Forty-Three5

September 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how parental sacrifice changes one.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three is mainly now a father,

Offering himself to others' needs.

Remember that such love can give no quarter,

Taking one where obligation leads,

Yielding up a joy that breaks and bleeds.

To love is to become oneself another,

Heeding new hopes as the old recede,

Repurposing one’s self to serve some other,

Embracing what one’s former self concedes,

Ever mounted on quixotic steeds.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43e.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

Allen2

August 31, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a name poem about someone for whom others will need to sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Allen sees the future far too clearly:

Life in debt to those for whom he cares.

Living thus dependent hurts severely,

Even though he knows they love him dearly,

Needing his strength more than he needs theirs.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/allen2.html. For more poems about people with disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

Thirty-Eight8

August 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about a hand surgeon who sacrifices the health of her hands in order to heal the hands of others.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-eight is skilled at healing hands,

Hard at work each day on wrists and fingers.

In her hands are hands, so what she feels

Requires the same tissues that she heals,

The tiny tangles over which she lingers.

Yet her own must leap to her commands.

Ever deaf to her own hands' appeals,

Intent on what each patient probe reveals,

Guiding blades, she puts her wrists through wringers,

Harsh in her devotion and demands,

The toll intense, as she well understands.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more poems about various professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

Forty-Three4

August 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrifice when one has children at the same time one’s parents begin to need help.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three sustains his love of life,

Old enough to know what he must do.

Responsibilities have come with age,

The burden and the blessing of this stage,

Yielding joys less pure than those he knew.

There are the distant child and former wife,

Hard truths that no resentment can assuage.

Retired parents soon will need him, too,

Encumbering him on both sides as the view

Encompasses more grace than he can gauge.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

Thirty-One5

August 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrificing oneself to save the Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-one returns the cosmic favor,

Here, like us all, through accidental grace,

Immersed in saving what of life he can,

Reversing the revolt of modern man

That has with reason reverence replaced,

Yielding an ecology few savor.

One hopes to find some meaning in one’s labor,

Not looking for success in one’s brief span

Except to hold one’s world in one’s embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/31e.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-one5

Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree

August 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the need to care for oneself if one is to attain higher goals.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fruit is but a fraction of the tree.

One savors it, but knows what makes it sweet.

Remember that the tree is what one tends,

Taking care that it gets light to eat,

Yet rain enough to drink in avidly.

 

So must one tend oneself sufficiently;

In love and joy pursue, or else defeat,

Xerophyte or hydrophyte, one's ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

August 26: Forty-Four5

August 27: Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree

Forty-Four5

August 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about taking some time to be alone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-four, immersed in vivid life,

Old enough yet young enough to be

Responsible to husband, child, and home,

Takes pleasure in her roles as mom and wife

Yet reserves some time to be alone.

For one can serve oneself unselfishly,

Organ of a music all one’s own,

Uniting strains of harmony and strife,

Resonance that sings across one's sea.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/44e.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

August 26: Forty-Four5

Thirty-Four6

August 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about being comfortable in one’s inner home.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-four has found her inner home,

Happy in her own well-tended space,

Inviting friends to drop in on their way,

Relishing the doldrums of the day,

Taking pleasure in each moment's grace,

Yet as content in company as alone.

For one must have such comfort to embrace

Oneself, and put one’s passions into play.

Ultimately one must, though one may roam,

Remain at last, perplexed or pleased, in place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/34f.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

Thirty8

August 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about choosing wisely what is most meaningful.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty knows quite well what binds one fast,

Having both received and given love.

In what one chooses is what one will be,

Regretting much, of course, but hopefully

The person one's best instincts will approve,

Yearning always for the things that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/30h.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

Fifty-One3

August 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the need to embrace multiple selves.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-one reviews her long-past choices,

Interested in knowing who she is.

Fortune is the child of self in ways

That one can neither understand nor phrase,

Yet must accept in searches such as this.

