Poem of the Week: April 2017

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

April 28: A Tree Is a Gigantic Hand

April 29: No Matter How We Have Fought, We Will Always Be Sisters

April 30: Lauren

Saturday, April 29, 2017

No Matter How We Have Fought, We Will Always Be Sisters

April 29, 2017

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 is celebrated today, April 28.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem comparing two sisters to two trees planted close together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

No matter how we have fought, we will always be sisters.

Neither marriage nor distance nor children will change

The frictional fondness, part balm and part blisters,

No dawn can diminish nor passion make strange.

Like two trees with their wrestling roots underground,

Fighting for sun while restraining the wind,

By close and protracted proximity bound,

We've been shaped by a force that no fate can rescind.

And so it's with undaunted pleasure that I

Bid farewell to a part of myself, for I know

That beyond the illusions of what, when, and why,

We'll be together wherever we go.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/nomatt.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

April 28: A Tree Is a Gigantic Hand

April 29: No Matter How We Have Fought, We WillAlways Be Sisters

Thursday, April 27, 2017

A Tree Is a Gigantic Hand

April 28, 2017

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 is celebrated today, April 28.

Today’s poem is an Arbor Day poem about the importance of trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A tree is a gigantic hand

That grips the grateful earth,

Holding it together so that

Seeds might find a home.

Else the soil would turn to sand,

The land of little worth

To those whose favored habitat

Depends on fertile loam.

The tree then filters well the rain

And holds the soil in place,

Feeds it with its fallen leaves

And keeps it moist with shade.

No husbandry could be so sane,

No art so full of grace,

No well-wrought words so apt to please,

No love so well repaid.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/atree2.html. For more poems for Arbor Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

April 28: A Tree Is a Gigantic Hand

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

All of Us Can Take Our Cue from Trees

April 27, 2017

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 28.

Today’s poem is an Arbor Day poem about modeling our behavior on the behavior of trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All of us can take our cue from trees,

Relating only symbiotically,

Becoming just what those who need us need

Out of need for all that they can give.

Remember: Without trees we could not breathe.

Dependence rests on dual dependencies,

As birds who seek their shelter sow their seeds.

Yet we destroy the friends we need to live.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/allofu.html. For more poems for Arbor Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

A Tree Is like a Frozen Dancer

April 26, 2017

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 28.

Today’s poem is an Arbor Day poem about the beauty of trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A tree is like a frozen dancer,

Redolent with grace,

Branches poised dramatically,

Open arms in place.

Revel in its patient passion,

Durable delight,

A deep and quiet ecstasy

Yearning for the light.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/atreei.html. For more poems for Arbor Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

Monday, April 24, 2017

For Someone Who Devotes His Life to Trees

April 25, 2017

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 28.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a forest ranger.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For someone who devotes his life to trees,

Of whom it may be said he does much good,

Rejoicing in the natural harmonies

That come from land with no one else to please,

Yielding grace instead of wheat or wood.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/forso2.html. For more poems for Arbor Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

April 25: For Someone Who Devotes His Life toTrees

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Find Your Perfect Mentor in a Tree

April 24, 2017

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 28.

Today’s poem is a number poem for an actress, urging her to be like a tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Find your perfect mentor in a tree,

In something rooted firmly to the ground,

Free to soar up high into the heavens,

To reach for light, to shimmer, to astound,

Yet also to reach deep where none can see.

So might your roots explore the rich, dark soil

Even as your branches seek the sun,

Vested in the gift you have been given,

Evangelist of beauty, passionate one,

Not able to tell ecstasy from toil.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/findy2.html. For more poems for Arbor Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees

Free Markets and the Wilderness

April 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated today, April 22.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the myths of free markets and the wilderness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Free markets and the wilderness

Are equally fictitious,

Myths of the nineteenth century,

In turn naïve and vicious.

One assumes an ecosphere

That never was, a place

Missing one key animal –

The indigenous human race

That for millennia lived there,

And like the wolves and bees,

Created the true ecosphere,

The one the white men seized

And held as their dominion

For farms and homes and schools,

For factories and offices,

And, yes, for nature’s jewels

That they then called the wilderness,

Curated for vacations,

While those who had once lived there were

Removed to reservations.

