Forty-Five6

February 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a composer whose musical phrases are begging him to use them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-five is full of unheard music,

Organist in the chapel of his soul,

Reverent beneath a reverberant dome

That like stone lace lets in the noontide light.

Yearning for the organist to use them,

Fleeting phrases hope that he will choose them,

Integrating them into a whole

Vast enough to compass day and night,

Eternal in its well-wrought womb of stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

Fifty-Five3

February 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for an artist whose expertise can become a limitation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-five is grounded in her game,

Intuitively expert in her aim.

For years of focused, patient practice yield

The instinct that will one's technique sustain.

Yet expertise will suffocate if sealed.

For her, the truth is ever to be revealed.

In become, one must let go became.

Verities must never be too tame,

Enduring only in an unfenced field.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/55c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the artist’s motivation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no better painting than a sunrise,

Nor colors more majestic than its glow,

Nor canvas so immense that it might outsize

The spectacle that every day we know.

There is no love as moving as our own love,

Nor character as complex as our own,

Nor ecstasy as sweet as we have known of

Since puberty, though chaste till we were grown.

Why should we turn from windows to a wall

On which there hangs a mere interpretation,

When just outside the colors of the fall

Surpass the most inspired imagination?

Like God writ small, the artist would say, “Light!”

And eternity comes forth from night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther42.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

To a Friend on His Election to an Inner-City Board of Education

February 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political congratulations poem for someone just elected to an inner-city board of education.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Congratulations on your victory

Over those who'd labor in your stead.

Now that you have won, the road ahead

Gives pause: for what good soul-elect can be

Respondent to such need? Or happily

Attendant on such pain? It's often said

That power corrupts, but your audacious tread

Unheard might leave its footprints on the sea.

Little can one do, yet much is asked

As life responds to policy unfazed,

Taking, just perhaps, a hopeful turn.

Intending good, one is widely tasked,

Open to rebuke, and rarely praised,

Needing faith to change, as one must learn,

Scenes on which all helpless long have gazed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 22: Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

February 23: Sixty-Seven

February 24: Thank God for Pendulums

February 25: To a Friend on His Election to an Inner-City Board of Education

Thank God for Pendulums

February 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is about the constant sweep of the political and social pendulum from right to left.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank God for pendulums!

Compassion will swing back

Like a corpse on a noose,

And we'll grab it by the knees,

Revive it mouth to mouth.

Faith in people will come back,

And social dreams,

Self-sacrifice and sharing,

While the market crumbles,

Caught in contradictions,

And discos of running dogs and lackeys

Boogie down into the dustbin of history!

Yes, pendulums! Marriage

Till death will come back,

And loving children,

And life once again a fire,

And we its worshippers,

While those who struggle to "succeed"

Cut each other's throats.

Thank God even

That it will swing away again,

Out far out to the dark side

Beyond our most powerful scopes,

Where people crouch like madmen in dark caves,

Chanting slogans we fail to understand.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 22: Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

February 23: Sixty-Seven

February 24: Thank God for Pendulums

Sixty-Seven

February 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem for someone who holds on to his political dreams.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-seven is a man of dreams,

Invested purely in what ought to be,

X-ing out the barriers to will

That make it hard to see what one would see.

Yet years need not accomplish much, it seems.

So does his passion sing like dammed-up streams

Enveloping the islands that agree,

Vast armies of the afternoon, who still

Expect their words to keep their honor free,

Needing to sustain what hope redeems.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/67.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 22: Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

February 23: Sixty-Seven

Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

February 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem about the true mother of invention.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Need is not the mother of invention;

Instead, we trace that energy to greed.

Nor does technology the children feed,

Even as it feeds on that pretension.

The bird is dying as the brigands carve,

Extracting meat from macerated bones.

Eden ought not be dug up for stones,

Nor the millions prosper as the billions starve.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/needi2.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 22: Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

Fifty-Nine2

February 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem for someone who exposes an unjust status quo.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in exposing

Instruments of everyday oppression,

Fantasies of normalcy sustaining

The brutal oligarchy of possession.

Yet what she does is more than mere expression.

Nor does she care what fat she might be frying

In bold pursuit of media attention,

Nemesis of all who show discretion

Even as they see so many dying.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/59b.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which was celebrated yesterday, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the relationship between the market and the heart.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The market is a merciless beast,

Bloodstained in tooth and claw,

A superbly crafted predator

Honed well by nature’s law.

Tame it and you’ll get a dog—

Friendly, useful, smart,

Overbred imperfectly,

The flawed result of art.

Which do you choose? The perfect beast

To maximize return?

To set unbiased by the heart

What people pay and earn?

