A Child Is the Greatest Gift

October 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem thanks friends for gifts on the birth of a child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A child is the greatest gift

That our lives can bestow.

It brings the most exquisite joy

That we will ever know.

Some days deliver happiness,

Far more than we can touch.

We need the help of all our friends

To comprehend how much.

And so we thank you for the gifts,

Both those you brought and are,

That celebrate this rich, full life

And its rising star!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 30: Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Come to You

October 1: A Child Is the Greatest Gift

Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Come to You

September 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem announces a pregnancy or birth to grandparents.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Glad tidings of great joy are come to you,

Eternal in their deep and lasting pleasure.

Nor can we not give adoration due,

Embracing so embraceable a treasure.

Rejoice, then, in the child of your child,

A gift come from a gift come from your love.

The sun once more upon our lives has smiled,

Inviting us to move as we are moved.

Our faith in faith is by our faith redeemed,

Nor will the time be different than we dreamed,

So passing sweet will this new angel prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 30: Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Cometo You

Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem welcomes a child into the world.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Welcome to this wide-eyed world,

This loving, gentle wonderland,

Where fluffy lambs lie near at hand,

Their ears in tiny fingers curled;

Where one comes well equipped with toes

And fingers one can use to clutch

And rub and scratch and feel and touch

One’s soft cheek, one’s crusty nose.

What magic in the moment!

What delight in joy!

Life dances through the morning

Of a little boy.

What ebb and flow of feeling

Beneath an inner moon!

A symphony of senses,

A rich, rhapsodic tune!

Welcome to this wide-eyed world,

Where everything is dark and light,

Where faces smile day and night

And beam as one’s own smile unfurls;

Where love begins its ancient song

As one is kissed, caressed, and held,

Each pain allayed, each hunger quelled,

The love bonds woven thick and strong,

The love bonds thick and strong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/welco4.html. For more poems about pregnancy and childbirth, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/birthpregnancypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem announces a pregnancy through its acrostic.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I have some information for your files,

A tidbit that might underline your day,

Most suited to the gentlest of smiles:

Please mark before you file it away.

Regarding information: some may render

Every passion previous absurd,

Giving your experience a splendor

New risen with the wonder of a word.

All you've ever known or has occurred

Now will be transfigured instantly:

To process, read the left side vertically.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for YourFiles

Hallelujah! I'm Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem thanks God for a pregnancy.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hallelujah! I'm pregnant! Praise the Lord!

For the Lord has quickened my womb! With my husband,

Of course, and Dr. Heller, who quickened the sperm.

Which makes it no less a miracle.

For the Lord has quickened my womb! With my husband

I thank Him and science both, and bless them.

Which makes it no less a miracle

Of the Lord, Who works through the works of our hands.

I thank Him and science both, and bless them.

With science I have but a passing acquaintance.

Of the Lord Who works through the works of our hands,

Of the Lord I sing all the words in my heart!

With science I have but a passing acquaintance,

Of course, and Dr. Heller, who quickened the sperm.

Of the Lord I sing all the words in my heart:

Hallelujah! I'm pregnant! Praise the Lord!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

A Universe, a Little Boy

September 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about waiting for a baby boy to be born.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A universe, a little boy,

A bear pretending it’s a toy,

A rattle ready to bring joy,

All soon, yes, soon will meet.

Some tiny clothes, an empty room,

A wind-up lamb, a tinkling tune,

A soul that will be ready soon,

Yes, yes, they all will meet.

And when they meet, what wonder!

What worlds within that grasp!

What will those eyes discover

When they can see at last?

A waiting crib, a family

With dreams enough of what will be,

A gift whose grace none can foresee,

Soon, soon they all will meet,

Yes, soon they all will meet.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

There Is No Treasure Greater than Your Love

September 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and love poem about love as the water that makes life bloom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no treasure greater than your love,

However rich or bountiful your life.

It is the spring that wells up in your garden,

Replenishing the mother and the wife;

The joy that makes a pleasure of your burden,

Yielding happiness that time will prove.

Nor is love proof against travail and strife.

Instead, it is but tears with yearning laden,

Nile through the desert, green and brazen,

Edged with life, where all things near might bloom.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/isno3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 24: Truth Is Rarely an Expression of Love

September 25: There Is No Treasure Greater thanYour Love

Truth Is Rarely an Expression of Love

September 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and love poem about truth in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Truth is rarely an expression of love:

Honesty most often precedes pain.

In hope there is the fragrance of illusion;

Romance requires the charm of light confusion;

The best lovers are criminally insane.

Yet lies, eventually, will suck out passion.

One must be truthful if one hopes to love:

Not cruelly, but enough to ease delusion.

Each love must be broken, then built back again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 24: Truth Is Rarely an Expression ofLove

What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a teenage love poem asking how one might know one is in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What is the sign of love that tells me when

A friendship and a crush are something more?

How can I know what life may have in store

When all the clues must lie beyond my ken?

How much happiness is love? And then

How much and long must it endure before

I recognize that strange and distant shore

Beyond which I won't have to ask again?

