Happiness Could Use Some Recognition

November 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the beginning of the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A Happy Holidays poem about the need to celebrate happiness:

Happiness could use some recognition,

A word or two of pleasure and of praise.

Perhaps it's not a matter of cognition.

Perhaps it needs the help of holidays.

Yet there is ample cause for unshed sorrow,

Hapless housemate one can’t leave behind,

Old comrade that will still be there tomorrow

Lest one lose the past and go forth blind.

In holidays there is a happiness

Deep and wide enough to hold the whole,

A truth that is too subtle to express

Yet satisfies enough to still the soul,

Serving as the gift that pays the toll.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ87.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Audio and Video Music: Trust. By Jahzzar. Performed by Jahzzar at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution-ShareAlike license.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays

11/26: All Our Friends Have Come to Play

11/27: Hail to the Season of Remembrance

11/28: Happiness Is Rarely Melody

11/29: Happy Holidays

11/30: Happiness Could Use Some Recognition

Happy Holidays

November 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the beginning of the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A Happy Holidays poem from an ecumenical point of view:

Happy Holidays! Whichever ones

Apply: Jewish, Christian, secular!

People should be less particular,

Perhaps because the labels aren’t sums.

Year's end's a time of darkness, true, but when

Has outer darkness darkened inner light?

Our separate faiths at this sweet time unite,

Lighting one large room beyond our ken.

In celebration there is more than joy:

Days of feasting bind our friendships fast,

A fat and full embrace of things that last,

Yet holy in what sense one might employ,

Savoring all rites that spirits buoy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happyh.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Audio and Video Music: Concerto for 2 Oboes in F Major Op9 no3, 1 Allegro. By Tomaso Albinoni. Performed by the Advent Orchestra at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution- Share Alike license.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays

11/26: All Our Friends Have Come to Play

11/27: Hail to the Season of Remembrance

11/28: Happiness Is Rarely Melody

11/29: Happy Holidays

Happiness Is Rarely Melody

November 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the beginning of the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A Happy Holidays poem describing happiness as the bass voice in a quartet:

Happiness is rarely melody

As other voices jockey for the lead.

Perhaps it is most comfortable as bass,

Pleased to underlie the others' grace,

Yielding to their histrionic need,

Holding up their fragile harmony.

On holidays, however, it becomes

Less self-effacing, stepping forth to sing,

In moments filled with labor, love, and longing,

Deep descants on the beauty of belonging;

After which, again retiring,

Yet not before the harried heart takes wing,

Softly at the base of life it hums.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ33.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Audio and Video Music: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor: Adagio. By Ludwig von Beethoven. Performed by Daniel Veesey at the Free Music Archive under a Public Domain License.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays

11/26: All Our Friends Have Come to Play

11/27: Hail to the Season of Remembrance

11/28: Happiness Is Rarely Melody

Hail to the Season of Remembrance

November 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the beginning of the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A Happy Holidays poem about the function of holidays in preserving bonds of love:

Hail to the season of remembrance!

A time of times both prized and stored away.

Praised be the arts of social grace and semblance,

Put on like clothes to keep the cold at bay.

Years of atrophy require attention,

Hearing but an intermittent song.

On holidays we tend to love’s retention,

Lest time sever ties we would prolong.

In celebration, then, of life and love,

Destiny and hope and hapless mirth,

All ought let the season in them move,

Yielding to the rituals of rebirth,

Sustained by what we know dear friends are worth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hailt2.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Audio and Video Music: Like the Sky. By Damiano Baldoni. Performed by Damiano Baldoni at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution license.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays

11/26: All Our Friends Have Come to Play

11/27: Hail to the Season of Remembrance

All Our Friends Have Come to Play

November 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the beginning of the holiday season is Happy Holidays.

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

A holiday poem for children:

All our friends have come to play

And celebrate the holiday --

The horses with their rainbow wings,

And parrots with a dog that sings,

Three elephants that love to dance --

Careful not to crush the ants! --

A kangaroo

Who looks like you,

And fifteen foxes wearing pants.

Come play with us! Come play! Come play!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/allour.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

Audio and Video Music: Entrance to the Queen of Sheba. By George Frideric Handel. Performed by The Advent Chamber Orchestra at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution-Share Alike license.