The market also never was

Nor ever could be free,

Any more than wilderness,

Of its humanity.

All markets are manipulated

Out of need or greed,

And that’s the only law, though

It’s one you’ll rarely read.

For few would waive advantage to

Unfettered trade restore,

Or see their families starve

To obey some so-called law.

The myth of the free market is

A tool to bludgeon those

Whose interests would be served

By protections they propose,

While those who see the market as

Pristine as wilderness

Themselves break every rule

That might cause them to earn less.

Free markets and the wilderness:

Two myths some would infer

From what would serve their interests.

But of course they never were.

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

This week’s theme: The Environment

April 18: Twenty-Eight5

April 19: Thirty-Five8

April 20: Twenty-Six4

April 21: Thirty-Six7

April 22: Twenty-Eight6

April 23: Free Markets and the Wilderness

Friday, April 21, 2017

April 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated today, April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the need to include all of nature in our social contract.

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

Yours

Nick Gordon

Twenty-eight would change the social contract,
Writing in provisions for the Earth.
Even as one cedes one’s sovereignty,
Needing to be governed to be free
To live unharmed, each soul of equal worth,
Yet now we must include the spiritual Outback.

Early on we knew what we forgot:
Individuals are parts, not wholes,
Granted a communal mystery
Here within a universe of souls
That equally includes each wren, each rock.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/28f.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: The Environment
April 17: From Desert to Forest, from Sun to Shade
April 18: Twenty-Eight5
April 19: Thirty-Five8
April 20: Twenty-Six4
April 21: Thirty-Six7
April 22: Twenty-Eight6

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Thirty-Six7

April 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which falls on April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who is devoted to preserving wilderness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-six is helping to restore

Habitats hit hard by civilization.

In wilderness there is exquisite art,

Relegating humans to a part

That humbles the reclaimed imagination,

Yet whets an avid appetite for more.

So do we glimpse the glory of creation,

Insignificant enough for awe,

Xerophytes who'd quench a thirsty heart.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/36g.html. For more poems about the environment, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

April 18: Twenty-Eight5

April 19: Thirty-Five8

April 20: Twenty-Six4

April 21: Thirty-Six7

Twenty-Six4

April 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which falls on April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the wilderness as our natural home.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-six enjoys the wilderness,

Which was, until quite recently, our home.

Even now, with craft, we can survive,

Needing nothing more to stay alive,

Though there is not much wilderness to roam.

Yet what there is, is touched by holiness.

So we live in towns in deep distress,

Instinctively at odds with all we've known,

Xerophytes pure waters would revive.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/26d.html. For more poems about the environment, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

April 18: Twenty-Eight5

April 19: Thirty-Five8

April 20: Twenty-Six4

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Thirty-Five8

April 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which falls on April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how nature reflects the deepest inner experience.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five is on a long plateau,

Hiking through deep woods and sun-drenched fields.

It is a lovely path he follows well,

Reading signs no alphabet can spell,

The wordless whispers that his woodcraft yields.

Yet he knows he still has far to go.

For him, the journey is the only end,

Intense and vivid, mystically at peace,

Vistas of the heart at every bend,

Echoes of the soul that never cease.

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

This week’s theme: The Environment

April 18: Twenty-Eight5

April 19: Thirty-Five8

Monday, April 17, 2017

Twenty-Eight5

April 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which falls on April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who advocates going back to a healthier past.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-eight commands a following

With passion, wit, intelligence, and style.

Even as he uses modern means,

Needing the technology awhile,

The past remains the future of his dreams,

Yielding days that dance and nights that sing.

Earth lies wounded, wincing, shuddering,

Injured every moment we defile

Gifts that once poured forth like spring-fed streams,

Heart beneath a breast once nurturing

Tumultuously pumping filth and bile.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/28e.html. For more poems about the environment, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

April 18: Twenty-Eight5

Sunday, April 16, 2017

From Desert to Forest, from Sun to Shade

April 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment in honor of Earth Day, which falls on April 22.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the beauty of all of Earth’s environments.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

From desert to forest, from sun to shade,

Open to sheltered, gravel to green,

Revel in beauty, delight in the land,

The grace and the glory of all you have seen,

Yearning for joy that no fortune can jade.