I do not know, but trust that when I do

The answer will surround me like old fields

On which the things I hunger for will grow.

For now I share the mystery with you,

Waiting for what young affection yields,

And for the time when both of us will know.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/whati2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love ThatTells Me When

Passion May Remain a Gift

September 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about how love must come from mutual giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion may remain a gift,

But love is not for free.

To love and be loved two must give,

Or love is not to be.

Love is a decision made

Not once, but every day.

Two must move to set aside

The mountains in the way.

Two must act to take apart

The walls of me and you,

Just as in the act of love

One's joy brings joy to two.

Just as love's pure ecstasy

Makes others' joys our own,

Just so will love in daily life

Make sweet green fields 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/passio.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

Love Is Never Easy

September 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about how love can transform life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love is never easy, but

It turns life into song.

There is no bit of circumstance

That love cannot transform.

There is no weary moment

Of anger or despair

That love cannot convert to grace

And render whole and fair.

How passionate the paradise

That comes from knowing well

That someone in your happiness

Finds pleasure for himself.

How sweet the gift of giving to

Someone who gives to you,

A selflessness that gives to self

More self than self is due.

With all the searing madness of

The world from day to day,

And all the dreary sadness that

No joy can take away,

There is one truth more beautiful

Than anyone can bear:

That two can trust that when they turn

They'll find the other there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovei2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are  Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name and love poem about distinguishing between love as a gift and love as a burden.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Gifts are not always free.

A giver wants to know: Are you enjoying my gift?

Burdens can be sources of intense pleasure.

Recently, unable to distinguish between burdens and gifts,

Indian elephants dragged seventeen tons of teak logs over the Himalayas.

Each of us has made his or her own version of this mistake.

Love is a gift.

Burdens betray themselves by the rattle of their needs.

Each of us wants to know: Am I a burden or a gift?

Very few understand that to be a gift one must receive more than one gives,

Even while burdens come decked out in ribbons and bows.

Refusing a gift brings regret, not guilt.

Lingering doubts may be referred to a mirror.

Yesterday the elephants returned: happy, sweaty, and a good deal wiser.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20; Gifts Are Not Always Free

Dreams Do Come True

September 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about what to do when love longed dreamed of becomes a reality.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dreams do come true, but only when

They make it through despair,

Limping into everyday

Transformed beyond repair.

No dream would be a dream if it

Could pass for something real,

Nor would we sail for paradise

Would it its shoals conceal.

So it is with love: the dream

Long longed for, now possessed,

Must be a dream no longer, but

An emperor undressed.

Stark naked it must come to us

In unaccustomed shame,

And we must take it in our arms

And love it all the same.

And we must love love as it is

That dreams might still come true,

Mangled into miracles

To make our lives anew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

Each Sacrifices What the Heart Loves Most

September 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about sacrificing what one loves most.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each sacrifices what the heart loves most,

Imitating Abraham when he

Delivered Isaac to the eternal host,

Although with heavy heart, yet faithfully.

Love does not grasp, but gives away all things,

Aware of something holy in its fire,

Destined to retain the gifts it brings,

Having first relinquished the desire,

As Allah gives one all one would require.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eachsa.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 17: Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

September 18: Each Sacrifices What the HeartLoves Most

Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

September 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about love as the proper motivation for sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even sacrifice may not be pure,

Intended for the eye and not the heart.

Do, then, out of love make sacrifice

As Abraham once offered up his son.

Love of Allah is what will endure

As fire consumes each lacerated part,

Devouring all but love, that will suffice

However long the sacrifice goes on,

As years and lives through time's cold fingers run.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/evensa.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 17: Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a philosophical number poem about what moves one to give.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are for giving many rationales

Having to do with what one might receive.

In reasons one finds just the afterthought,

Referencing what one's already bought,

The words that may uncertainties relieve.

Yet what one dances to are bacchanales.

The grace of giving ought not be an ought.

What moves us is a love that speaks in shalls,

Organ tones beneath what we believe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther36.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving ManyRationales

One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a psychological poem about the limits of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One cannot make another happy,

Whatever one might do or say,

For happiness remains a choice

Not even love can hope to sway.

The sacrifice of time and strength

And preference and goods may be

Of help, of course, but cannot calm

The winds that roil a restless sea.

Everything one does, like dust,

Transforms the light in which all live.

But happiness is not a gift

It is within one's power to give.

One can only love, and be

A witness to the life that each

At last must live alone, for good

Or ill beyond a lover's reach.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem about happiness and giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness remains the drug of choice,

Antidote for much that ails one.

Praised be those who love both life and others,

Pleased to be, and grateful for that gift,

Yearning only for the things they have.

For happiness remains a conscious choice,

One that makes one more than simply one,

Requiring the harmony of others,

The grasping of one's giving as a gift

Yielding grace no one alone could have.

So may you both each day renew that choice,

In which each satisfies the other one,

X-ing out the urge to ward off others,

The passion to get something for each gift,

Having given all that you might have.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ74.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug ofChoice

Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty.

September 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about the beauty of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment sings of love and beauty.