Or the dog, who would prefer

To find some way to please,

And with a trick or two, the pain

Of life’s worst hardships ease?

Oh, yes, the market undisturbed

Works most efficiently.

But do you choose the wilderness

And nature’s cruelty?

Or do you choose the park, where nature,

Guided by the will,

As tame as we, is modified

To spare the weak and ill?

Which is your reflection?

The wild or the tame?

Your answer is a mirror,

Its heart and yours the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day

February 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which is celebrated today, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is about the proper spelling of Presidents Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?

Regarding spelling, what's the difference?

Even apostrophes must have their say,

Subtly shading each rendition's sense.

In the first, Washington alone

Deserves the day, the only president

Every state has honored on its own.

Nor does the change of date change what is meant.

The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,

Should share the honor, combining holidays

'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,

Depending on which state such honor pays.

All presidents, too, the second could convey,

Yet the third one must be read that way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

February 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the slow and painful journey into love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before love, that jolting lilt

East of roses, in perturbed darkness,

Missing the eternal circumstance,

Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt.

Vainly would I fly into your heart

Afire, burning, consumed, expended.

Love is not an ending; nor does it end

Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts

Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,

The long climb out of loneliness, turning

In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.

No two are joined except in painful learning:

Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/lilt.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 18: Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem to a lover who has been long dreamed of.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,

Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.

My inner picture was a portrait of you

Years before your heart my heart would move.

Vistas of enchantment are but rarely

As we find them in reality.

Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,

Eden as no dream could ever be.

Nor is this the magic of the moment,

The proper costume for the holiday.

In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,

Not merely of desire, but of fulfillment,

Else lost amid the chaff along the way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

Before I Ask Y'All, Please Understand

February 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem Southern style.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I ask y'all, please understand,

Even though I come from way down South,

My heart is more loquacious than my mouth,

Yearning like a wave for your smooth sand.

Very few down here will show their hand,

Aching like a riverbed for rain,

Lying like a platitude in pain,

Each chili inside, outside baked beans bland.

Now here down South it ain't right to demand

The things you're dying for, but you real fine,

In a voice like preachers set to dine,

Nicely say, "Mind if I trouble you, Ma'am," -

Easy like - "to be my Valentine?"

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befori.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how we tend to take our blessings for granted.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Blessings are the things we take for granted.

Each holiday's a light that helps us see.

Most know the Earth is utterly enchanted

Yet walk through life and love mechanically.

Valentine’s Day is love’s well-timed ablution,

A ritual bath in sweet reality.

Love brings us the gift of absolution,

Enveloping our guilt in innocence.

No touch inspires so swift a revolution,

Translating lust-filled longings into sense.

In your love's a blessing I will sing,

Needing just your joy for recompense,

Embracing words that make the heart take wing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bless.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated today, February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about transcending the loneliness of life through love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine: What does that mean?

Each of us might walk through life alone,

More lonely than a long-forgotten poem,

Yearning for a face we’ve never seen.

Valentines awake us from that dream,

Are like a sunrise on a world of stone,

Letting us be more than on our own,

Embracing us with love, that life redeems.

No way but through loving might we give

The freedom of our being to another.

In such a mutual sacrifice we live

Needing, trusting those we’re trusted with,

Even as we bind our lives together.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyva.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

Be My Valentine, for I

February 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the good that Valentines can do for one another.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine, for I

Each day have thought of you.

My whole life couldn’t manage what

Your ready smile can do,

Vanquishing my loneliness

And making me anew.

Let me be your Valentine

Even as you're mine,

Needing what I have to give

That each might each define

In friendship and in harmony,

Now you, now I the melody,

Each helping each to shine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyv2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how mutual love restores lost innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vest your love in me, as I in you,

And we will share our bit of time in heaven,

Lost innocence regained through mutual love

Enduring in the hush of our embrace.

Nor will we find in life a greater grace,

The beauty of which will our choices move,

In spite of daily troubles, east towards Eden.

Nor will love be more sweet at dawn than evening,

Ever just as lovely, old or new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/vestyo.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

In Daylight You're a Haunting Melody

February 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem that says I miss you.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In daylight you're a haunting melody,

More lovely than the world before my eyes.

In darkness you become my symphony,

So much of me, I know no other ties.

So are you nestled with me night and day,

Your missing self transmuted into song,

Or walking close beside me on my way,

Unleashing all the love for which I long.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 10: There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

February 11: In Daylight You’re a Haunting Melody

There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

February 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem to a lover in prison.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are no bars to our embrace,

No presence more than in the heart.

We live our lives with love and grace,

Together still, though still apart.

No presence more than in the heart,

No touch more salient than a dream.