One is, of course, a choir of many voices,

Not just one, one might condemn or praise,

Embracing all, redemptive and remiss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/51c.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the difficulties and rewards of family.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Family is a rescue squad in waiting.

One knows there'll be an answer to one's call.

Rest assured there is sufficient love

To water well the wastelands of us all.

Yet simple truths can sometimes bear restating.

Fear not, then, what fortune might befall,

Or what regrets show no signs of abating.

Understand the long-term love that proves

Resilient through the roughhouse of relating.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

Meredith

August 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name and psychological poem about an unfortunately common modern type.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meredith has never been marooned,

Even though it sometimes feels like that.

Relationships have dwindled to one cat,

Even as her inbox has ballooned.

Deep into the night she crunches numbers,

Intelligent, industrious, alone,

Talking only business on the phone,

Hard at rest but briefly when she slumbers.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

Twenty-Two Years Later They Were Dead

August 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about two former spouses who never managed to get over their divorce.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-two years later they were dead

And nothing was resolved, nor would it be.

Life, as is its wont, had gone ahead,

But both of them, though freed, were never free.

Both remarried, loved, fell ill, and died,

Buried separately, with space reserved

For those who mourned them most, the two outside

What once was home but could not be preserved.

What bitterness and blame, forgiveness, rage,

Guilt, shame, fury, impotence, and sorrow

Sloshed against the walls of each's cage,

A storm that never yielded to tomorrow.

How beautiful and sad, the love of youth

That, though it could not last, outlasts the truth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/22year.html. For more divorce poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/divorcepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

August 16: Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don’t Think of You

August 17: Jim Has Blue Eyes Flecked with Gold

August 18: Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly

August 19: There Is No Mountain Higher than the Wall

August 20: Twenty-Two Years Later They Were Dead

There Is No Mountain Higher than the Wall

August 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a divorce poem reaching out to a former spouse for friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no mountain higher than the wall

That comes between two people once in love.

But time can tear a mountain down with tears

As former lovers slowly move towards touch.

There is no happiness in hard, cold anger

Twisted like a girder in one's way.

The sun and rain can manage to grow flowers

Across the bleakest crust of lava plain.

So we, too, I hope, can manage friendship

Upon the battlefield of past defeat.

I would not want to lose our years of loving

To moments caught for good in bitter light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther15.html. For more divorce poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/divorcepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

August 16: Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don’t Think of You

August 17: Jim Has Blue Eyes Flecked with Gold

August 18: Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly

August 19: There Is No Mountain Higher than the Wall

Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly

August 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a divorce poem about how long it takes to leave past love behind.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love undoes its heritage quite slowly,

Spinning like a planet through its dust.

Sometimes it feels like hatred, sometimes mourning,

Sometimes pain long paralyzed by rust.

Sometimes shame of past humiliation

Wrings the heart with hands inured to toil,

And once again some drops of unspent fury

Spill upon the dry and barren soil.

Ay, me! When will it end? The seasoned sorrow

Of unforgiven trespasses of old?

No matter new love blossoming! There's somewhere

A place within untenanted and cold.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

August 16: Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don’t Think of You

August 17: Jim Has Blue Eyes Flecked with Gold

August 18: Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly

Jim Has Blue Eyes Flecked with Gold

August 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about two divorced people who fall in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Jim has blue eyes flecked with gold;

Dark-haired handsome, rock-like good.

Marriage hid him, as it should,

Until his love ran cold.

He lived only down the street.

I was married, so was he.

But when divorces left us free,

We found the chance to meet.

Now we're both far happier

Than either ever was before.

Through suffering we found the door

That opened to each other.

We'll always feel, of course, the pain.

Divorce cannot but make one bleed.

But in that pain there lay a seed

That soon would bloom again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

August 16: Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don’t Think of You

August 17: Jim Has Blue Eyes Flecked with Gold

Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don't Think of You

August 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem expresses the anger and hatred that often comes with divorce.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of you,

Mostly in anger, sometimes with hatred.