If such gifts are yours, what must you give?

Dance, dance through the gardens of your duty,

And be a blessing by the way you live.

Let go your self , and all your schemes and pleasures,

And leave them with your shoes outside the door.

Do the things that bring life’s greatest treasures

Here, with your forehead on the floor,

And know for certain whom this gift is for.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every7.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love andBeauty

Thirty-Five7

September 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the redemptive grace that comes from giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five donates her time and sweat

Helping suffering others help themselves.

In every act of charity resides

Redemption for the actors on both sides

Through love, which deep, heartsick despair dispels.

Years of giving pass without regret.

For what one gives in solace one will get

In grace, as the good one does abides.

Verities can sometimes pall, and yet

Each selfless act the same sweet story tells.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/35g.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

Labor Leaves Us Little Time to Live

September 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the need for protest.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor leaves us little time to live

As we are given less than we must give,

Being but the undistinguished sea

On which may sail those who catch the wind.

Reason not with sailors, but together

Determine the direction of your weather,

And storm, if storm the wayward watchword be,

Yielding waves that little leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 11: Labor Leaves Us Little Time toLive

Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the need to find the right balance between profit and wages.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let us honor capital and labor,

As both must win for either not to lose.

Blessings are not always what we choose,

Overcoming what we think we favor.

Remember we must earn what we would spend;

Decent wages augur decent sales.

And little profit little pork entails,

Yielding yields too lean to long defend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the end of summer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor Day officially ends summer,

As those who work enjoy one final fling.

Blessed are those who bear the daily burden,

Of whom few savants speak or minstrels sing,

Returning to their harness each September.

Days of ease give way to hours certain,

A long routine that wends its way through spring,

Yielding one more year of brutal labor.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/labor2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

Let's Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the role of gangsters in American organized labor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let's not minimize the role of thugs

And gangsters in the history of labor.

Beasts devour ordinary folk.

Opposition soon gives way to shrugs,

Rendering allegiance to whomever.

Dormant zombie unions bear the yoke

Abjectly of their presidents-for-life.

Yet workers still must organize and strike.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role ofThugs

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

September 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem that sees labor as a commodity subject to the market’s laws.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor's a commodity, like fish,

As children are fast-frozen and filleted,

Beating down the price. Fortunes are made

On selling to us all so cheap a dish.

Remember how the world is being run,

Determined by the market's iron laws

As slaves and children jingle in its jaws.

Yet is there nothing, nothing to be done?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the social effects of business decisions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor ought to earn a decent living

As business cannot help serve social ends,

Because the good of all of us depends

On equity in taking and in giving.

Remember that the lives of those who labor

Determine the environment of home,

As one must live at last with everyone.

Yet some forget that wages shape behavior.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the redistribution of wealth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lest you think high taxes rob the rich

And redistribute wealth down towards the poor,

Be aware: That very wealth from labor

Once flowed upwards towards those greedy hands.

Redistribution goes both ways, and which

Direction gets more flow is not unsure.

All the winds are in the wealthy’s favor,

Yielding only to fierce-fought demands.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lesty2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob theRich

How Can I Fall in Love with Only Words

September 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about love in the early days of the Internet.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I fall in love with only words?

Words and pictures, grainy and compressed?

A jaypeg love is truly for the birds.

You'd have to wonder whether I'm repressed.

But love it is, through all the bits and bytes,

For someone who's like no one else I've met:

Tender, charming, bright, queen of my nights,

All I've ever dreamed of, on the Net.

And though she's living in a distant place,

I love her as I've loved no one before.

Will I ever get to touch her face,

Hold her in my arms and, perhaps, more?

Ay, me! No matter what, I'm still in love.

Through modems must our e-mailed passions move!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howc14.html. For more humorous poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/funnypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

September 4: How Do I Fall in Love with OnlyWords

What a Puzzle Nick's Poems Are

September 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about the difficulty of comprehending my poetry.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What a puzzle Nick's poems are!

I cannot grasp what he is after.

Marx is easier by far!

Why write, if one is out to bar

All comprehension? Does he hafta?

Marx is easier by far.

If only some new thought would jar

Bourgeois perception, as in Kafka!

But Nick's poems empty puzzles are.

I think I would put him on par

With Cage or Pollack: Which is dafter?

Marx is easier by far.

Under what sectarian star

Was he begat? What gnomic laughter

Twists those poems which puzzles are?

Ah me! I'll never know. A for-

Eign joke, a filial disaster!

God! Such puzzles Nick's poems are!

Marx is easier--by far!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

I'm Safe and Sound

September 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about wearing a latex sheathe.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'm safe and sound

Within my sheathe

My latex sheathe

That guards against

Both life and death

A latex wall

Between us – us?

There is no us

Just you and me

Or lots of you's

And just one me

But if it breaks

I know I'm screwed

I might get sick

Or be a dad

Either of which

Would be a bummer

But love needs trust

And I trust it

My latex sheathe

My rubber wall

To keep me safe

From life and death

Behind which I

Can be in 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/imsafe.html. For more humorous poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/funnypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound