Poem of the Week: October 2017

October 26: Forty-Five5

October 27: Proverbs on Happiness

October 28: Holidays Do Not Bring Happiness

October 29: Thirty-Three

Friday, October 27, 2017

Holidays Do Not Bring Happiness

October 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Happy Holidays poem about happiness as a decision.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays do not bring happiness.

A day does not determine one's condition.

Pleasure? Even joy? Severe distress?

Perhaps. But happiness is a decision.

Yet happy people relish celebration,

Having much to celebrate, as all

On holidays ought revel in relation,

Loving well the world of love writ small.

Into life one pours one's inner beauty,

Doing, willing, being what one would,

As much in play and pleasure as in duty,

Yielding self as one pursues the good,

So living as though one believed one could.

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 26: Forty-Five5

October 27: Proverbs on Happiness

October 28: Holidays Do Not Bring Happiness

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Proverbs on Happiness

October 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs on the nature of happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

1. Happiness is another term for inner peace.

2. One achieves inner peace through harmony between what one does and what one believes.

3. Thus while outer events might make one happy or sad, happiness itself is entirely internal, and at all times completely within one's power.

4. This does not mean, however, that happiness is easy. It requires wisdom, discipline, and love.

5. Wisdom comes slowly, through the scrupulous pursuit of truth over time. Thus what one believes is never certain, but can always be sincere.

6. Discipline enables one to acquire habits in tune with one's beliefs. Behavior flows from character, which, like a mansion, is built of thousands of details, or acts, each judged not only for itself but for its contribution to the whole.

7. Love is the choice to open one's arms to life, enabling one to embrace imperfection. From it flow empathy, compassion, generosity, and acceptance. The opposite of love is fear.

8. To be happy, one must love oneself as well as others.

9. Because inner peace or harmony is never perfect, happiness is never achieved, and is always a question of more or less.

10. The inner and outer worlds are mirrors. How one shapes one's inner world through will shapes one's perception of the outer world. Thus an unhappy person is likely to perceive a world of lust, greed, and lies, whereas a happy one is likely to perceive a world of people struggling in the grip of love.

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

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 26: Forty-Five5

October 27: Proverbs on Happiness

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Forty-Five5

October 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who knows enough to will the wind.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-five finds fortune in her favor,

Old enough to know to will the wind.

Reason sees no reason to rescind

The choices that would lead to love she'd savor.

Yet there is much that she would leave behind.

For her there's joy in relishing life's flavor,

In being ready rather than resigned,

Vested in the play of heart and mind,

Embracing all the gifts that fortune gave her.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/45e.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 26: Forty-Five5

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Happiness Is Much like Brushing Teeth

October 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a twenty-sixth anniversary poem about the need to celebrate and renew happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is much like brushing teeth:

A semiconscious choice become routine,

Performed through practices sustained, though brief,

Perhaps without much thought for what they mean.

Years of I love you’s, kisses, sweet good nights,

Touching, pleasuring, talking, giving, sharing,

Whimsical rituals, familial rites,

Establish a routine for mutual caring.

Nor could such happiness survive for long

The sheer redundancy of daily life,

Yearning for change that sometimes comes on strong,

Self-centered grievances that lead to strife,

If one did not each day renew one’s love,

X-ing out the fear that in one moves,

Taking time at times to celebrate

Happiness, and choose again one’s fate.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ77.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

Monday, October 23, 2017

You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is for a deceased loved one who had the gift of happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You had the gift of happiness,

The unrelenting grace

To see the radiance of life

Within the ruthless face.

Cancer, heart attacks, and strokes,

Paralysis and pain,

A flood that left you penniless . . .

And still you smiled again.

It wasn't pure naivete

Or something just not there,

Or, even worse, an inner lie

That said you didn't care.

It was a certain blessedness

Attained by very few

That let you live within a love

Within the love in you.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/youha2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

Thirty-Three5

October 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who knows how to count her blessings.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-three counts well her many blessings,

Having come too far to be unsure.

In every moment there's a bit of wonder

Reserved for those who would refuse to plunder

Their portion for a place that's more secure.

Years yield good, rich oil through many pressings.

There are times one needs to change one's dressings:

Hearts and truths tend rarely to be pure.

Regardless whether welkins come asunder,

Even as the furies bluff and blunder,

Each acolyte of beauty will endure.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/33e.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The Gift of Life Is Never More or Less

October 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is for someone who is terminally ill.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The gift of life is never more or less.

Either days or years are merely moments.

Reverence remains the source of bliss.

More memories do not increase remembrance.

If death must early come, then let it be

Nor more nor less than if it had come late:

A part of a much larger mystery,

Leaving wind and wisdom in its wake.

Longing is the music of our sphere,

Yearning for a time past time and space

In which all that we love is ever here,

Love everlasting, which is now our grace,

Living with us more than we can bear.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/thegif.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

October 21: Mental Illness Doesn’t Touch the Soul

October 22: The Gift of Life Is Never More or Less

Mental Illness Doesn't Touch the Soul

October 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is for someone who is mentally ill.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Mental illness doesn't touch the soul

Even as it punishes the mind.

