Poem of the Week: August 2016

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 27: Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

August 28: You’re the Person That I Most Admire

Friday, August 26, 2016

Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

August 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to a parent for help in getting through a divorce.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Though life has saddened your blue eyes

And pain has nestled near your heart,

You've given me your happiness

As my poor life has come apart.

I never thought that I could watch

My child suffer helplessly,

But you have two that you must watch:

My daughter Tiffani and me.

It's bad enough that this divorce

Has ripped out all my happy years.

But what has my poor daughter done

To inundate her life with tears?

I try to have the strength and faith

To hope, to love, and to forgive.

And then I watch my daughter weep

And wonder why we all must live.

I cannot think what I would do

If I could not this torment share.

I did not ask, but still you came.

I needed you, and you were there.

Sometimes I fear I should have tried

To keep you from this dreadful night.

Yet I would die without your love;

Its beauty is my only light.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thoug2.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 27: Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to God.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the gift of life,

For letting me be me,

For all that I can know by words

And all that I can see,

For all the music I can hear

And all the songs I sing,

For all the joy that comes to me

And all the joy I bring,

For all the food that I can taste

And all the sweet scents smell,

For all the loved ones I can touch,

Who love and wish me well,

For all the beauty of the world,

Ever fresh and new,

I don't know whom else I can thank,

And so I'm thanking you.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than14.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you name poem for friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I sing my gratitude,

Explain my silent sea,

Approximate in words the gift

That you have been to me?

How can I show my love to you,

Elucidate that golden drift,

Rolling wild and free?

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howcan.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Thank You for the Love You've Shown Our Child

August 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to a former lover for loving their child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the love you've shown our child,

However little we two might have shared.

A baby has the right to be adored,

No matter whether we are well prepared,

Knowing early whether we have smiled.

You're neither walking off nor running scared,

Opening your heart to be beguiled,

Understanding the immense reward.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than38.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve ShownOur Child

Monday, August 22, 2016

Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem for a contribution in a deceased person’s name.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for your recent contribution.

Hearts find words that best their love convey.

All tears, like rain, must flow into the sea,

Nor do they ever lose their destined way.

Know that your kind gift brings consolation.

Yet it also sponsors a solution,

Offering the haunted hope that we

Upon some shore shall see a brighter day.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than42.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

Sunday, August 21, 2016

To Lose Someone Who's Loved You All Your Life

August 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem for help after a loved one’s death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To lose someone who's loved you all your life,

Having held you long against the darkness,

And felt the press of friends upon your sadness,

Need cutting through your torment like a knife . . .

Kindness is a sign of inner plenty:

Yours does much to mitigate my pain.

Of grief comes neither clarity nor gain

Unless friends fill its passion with their beauty.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/tolose.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You AllYour Life

I Must Accept but Can't What Cannot Be

August 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about pain being a way of holding on to a former love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

I see you and my heart dissolves in pain.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

What happened to our love's a mystery.

I rummage through our empty past in vain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be:

That someone else now shares your off-hand "we,"

Now feels your tender tongue all feeling drain . . .

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

I cannot lay aside my agony:

Again, again I play the same refrain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

And yet I know this tortured ecstasy

Is just my way of holding you again.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me,

And still I cannot bear to set you free,

That of our love some remnant might remain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 20: I Guess You Just Don’t Know How Much It Hurts

August 21: I Must Accept but Can’t What CannotBe

Saturday, August 20, 2016

I Guess You Just Don't Know How Much It Hurts

August 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is to a former lover about the selfishness of pretending to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I guess you just don't know how much it hurts.

I cannot think you know and just don't care.

Destiny provides one's just deserts

By shaping one’s life just as would be fair.

Just as a child learns to its delight

That lying sets one fabulously free,

So you say "love" to get the rapture right,

Getting so the most you can from me.

And then, of course, you tire of your pleasure,

As those who seek but pleasure often do,

And sacrifice by far the greater treasure

Upon the altar where you worship you.

Justice would demand you be the fool,

But you are far more ignorant than cruel.

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 20: I Guess You Just Don’t Know How Much It Hurts

Friday, August 19, 2016

I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about how it feels to break up.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I feel as though my heart lay bleeding

On a countertop.

The pain is like a flooded scream

That cannot, will not stop.

I cannot live, I cannot breathe;

Pain is all I do.

I cannot think how I can be

Long living without you.