I loved you nearly half my life, and now

The bad has swallowed up the good, has eaten my heart.

How sad that I must bury so much of me!

I wish I could bury you.

The real, living you I don't want to hear about.

You were once what I lived for, and now

I don't even want to know when you are dead.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

August 16: Hardly a Day Goes By that I Don’t Think of You

Friends Go In and Out of People's Lives

August 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and divorce poem about the difficulty of removing a former spouse from one’s heart.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends go in and out of people’s lives,

Old and new, near and far, and yet

Removing former husbands, former wives,

Takes years of anger, sorrow, and regret,

Years of rage not easy to forget.

Still, one must remove them from one’s heart

Even while sharing what’s most dear,

Vanquishing one’s pain with all one’s art,

Embracing what one else could never bear.

Nor will one ever be completely clear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frien4.html. For more divorce poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/divorcepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

August 15: Friends Go In and Out of People’s Lives

We'll Go On, After You

August 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a divorce poem to the spouse who has left the family.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

We'll go on, after you,

Without you we'll go on,

Though something beautiful inside

Us all has turned to stone.

We'll go on, after you,

Without you through the years

Of pain and raw bewilderment

And brutal, angry tears.

We'll go on, after you,

Without you we will heal,

Though love may labor in the heart

And joy the loss conceal.

We'll go on, after you,

Without you we will grow

Together as a family

That you will never know.

We'll go on, after you,

Without you life goes on,

But neither hope nor happiness

Undoes what you have done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Divorce

August 14: We’ll Go On, After You

Composers Aren't Poseurs, One May Hope

August 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the purpose of musical composition.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Composers aren't poseurs, one may hope,

Offering the sounds that shape the heart,

Making us turn inward towards beauty,

Portrait of the sheer, ecstatic soul.

Of course, your music may help people cope,

Sell stuff, perhaps, or grace some graphic art.

Even so, there is always your duty

Resting underneath the lesser goal:

Sing, then, to make yourself serene and whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 9: Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

August 10: For Every Moment You’re Immersed in Beauty

August 11: Sing of the Sweet Urge to Capture Beauty

August 12: Bridges Are a Sign of Separation

August 13: Composers Aren’t Poseurs, One May Hope

Bridges Are a Sign of Separation

August 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about how separation provides the occasion for unity and grace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Bridges are a sign of separation

Requiring ingenuity to span.

Inherent in the scheme of time and space,

Divisions are an opening to grace,

Granting an occasion for creation.

Each unity of purpose, plan, or place

Suggests a work meticulous and grand.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 9: Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

August 10: For Every Moment You’re Immersed in Beauty

August 11: Sing of the Sweet Urge to Capture Beauty

August 12: Bridges Are a Sign of Separation

Sing of the Sweet Urge to Capture Beauty

August 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about art as a lasting imitation of a fleeting reality.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of the sweet urge to capture beauty,

Endeavoring to pluck it from the stream.

Vivid though the moment might appear,

Embrace it and it is no longer here,

No less remote than a remembered dream.

The artist, though, creates a lasting copy.

Years pass, and yet the grace retains its gleam.

Each work of art gives form to a perception,

Imitating what the artist sees,

Granting lasting life to a conception,

Having caught the moment as it flees,

Then framed it to fence off its finities.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing10.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 9: Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

August 10: For Every Moment You’re Immersed in Beauty

August 11: Sing of the Sweet Urge to Capture Beauty

For Every Moment You're Immersed in Beauty

August 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the joy of being able to make a living from art.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For every moment you’re immersed in beauty,

In opening the curtains of the heart,

Forgetting that your pleasure is your duty,

That you have made a living from your art,

You feel the joy of God at the Creation,

The stepping back to see that it is good,

While in the golden grip of an elation

Out of which you will what worlds you would.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/forev7.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 9: Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

August 10: For Every Moment You’re Immersed in Beauty

Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

August 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about how creative inspiration seems to come from beyond the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing of passions greater than the self,

Intimations turned to words and music,

X’s on eternity, revealing

The genius of one’s muse, if one would use it,

Yielding to a voice beyond the gulf.