None can will the wanderings of the wind,

Though winter come, and tempests take their toll.

All who suffer innocent shall find

Love waiting by the window, well and whole,

Inside the heart, where it has full control,

Longing ever, ever unresigned.

Let go your fear, and follow, then, your path,

Neither more nor less constrained than those

Embraced by gods less ruthless in their wrath.

Sing bravely down the windrows of your woes,

Savoring a grace that comes and goes.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/mental.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

October 21: Mental Illness Doesn’t Touch the Soul

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Eighty-Eight

October 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a woman who is being kept alive by drugs.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eighty-eight spends much of life in bed,

Interred beyond her time in drugs and pain.

Grateful only for the gift of sleep,

Having lost the will to laugh or weep,

The shrunken doll repeats just one refrain,

Yearning for the comforts of the dead.

Even so, the trail of pills has led

Into a world she grapples with in vain,

Grasping for a grace she cannot keep,

Harsh and vivid hauntings of the brain

That make of life a stew of joy and dread.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/88.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Breanna

October 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for someone with RETT Syndrome.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Breanna is a cookie tough and tender.

RETT Syndrome is the gift that makes her, her.

Even though we wish all were born well,

As she is, we do not think her ill,

Nor would we life bereft of her prefer.

None could teach us more of love and will,

As sweet Breanna sings of pain and wonder.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/breann.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Linda2

October 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman confined to her room.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Linda is content within her room.

In outer order she sees inner space.

None knows so well the well-known love of place,

Dependent as she is upon its grace,

As she must here alone find ways to bloom.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/linda2.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 18: Linda

I'm Sorry I Can;t Tell You What

October 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is from a deaf child to her mother about acceptance and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'm sorry I can't tell you what

I'm sure you'd rather hear,

But there's a burden in my heart

I can no longer bear.

There's an anger I must cross

Before I come to you

And make my peace with who you are,

And try your soul anew.

I know I wasn't what you wanted

When you wanted me,

A healthy, happy baby girl

You could raise easily.

I was born impaired, and you

Have never understood

That what I am is whole and fair

And beautiful and good.

You were sorry, first for me

And then for you, and wept,

But I would not be me without

The fact that I am deaf.

I am a gift to celebrate

And not a cause to grieve.

As a child this was what

I needed to believe.

I needed but a different road

To reach the common goal,

But you decided there were things

I couldn't do at all.

And rather than accept what life

Had given in its grace,

You looked at what life had withheld

And turned from its embrace.

Ah, Mother! How you injured me

By what you would not own!

To love myself I had to leave

And make my way alone,

And have my children in the course

Of what I would become,

But always, always looking back

To where I had no home.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/imsor4.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

Sunday, October 15, 2017

I Want to Live

October 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about someone who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I want to live

Till the sunset of my time.

And I want to give

All the beauty that is mine.

The days that assault me

And the years of pain awaiting me

Fill me with anger and with tears.

But I know just where I must go.

For I want to wander

Through the landscapes of my life,

And I want to love

As a mother and a wife.

The illness that torments me

And the love of those around me

Join to make hope my refrain

And courage my song.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/iwan11.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

Could We Have the Clarity of Fate

October 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the mystery of what lies just over the horizon.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Could we but have the clarity of fate

Or see the future as we do the past,

Little would we crave the mystery

Unknown to those who know what lies ahead.

Mountains make horizons definite,

Blocking off infinity, the last

Unbroken wave upon this solid sea,

Singing songs that we have long since heard.

Do, then, those few sailors celebrate,

Alone amidst the watery wilderness,

Yet seeking grandly what it is to be.

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 15: Could We But Have the Clarity of Fate

Friday, October 13, 2017

Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of a life of change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Clear away the cobwebs from your eyes --

Old ways of thinking, doing, wanting, dreaming!

Learn that present truths are future lies,

Undone by what is now well past redeeming.

Make of life a vast experiment

Blessed by passion, toil, terror, pain,

Unafraid to scuttle what you meant,

Sure only that no failure is in vain.

Do this, and you will have a chance to be

A sailor at the edge of what you see,

Yet yearning for what no one can attain.

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Chasing the Horizon

October 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the ecstasy of the voyage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Chasing the horizon

On a windy sea,

Land fast disappearing,

Underway and free!

Maybe there is something

Beyond that distant line,

Ultimately nothing

Senses can define.

Days may seem like moments,

And moments seem like years.

Yet the wind is mine!

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the need for obsession to bring about change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Changes find their agent in obsession.

Old visions do not yield but to a sea.

Life is myth undone by mystery.

Underneath the truth lies the expression.

Meaning is the mask of history,

Best worn by those in undisturbed possession.

Ultimately, there is no progression.

Sing, then, of change, and savor what will be!