Of desire and awe are all creatures made,

Not living one moment but with gratitude keen,

Embracing with passion both gift and command.

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

This week’s theme: The Environment

Saturday, April 15, 2017

God, if There Is One, Looks Down upon the World

April 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of religious diversity.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

God, if there is one, looks down upon the world

And sees its religions squabbling beneath Him.

What does He think of our parsings of His word

And the many ways His worshipers perceive Him?

How beautiful! He thinks. How like a garden!

Delightful! Such a perfect panoply!

A spiritual version of My Eden,

Each faith a flowering, fruit-bearing tree!

Why can’t they see their complementary beauty,

Enjoying the impressionistic view,

And dwell in peace and love, as is their duty,

Giving every kind of grace its due?

Don’t they know I love them equally,

As they must love, if they would love Me?

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

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

April 14: Perhaps Christ Rose from the Dead; Perhaps HeDidn’t

April 15: Praised Be Those Who Marry Out of Love

April 16: God, if There Is One, Looks Down upon the World

Friday, April 14, 2017

Praised Be Those Who Marry Out of Love

April 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is a Passover poem for a non-Jewish spouse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who marry out of love

And care not about class or faith or race.

Such marriages may problematic prove.

Still, the grit is sweetened by the grace.

One lives with what one chooses, by and by,

Vividly becoming what one chose,

Embracing more at first than meets the eye,

Redeemed by love, as every lover knows.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais6.html. For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

April 14: Perhaps Christ Rose from the Dead; Perhaps HeDidn’t

April 15: Praised Be Those Who Marry Out of Love

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Perhaps Christ Rose from the Dead; Perhaps He Didn't

April 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is a Passover and Easter poem about the need for doubt.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Perhaps Christ rose from the dead; perhaps He didn’t.

And Moses may, or not, have split the sea.

So must faith supply what reason doesn’t,

Singing of how better life could be.

Ought one, can one pick and choose one’s truth,

Vested heavily in being right,

Even tailoring measurements to suit

Revelations seen in ambient light?

Even as one seals one’s certainties,

A bit of doubt should slip into the soul,

Sent to complicate one’s harmonies

That one might hear the richness of the whole.

Each truth’s a light that ought not make one blind:

Radiant, yes, but gentle, shy, and kind.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/perha9.html. For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

April 14: Perhaps Christ Rose from the Dead; Perhaps He Didn’t

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Easter and Passover Go Together

April 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is for a child of a mixed Christian/Jewish marriage about the relationship between Easter and Passover.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Easter and Passover go together

Like peas in a pod or birds of a feather.

The Last Supper was an orthodox Seder

(But without the four questions – they came later)

With matzah, not bread, since Jesus kept kosher,

And the story of how we left Egypt with Moshe,

And baruchas and songs and prayers like those you

Now sing as part of being a Jew.

So celebrate both holidays, if you like,

Since both are bright rays of one beautiful light.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/easte3.html. For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Every Religion Has Blood on Its Hands

April 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is a poem for both Easter and Passover about what all religions have in common and what they should do about it.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every religion has blood on its hands

As hatred and greed, dressed in righteous commands,

Sanctify purely demotic demands

To rape, loot, and plunder less virtuous lands.

Every religion has love at its heart,

Radiant love in its wisdom and art,

Permanent love, of the whole for each part,

A grace none can grasp nor theology chart.

So might all faiths sing a common refrain,

Singing together in the much-abused name

Of divinity, singing of blessing and blame,

Verses quite different, the chorus the same.

Every religion should know that its truth

Relies on its goodness and beauty for proof.

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

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Monday, April 10, 2017

Easter and Pesach, Eternally Linked

April 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is a poem for Easter about the link between Easter and Pesach, or Passover.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Easter and Pesach, eternally linked,

Although, year to year, erratically synced.

So might both Christians and Jews celebrate

The bond that unites two long-feuding faiths,

Embracing as family, as all cousins should,

Religions that separately serve the same good.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/easte2.html. For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Religions Live in a Crowded Neighborhood

April 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The twin themes for this week are Passover, the first night of which falls on April 10, and Easter, which falls on April 16.