Together still, though still apart,

We are more lucky than we seem.

No touch more salient than a dream,

Though dreams alone must sometimes be.

We are more lucky than we seem

If I trust you, and you trust me.

Though dreams alone must sometimes be,

We live our lives with love and grace.

If I trust you, and you trust me,

There are no bars to our 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/nobars.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 10: There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

It's as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about seeing life's beauty.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

It's as if we were riding in a sealed railroad car.

Life passes by unseen.

Then someone throws open the door.

In the fierce sunlight we sense joy

But cannot clearly see.

How beautiful! we murmur, weeping,

Our tears like music.

Why haven't we known this all along?

In an open field we dance

Under sun and moon and stars all together.

You press my hand. You say:

I can't believe it!

I can't believe life has always been so lovely!

I tell you, my darling,

I tell you now, yes!

Yes, it is, my darling,

Yes. It is.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about the fear of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I am afraid to love, and yet I love you.

My fear is like a wall I walk right through.

The wall is there, and yet it doesn't stop me.

I need it still, and yet I still need you.

I know someday we will be in a field

Surrounded by the blessing of the sky.

I'll dance with all the freedom of pure joy,

Needing you without a reason why.

But now I'm still afraid that I might lose you,

That you might not accept my desperate need.

You make me laugh and cry and be completely.

You are the flower, I the slender reed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about the difficulty of declaring one’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I tell you what I feel for you?

When I think of you my feelings twist inside

As if someone's fist reached in and grabbed a few,

And turned and turned them tight and tangled. I've tried

Somehow to say: You're the sun in my sky,

The wind that takes me where I want to go,

The sweet incense that makes me feel so high

That loving you seems all I need to know.

But it all sticks in my throat! It sounds too cute,

Empty as a wrinkled paper bag.

You won't believe it! Better I stay mute

Than offer you clichés that make you gag.

And yet I wish to tell you of my love,

If only love its own locks would remove!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/howca4.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be JustFriends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem to a friend, asking for something more than friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some people think that friends should be just friends;

To try for more might ruin what they have.

I think the closest friend is one you love,

Sharing life with words and lips and hands.

One caress unravels mysteries

Lodged behind the most elaborate mask.

The revelation's more than worth the risk.

I want with you such sweet simplicities.

I want us to be friends who now are free

To speak with all the languages of touch.

I want to share your anguish with a kiss

And feel your happiness against my cheek.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

Please Don't Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem in which a girl asks a guy out for a casual date.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Please don't spaz if I should ask you out.

A girl can ask a guy out on a date.

If she likes the guy, I mean, why wait?

Taking risks is what it's all about.

So we have some dinner, maybe dance,

Go out to a bar and have a drink.

You ask me this or that and what I think.

No need right away for a romance.

Why not just two people having fun,

Being with each other, nothing more.

And then, or then not, opening a door

To see what else might happen with this one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

How Can One Moment Hold the Work of Years

February 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem from children to parents.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can one moment hold the work of years,

As if time could be gathered in a sea?

Perhaps one might sail upon one's tears,

Pensive in the drift of memory.

Yet now is time to celebrate your love

After many years of loving well.

Now we, whose lives your hearts and spirits move,

Need our joy and happiness to tell.

In your love is our ancestral home.

Vistas in our hearts come from your fields.

Eden rests with you, that we may roam

Rich in dreams that early sunlight yields.

So may you savor this, your special day,

And sweet, sweet memories the time delay,

Recalling with fresh wonderment the life

You've shared so long in love as man and wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/howca7.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 3: How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

February 4: How Can One Moment Hold the Work of Years

How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

February 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem expressing the joy of married love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How wonderful to have you in my life!

All my feelings whirl about my heart!

Perhaps I can't contain that I'm your wife;

Perhaps I don't know how or where to start.

You have me always, no matter what you do:

A gift I give my gift, joyously.

Nothing means as much to me as you;

Nothing else so fully makes me, me.

If I had everything that God could grant,

Very little there would bring me peace.

Enwrapped in you is everything I want:

Rapture, warmth, affection, sweet release.

So strong my love! So happy, sure, and strong!

A thousand thousand years would not seem long!

Reason tells me everything must end,

Yet you will always be my lover-friend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 3: How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 50^th anniversary poem in which one must still make the daily choice to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty years is a long time to be married,

Interweaving lives so thoroughly

Fortune seems like fate. Love seems to carry

The monumental weight of destiny,

Yet love is still a choice since one is free.

Years and generations notwithstanding,

Each day of marriage one must choose anew,

As love long lived in is no less demanding,

Requiring one to make one life of two,

Sharing one’s bright being through and through.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/50yea5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married