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang2.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the sacrifices necessary for a life of discovery.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Challenging the veil does not come cheap.

One gets to know the provenance of hunger,

Living off the energy of wonder,

Unwilling to trade ecstasy for sleep.

More than life, one must want to be

Bestride the instant of the revelation,

Uniting image and imagination,

Seeing first what now the world might see.

Dread and longing dance across one's dreams,

Alive with hope for charismatic schemes.

Years wearied, wasted, wait impatiently.

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

Monday, October 9, 2017

Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about new voyages of discovery in outer space.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Care to come with me to outer space?

On wings of will we fly across the void,

Landing in a wilderness of wonders.

Unchain yourselves from now! The present plunders

More than you imagine, dreams destroyed

By labyrinths no longing can retrace.

Ultimately, one pursues the grace

Sought by the heart, or finds oneself employed

Doing what must one's sweet substance squander.

As in my time, great seas, of sails devoid,

Yet beckon to the winds that guide the race.

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which is celebrated today, October 9.

Today’s poem is about discovery as a natural part of the human condition.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Can one ever see what lies beyond?

One cannot help but sail for shores unknown,

Leaving everything one loves behind.

Ultimately, one must live alone.

Maybe that's OK. One needn't weep.

Blessed are those who sail willingly,

Unafraid to lose what they can't keep,

Singing to the silence of the sea.

Do, then, dare to choose your mortal state

And relish the adventure of your fate,

Yearning only for the grace to be.

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

Be Gentle: What You're Holding Is My Heart

October 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an acrostic name poem that declares love and asks for some gentleness in the reply.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be gentle: What you're holding is my heart.

Remember in your honesty my pride.

If you don't want to see me, please don't hide

The truth, yet tell it with some art.

Though you may not have asked for me to call,

A single leap of hope must be allowed.

Not easily are shy songs sung out loud.

Yet now I wait your word outside your wall.

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

This week’s theme: Declaring Love

October 2: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You

October 3: I’ve Dreamed of Loving You for Many Years

October 6: This Is the First Time I Have Ever Loved

October 7: Beautiful Eyes, Beautiful Face

October 8: Be Gentle: What You’re Holding Is My Heart

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Beautiful Eyes, Beautiful Face

October 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem declares a hopeless love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Beautiful eyes, beautiful face,

I'm shy to talk to you.

You're the eagle I must watch

No matter what I do.

You're the beauty, wild and free,

The mistress of my eyes,

Rolling through exultant air,

Alone in pristine skies.

I would take you for my own

Could I but have your wings,

Could I but go where night begins

And frozen sunlight sings.

Could I but have you for my love,

How might we fly together!

But I must watch you from below

And long for you forever.

But I must be the one below

And long for you forever.

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

This week’s theme: Declaring Love

October 2: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You

October 3: I’ve Dreamed of Loving You for Many Years

October 6: This Is the First Time I Have Ever Loved

October 7: Beautiful Eyes, Beautiful Face

Thursday, October 5, 2017

This Is the First Time I Have Ever Loved

October 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem declares love for the first time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

This is the first time I have ever loved;

Yours, the first face I cannot forget.

I think you are afraid, perhaps, and moved

To wonder whether you should do this yet.

I also am afraid, and yet I know

That wonder is a thing that needs a yes;

Should you step back and let this moment go,

Both you and I will have to live with less.

Please trust my love, as I must trust in yours.

It's strong as steel, as delicate as lace,

Immovable as battered granite shores:

I feel its power and unremitting grace.

So come, my love, and try this love with me;

Let your love speak, and then you will agree.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/first2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Declaring Love

October 2: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You

October 3: I’ve Dreamed of Loving You for Many Years

October 6: This Is the First Time I Have Ever Loved

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Perhaps It's Far Too Early to Reveal

October 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an acrostic name poem declaring love for the person who is named.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Perhaps it's far too early to reveal

A feeling not yet ready to be love.

The light of dawn, though hesitant, is real;

Real as well the hopes that time will prove.

I dance across the meadows of my heart

Carrying doubts that mingle joy and fear.

I know I'm half myself when we're apart;

All I want is with me when you're near.

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

This week’s theme: Declaring Love

October 2: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You

October 3: I’ve Dreamed of Loving You for Many Years

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Just Wanted You to Know: I Love You

October 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem declares love for a close friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just wanted you to know: I love you.

Months have passed since we became close friends.

Every day I find I'm thinking of you,

Though no word from you that message sends.

And yet we share all other thoughts and feelings:

I cannot wait to tell you of my day,

And you give me the gist of all your dealings,

Which makes me hope we walk in the same way.

Telling you this is opening a door

That never can be closed again, and yet

I must, because I ache for something more,

Something that I must risk all to get.

Some night, I hope, as we hang out somewhere,

I will reach for you, and you'll be there.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/justw2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Declaring Love

October 2: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You

October 3: I’ve Dreamed of Loving You for Many Years