Today’s poem is about how, in an increasingly crowded world, there is an increased need for tolerance and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Religions live in a crowded neighborhood

Called Earth. Time for tolerance and love.

Time to see in each the common good.

Time also to see the uncommon good, the wealth of

Differences that make one’s neighborly chats

A voyage to the harbors of the heart.

The world of faith is like a museum that’s

Full of rich and unfamiliar art.

Time to see it all, to stroll through rooms

Full of treasures else left unseen.

Like rare languages, exotic blooms,

White rhinos, pandas, aye-aye, like green

Islands in the arms of urban sprawl,

Each faith sustains the spirit of us all.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/relig2.html. For more poems about religion, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

Sunday, April 9, 2017

There Is Beauty at the Heart of Business

April 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who is starting a business.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is beauty at the heart of business

Having to do with the good that comes from goods.

Investing in high hopes yields rich returns,

Resulting in far more than what is earned –

Treasures, tastes, traditions, livelihoods,

Years of pride, of fruitful busyness.

Each business is a long-held dream come true,

In which the risk and labor join to make

Goods that only love would undertake,

Having at conception something new

That could have come from no one else but you.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther40.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Professions

April 5: Tiffany

April 7: Forty-One

April 8: Fifty-Six

April 9: There Is Beauty at the Heart of Business

Friday, April 7, 2017

Fifty-Six3

April 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for an actress who knows what it costs to be dedicated to beauty.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-six has walked the road less traveled,

Intent more on the view than on the end.

For her success is measured in the moment –

To render beauty few can comprehend,

Yet absent which the heart becomes unraveled.

She knows too well what spirit she must spend

In making painted paths seem steep or graveled,

Xeroxes like scrims, alive, transparent.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/56c.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Professions

April 5: Tiffany

April 7: Forty-One

April 8: Fifty-Six

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Forty-One5

April 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a hand surgeon who enjoys the gift of her unusual ability.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-one does well what few can do –

Operate on mangled wrists and hands,

Restoring them to functionality.

That such a gift is rare she understands,

Yet home and office sometimes block her view.

Often, though, amid the day’s demands,

Not really thinking what she knows is true,

Engrossed in work, she’s pleased as she can be.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/41e.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Professions

April 5: Tiffany

April 7: Forty-One

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Farmers Ought Not Cut Against the Grain

April 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem with advice for farmers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Farmers ought not cut against the grain

Or take from nature more than it would give.

Reason often goes in a straight line

That would, if curved, require extra time,

Yet would not cause the ecosphere such pain.

To farm is to be patient and to live

With the earth, pursuing mutual gain,

Obeying the commands of sun and rain.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

April 5: Tiffany

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Tiffany2

April 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who wants to be a nurse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tiffany intends to be a nurse,

Imagining a lifetime of good deeds.

Finding her best pleasure in relation,

For her, service is the best vocation,

As grace seeks those who tend to others' needs,

Not looking to their losses reimburse,

Yet filling them with love that kindness feeds.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/tiffa2.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Professions

April 5: Tiffany

Monday, April 3, 2017

Rich Vein of Funky Wisdom, Soulful Art

April 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a jazz historian.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Rich vein of funky wisdom, soulful art;

Opulent harmonies in sync with pain;

Bebop rushing madly to the brain;

Elegant tears enveloping the heart:

Rich veins require miners to reveal

The gold that else would be encased in rock;

Gold beneath the gilded grace of pop;

Ore turned into lore, the past made real;

Lingo lit with love and well displayed;

Dug up and cast in meaning that won’t fade.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Those Who Can Help Those Who Need It Most

April 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem to a therapist about balancing the desire to serve others with the need to serve oneself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Those who can help those who need it most,

Having both the expertise and heart,

Intending both to profit and to give,

Retaining self enough amply to live,

Tough enough to play a tender part,

Yet understand the perils of the post.

One is in this life neither guest nor host,

Nor is one's empathy imperative.

Each must give with love and care and art.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/those2.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Professions