Ah, God! I want you back so bad

That I would gladly die

To hold you in my arms again

And not care how or why;

To hold you in my arms again

And tell you of my love,

And then go gladly back to dust

Should I your heart not move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ifeel2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart LayBleeding

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

I Do Not Mean to Put Our Love on Hold

August 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about not being able to decide whether to break up.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I do not mean to put our love on hold.

I really can't decide what I should do.

I don't like always running hot and cold,

But I don't know yet what I feel for you.

I am afraid of getting too involved

And then, perhaps, of causing greater pain.

It's easier to get this thing resolved,

Yet then I find I'm weeping once again.

If only life were walking on the beach,

Talking, laughing, holding honest hands,

With everything we want just out of reach,

And no sign of the lurking buts and ands.

If I could say just purely the word love,

Or bear to turn my back and say goodbye,

Then you and I could from this moment move,

And let ourselves at last rejoice or cry.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/idono3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

I Didn't Get a Chance to Say I Love You

August 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is addressed to a former lover about the pain of a breakup.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I didn't get a chance to say I love you.

You were gone before we got that far.

All I know is now I really need you,

Yet when I look for you, you aren't there.

You said once that you never would forget me,

Yet how am I to know without you here?

Such emptiness! Like what I feel within me:

Neither flesh nor tears, just cold thin air.

Sometimes, alone, I feel your arms around me,

And all my need for you spills out in pain.

Jagged memories of you surround me.

I cannot think I won't see you again.

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 17: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say I LoveYou

Monday, August 15, 2016

Hold Me to Your Willing Heart

August 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about the need sometimes to let go of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hold me to your willing heart

And let me - help me - weep

That I of need might fall apart

And then at last might sleep.

Let the truth slice into me

That I might finally bleed

And purge myself of agony

I cannot now concede.

For I have bound myself in light

That I might live in joy,

And cannot - will not - let the night

My bonds of love destroy.

And yet I know if I would gain

The peace for which I pray,

I must allow the floods of pain

To wash my love away.

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Forever Is like Getting Off a Train

August 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about how through the imagination one might step out of time into forever.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forever is like getting off a train:

Outside the landscape listens, holds its breath;

Racing hedges stop, the mountains pause,

Trees wait on the wind, as still as death.

Yet far off, a whistle sounds again.

So may we, though trapped within our motion,

Imaginatively step beyond its laws:

X's on the surface of an ocean.

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

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

August 10: The Universe Is One of Many

August 11: The Los Angeles of 1958

August 12: The Past Is Never Over

August 13: Eventually, Memories Settle Down

August 14: Forever Is like Getting Off a Train

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Eventually, Memories Settle Down

August 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about the ubiquity yet elusiveness of the moment.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eventually, memories settle down;

Later still, perhaps, go back to sleep.

Life cannot hold so much of life for long,

Yet now I hold it dancing in my hands.

Though everything is now, now is not;

Each moment dances in a sea of light.

People were and will be, never are;

Present is a glass through which we wonder.

Everywhere are ghosts that dance in dreams

Rounded by the curvature of time.

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

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

August 10: The Universe Is One of Many

August 11: The Los Angeles of 1958

August 12: The Past Is Never Over

August 13: Eventually, Memories Settle Down

Friday, August 12, 2016

The Past Is Never Over

August 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about the continuity of time over generations, over millennia, and the importance of the study of history and pre-history.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The past is never over, nor

The future ever here.

Shards beneath the sand contain

Old verses of our hymns.

In Time there are no endings, nor

Can lines be very clear.

The bones of ancient hominids

Linger in our limbs.

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

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

August 10: The Universe Is One of Many

August 11: The Los Angeles of 1958

August 12: The Past Is Never Over

Thursday, August 11, 2016

The Los Angeles of 1958

August 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about how time devours the holy presence of each moment.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The Los Angeles of 1958

Was obliterated in 1959.

Every house, movie star, palm tree, and freeway

No more. Gone. Nada. Nihil. We say

There are photos, memories--I have mine.

Yet holy presence we cannot recreate.

From desire and dream we make our memories,

Images of images, the stage

Vacant, the quartet long gone, our rage,

Ever, for lies, distortions, uncertainties.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/la1958.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

August 10: The Universe Is One of Many

August 11: The Los Angeles of 1958

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Universe Is One of Many

August 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about time, eternity, and the power of the imagination in the multiverse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The universe is one of many

In the multiverse,

As unremarkable as any,

No better and no worse.

The Big Bang was just one big bang

Lighting up the Void.

One by one the rockets sang,

Burst, and were destroyed.

Existence ends, begins, and ends

In moments that can last

Beyond a time one comprehends,

Though over just as fast.

