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