Even so, one is forced to wander

In search of that sweet touch of inspiration,

Grace that does not come without one’s calling,

Hours, days, weeks of fierce frustration,

Then the gift to which one would surrender.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo9.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 9: Sing of Passions Greater than the Self

For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

August 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about how the gift of creativity affects one’s life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For you there will be always gifts of beauty,

Opening a window onto Heaven,

Restoring you to innocence and joy.

Though sorrow is for everyone a given,

Yours will be a store you will employ.

So does one blend one’s blessings with one’s duty.

If one has gifts, one by those gifts is driven,

Xerophyte no desert can destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/foryo7.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 8: For You There Will Be Always Gifts of Beauty

Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

August 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the power of songs and the difficulty of writing them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Songs lend thought the persuasive force of beauty,

Enduring longer than the naked word.

Vested in a song, one does one’s duty,

Ever the evangelistic bird.

Nor ought one’s passion strike one as absurd.

The gift of song comes with the gift of yearning,

Years and years of wanting, wishing, burning.

Sing, then, of song, and of its intimate power,

Each singer in the grip of its embrace,

Vividly reworking, listening, learning,

Ever on the ragged edge of grace,

Needing patient urgency to flower.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Artistic Creativity

August 7: Songs Lend Thought the Persuasive Force of Beauty

Summer4

August 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a calendar poem about the ecstatic joy of summer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Summer is the zenith of the year:

Upward spring, sweet summer, downward fall.

Maybe life sings like sun-drunk cicadas,

Music drowning beds of squash and taters,

Each tiny creature pouring out its call,

Rejoicing in the joy of now and here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

August 5: Linda

August 6: Summer4

Linda

August 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who loves long summer afternoons.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Linda loves long summer afternoons.

Inside voices hush, the wind subsides.

Night waits as golden sorrow bathes her heart,

Deep cleansing beneath angry lips of wounds,

Absorbing pain where hunger still abides.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

August 5: Linda

Thirty-Five

August 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about how deep scars can hide beneath thick summer bloom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five's a whisper in the sunlight

Half-submerged in butterflies and bees.

Intimations run like rutted scars,

Remembrances of wounds beneath delight

Thick with summer bloom like rainbow seas.

Yet night brings on a wild rage of stars.

For what is this ejaculate of light?

In pain and wonder, awe and agony,

Viewing silent, distant ecstasies,

Estranged from love by strong, protective bars.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

August 4: Thirty-Five

Brittany

August 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for someone who, in the summer of her life, yearns for childhood innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Brittany is a white winter morning

Residing momently on summer grass:

Innocence remains, but the sun soon

Turns crystal sprites to life-giving tears.

The radiant images of childhood years

Are dancing in the dream light of her moon.

Now she looks with pleasure as they pass,

Yearning for a love that’s ever dawning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 3: Brittany

The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about a summer separation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The summer is a desert between mountains

Lavish with the joys of spring and fall.

I look across that bleak and lonely wasteland,

Seeing no redemption there at all.

I cannot think how I will cross without you

To reach the golden hillsides of my dreams.

I try not to imagine how I'll miss you,

And not to look too hard at what that means.

Time, the enemy of helpless lovers,

Must compensate at last those it bereaves.

I cannot wait until, once more together,

We can share the blaze of turning leaves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August

August 2: The Summer Is a Desert Between Mountains

August

August 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a calendar poem for August about how amid its beauty there are hints of coming darkness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

August starts to shade a bit towards shade,

Upon the cusp of full tide and retreat,

Grace, poised upon a turning point of time,

Unwilling to welcome what it can’t decline,

Sweet season no foreboding can defeat.

Though evenings earlier begin to fade.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Summer

July 31: Summer2

August 1: August