Fantastic fireworks! And who

Might see such spawn and death,

Such multiversal ballyhoo

Encompassed in one breath?

Eternity’s a gift of grace

Awarded every soul

Who, living in one time and place,

Can summon up the whole.

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

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

August 10: The Universe Is One of Many

Monday, August 8, 2016

Bless These Family Gatherings

August 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is about how regular family gatherings are a way to conquer time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Bless these family gatherings!

In keeping up relations,

Given love, they conquer time,

Enduring generations.

Long may we gather so, that we

Outlive ourselves, for memory's

Well served by celebrations.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/bless7.html. For more psychological poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Forty-Eight3

August 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is time.

Today’s poem is a birthday number poem for a 48 year old born on Leap Year Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-eight is twelve, having been born

On Leap Year Day, twelve genuine birthdays ago,

Reminding us of what we think we know:

That time and space are by the numbers drawn.

Yet time’s a moment when it's ever dawn.

Each moment is infinity writ small.

In time, of course, nothing stays the same.

Given such mysteries, grace waits for all,

Having never come yet ever came,

There, just simply there, for all to claim.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/48c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time.

August 8: Forty-Eight

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Everything I've Done, I've Done

August 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is about undying unrequited love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Everything I've done, I've done

Only for your love.

Everything I am, I am

In hopes your heart will move.

I know that you love someone else,

But while you're away,

I'll love you just as though our love

Would last till you are grey.

Till you and I are grey, my love,

And all our days are done,

I'll love you just as I do now;

Your heart's my only home.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

August 5: Lina

August 6: Adrianna

August 7: Everything I’ve Done, I’ve Done

Adrianna

August 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who does not return the poet’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Adrianna rules my sovereign heart,

Delighting in my daily desperation.

Rack and ruin are the inspiration

In which she finds a purpose for her art.

Alas! I cannot give her up, for she

Need only smile to make my poor heart dance,

Need only touch my arm to make me prance

About inside, a fool no truth can free.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/adria2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

August 5: Lina

August 6: Adrianna

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Lina

August 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who loves until her love is returned.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lina likes to love unlikely loners,

In ecstasy until they want to stay.

Need, once satisfied, makes trolls of donors,

Angry at each kiss they gave away.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

August 5: Lina

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

I Love You Even Though I Know

August 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is about the pain and ecstasy of unrequited love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I love you even though I know

You show no love for me.

Your eyes are icy springs that feed

My hidden ecstasy.

All night I hold you in my arms

And sleep in your embrace.

All day I turn away from life

To gaze upon your face.

Alone I find within my heart

A black and raging sea,

For only you, beloved one,

Can calm my Galilee.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

I Find My Happiness in Loving You

August 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is about unequal love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I find my happiness in loving you.

Though my love is not returned, I don't mind waiting.

The woods are a cathedral where I pray

For the beauty and grace that lie within my heart.

You hold me and we kiss, and yet not yet

Is there the unity that love must crave.

You want me, but not as I want you:

This truth is like a wreckage on my sea.

There's no one else I hunger for, nor touch

That makes me feel I must take off my skin;

And so I'll wait as years pile up like leaves,

And long with the lonely patience of the moon.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

August 2: I Love You, but I'm Not in Love with You

I Love You, but I'm Not in Love with You

August 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is a poem letting a friend know that it’s just friendship, not love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I love you, but I'm not in love with you.

I want your friendship minus your desire.

I would not lead you falsely or betray you.

I feel the tenderness, but not the fire.

I have no reason for my lack of yearning,

No explanation for what I don't feel,

No other love to whom I might be turning,

No anguish to suggest this isn't real.

Passion is a horse that knows no master,

And I cannot with fences make it stay.

It must run free towards daylight or disaster,

Awake to glory in no other way.

So I must say what you don't want to hear,

Though I still hold you and our friendship dear.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.

August 2: I Love You, but I’m Not in Love withYou

Monday, August 1, 2016

I Love You as a Valley Loves

August 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is unrequited love.

Today’s poem is a poem wondering whether love is returned.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I love you as a valley loves

The river through its fields,

Or as a note upon a page

The music that it yields.

I need you as the moon requires

The sun to make it shine,

Or as a soul in search of faith

Is rescued by some sign.

You are as much a part of me

As meadows are of Earth,

Or as a song is of a heart,

Replenishing its worth.

I love you as a hawk loves air,

Or a sailor loves the sea,

Or as a strong wave seeks the sand,

But ah! do you love me?

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love.