent on ecstasy, she murmurs tunes

Supple and wild as she flits left and right,

Singing unknowing as she dances towards night,

Adrift in our need, her long white hair undone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

April 13: Sixty-Five

April 14: Melissa

Sixty-Five3

April 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a singer/songwriter who has reached the age of 65.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-five suspends her animation,

Immersed within a wistful melody.

Xylophones accompany her song,

The wave of wonder rising from her sea,

Yearning overwhelming all sensation.

For her the past is neither right nor wrong.

Instead it is the soil for her creation,

Vast fields of darkness sown by memory,

Ever yielding tunes she must pass on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/65c.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

April 13: Sixty-Five

Adages of Age

April 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs from the perspective of old age.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

ADAGES OF AGE

--In the morning there is hope; in the afternoon, fulfillment; in the evening, memory; at night, peace.

--Free choice is destiny without a crystal ball.

--Like water, quality seeks its own level.

--Boredom is the result of insufficient attention to detail.

--Every moment of life is a moment of unperceived ecstasy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

April 12: Adages of Age

Seventy-Four

April 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is aging: the changes in perspective, health, wisdom, and satisfaction.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the change in perspective that comes with reaching 74.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seventy-four savors his sweet time.

Each day is more a gift than was the last.

Vested less in things he has to do,

Even though he still has quite a few,

Now he sometimes lingers in the past,

Taking in the music of a vast

Yearning that no memory can define.

Fortune is now more a windward view

On which he looks nostalgically, a sign

Unquestionable that he has crossed a line,

Reaching back for what he once reached to.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/74.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Aging.

April 11: Seventy-Four

Thirty-Three4

April 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a woman who is good friends with herself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-three is OK on her own,

Having found a bit of peace alone.

In love and friendship she prefers some space,

Returning happily to her own place,

The sanctum that her clarity confirms.

Yet she mingles well on her own terms.

To be alone does not mean to be lonely.

Happiness does not come coupled only.

Reveling in the simple fact she's free,

Each day she's with a friend whom she calls “me,”

Even as time tugs at her heart, though gently.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/33d.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

April 6: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

April 7: Courtney

April 8: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

April 9: May Our Friendship Last Forever

April 10: Thirty-Three

May Our Friendship Last Forever

April 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem wishes a friendship could last forever.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

May our friendship last forever;

May I sail upon your sea.

May we go through life together;

May there always be a "we."

May I be your endless sky;

May you breathe my gentle air.

May you never wonder why

Each time you look for me, I'm there.

May we be for each a smile

Like the warm, life-giving sun;

Yet when we're in pain awhile,

May our suffering be one.

May we share our special days,

The happiness of one for two;

And if we must go separate ways,

Let my love remain with you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

April 6: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

April 7: Courtney

April 8: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

April 9: May Our Friendship Last Forever

I Don't Understand What Happened to Us

April 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem asks why a friendship has ended.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don't understand what happened to us

Or why you have turned away.

Of course you are free to do as you like,

But first I have something to say.

To me it had seemed we could go on forever,

So close were our hearts, and at ease,

So much did we share, yet the words never faltered,

So I thought as time did as it pleased.

Whatever I did that has made you unhappy,

Or am that is not to your taste,

Or would be were I to return to your graces,

Or won't be if I am replaced:

I want you to know that your friendship is something

I treasure, and would not now end.

If you would be willing to turn to embrace me,

You'd find in me still a good friend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

April 6: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

April 7: Courtney

April 8: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

Courtney

April 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who knows how to be a friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Courtney is an all-embracing friend,

Open to the winds of whim or need.

Underneath her smile is a smile

Radiating outward like a sun.

To her the joys of friend and self are one,

Nor is her cheerful deference a style:

Each moment is a perfect book to read,

Yet not with any passion for the end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

April 6: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

April 7: Courtney

For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

April 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a poem about how one needs friends to break out of the prison of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For most of us life passes like a dream,

Revealing only what is on our minds.

Inside the prison of the self we see

Each object as a shadow on our wall.

Nothingness awaits, as sure as night.

Did I not have you, dear friend, I might,

Shadow on a shade, not be at all.

How much we need a word beyond our sea:

In love and laughter, thoughts of different kinds,

Perhaps, with luck, unraveling a seam.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

April 6: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

Sixty-Five

April 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a woman who cultivates both plants and friendships.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-five surrounds herself with beauty –

In her home, her garden, and her duty.

Xerophytes might flourish without rain;

This woman likes more temperate terrain

Yielding fruits and friendships, grace and grain.

For her there is a unity of toil

In caring for community and soil,

Vineyards of the heart and of the hand,

Ecologies of love and of the land.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/65b.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 5: Sixty-Five

I Don;t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about friendship as a joy rather than an obligation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don’t want you to think that you must do

Anything for me you don’t want to.

Friendship should not ever be a burden,

But should instead through sharing one’s load lighten.

Please don’t think you know my expectations

And then interpret them as obligations,

But do whatever brings you joy and grace,

And I will join you in that sunny space.

And when I share my sadness and my pain,

Feel blessed to know that you can do the same.

For friendship is a gift that in the giving

Gives beauty to one’s daily acts of living;

Gives music to the moment, and gives dance

To all who would through love find choice in chance,

And in a friend the good that friendship grants.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/idont4.html . For more poems about friendship, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You MustDo

For Us There Is No Death

April 3, 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 on a cemetery headstone for a couple buried together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For us there is no death.
Rest here merely bones.
Around you love's in flower,
Zero though our breath,
Etched into these stones.
Read and feel its power.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/forus.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”
April 1: My God Was the Future
April 2: So Few Realize What Life Is About
April 3: For Us There Is No Death

So Few Realize What Life Is About

April 2, 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 man who treasured ordinary life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So few realize what life is about.
If I knew nothing else, I knew warmth, pleasure,
Despite everything, I knew love.

People look for what they can measure:
A degree, money, children they can brag about,
Reasons others might wish them mazel tov.
On days like other days were moments I treasured,
Life like other lives, humdrum, passing without
Yammering, with you, with the children, full, enough ...

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/paroly.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”
April 1: My God Was the Future
April 2: So Few Realize What Life Is About

My God Was the Future

April 1, 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 Communist.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My God was the future. I’m with Him now,
As inchoate as we must always be,
Xeroxing my position on eternity.

Go find me in the future of your dreams,
Or in the box wherein you hide your zeal;
Remember me when fear says what is real,
Dictating truths to which your hopes must bow.
Only fierce passion a misplaced heart redeems:
Nothing less shall be my legacy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/maxgor.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
April 1: My God Was the Future