This week’s theme: Happy Holidays

11/26: All Our Friends Have Come to Play

Trees Are Grateful, as Are Squash and Squirrels

November 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about gratitude in all living things:

Trees are grateful, as are squash and squirrels,

Hedgehogs, hedges, hummingbirds, and mites,

All that live in houses, reefs, or burrows,

Nests, shells, caves, cracks, walls, streams, toxic sites;

Knowing each its own sweet strain of joy,

Sensing pleasure, hunger, rapture, pain,

Grief and gladness, hopes that spirits buoy,

In hawks and humans, seaweed, grass, and grain;

Vividly in love with life and being,

In which the gift ordains the mystery;

Nor ought one rank the many ways of seeing,

Given the shared wonder of to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

11/22: Time Is a Gift, like Food or Love or Death

11/23: I Look Across

11/24: The Thing I Am Most Thankful for Is Love

11/25: Trees Are Grateful, as Are Squash and Squirrels

The Thing I Am Most Thankful for Is Love

November 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving love poem:

The thing I am most thankful for is love:

Having yours, being able to love you.

It is a gift one takes possession of,

Not something any fortune might undo.

Knowing that you love me is a song

So beautiful I sing it through my day,

Glad to hear my whole world sing along

In harmony with what my feelings say.

Very little in my life is not

Immersed in us, in blessings that we share.

No gift could be more dear than what I’ve got,

Grace more pure than simply that you’re there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theth3.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

11/22: Time Is a Gift, like Food or Love or Death

11/23: I Look Across

11/24: The Thing I Am Most Thankful for Is Love

I Look Across

November 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated yesterday, November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about the beauty of a mountain view:

I look across

The palm of God's great hand

And see the peace

That underlies my pain.

No tragic loss

Or grief can be so grand.

Through life's short lease

Such sights our hearts sustain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ilooka.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

11/22: Time Is a Gift, like Food or Love or Death

11/23: I Look Across

Time Is a Gift, like Food or Love or Death

November 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated today, November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about the gift of time:

Time is a gift, like food or love or death,

However much one wants to live forever.

All that is, is in a single breath.

Now is ample time for each endeavor.

Knowing one will die makes time more precious

Since even music needs a proper end,

Giving each note density and purpose

In a compass one can comprehend.

Vistas have horizons, even though

Infinity still lurks beyond the stars,

Nothing that a grateful soul can know,

Given that one's gift such knowledge bars.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timei2.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

11/22: Time Is a Gift, like Food or Love or Death

There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

November 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated tomorrow, November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about how anyone might turn towards joy:

There is no joy that does not sing of longing,

Having come a long, hard way to love.

All happiness is earned, all bliss belonging,

Nor need one be alone, though lonesome prove.

Kindness is a kind of gratitude,

Sign and source of pleasure in one's being,

Giving thanks by giving, as the shrewd

Invest in what they have small chance of seeing.

Very little time is spent in singing.

Instead, we speak of what we want or need,

Not knowing every minute we are bringing

Gifts to those whose music we might read.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther25.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don't

November 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about fortune as a choice:

The point is what you have, not what you don't.

How can you be happy when you won't?

All of us at times are angry, sad,

Nervous, testy, thinking we've been had,

Knowing life for others turned out better,

Sure that in most dealings we're the debtor.

Granted, granted. But fortune is a choice

In which you find your music and your voice,

Vividly in tune with what you see

If you would live your life harmoniously.

None can choose acceptance without seeing

Gifts that come unsought from simply being.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thepo2.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

November 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A bitter Thanksgiving poem about the viciousness of life:

Tell me, please, whom I ought to thank,

Having come here not of my own will.

All life can seem like a sadistic prank,

Nor can I count the creatures I must kill.

Kids imagine witches, werewolves, ghosts.

Scientists see horrors every day:

Guests that eat the insides of their hosts;

Insects that cut up their living prey.

Viciousness can sometimes seem the main

Ingredient in this well-seasoned stew;

Nor can I live without inflicting pain,

Grace for which I guess I should thank You.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tellme.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

Love Comes to Those Who Love

November 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about love as the cause of love:

Love comes to those who love, who find their joy

In others' joy, their tears in others' tears.

Those in need receive the gifts that buoy

Them through the windswept yearnings of their years.

Weakness is a strength, and power none,

For none has power to compel affection.

Passion to the self-consumed may come,

But love looks for the grace of its reflection.

Love is like a tide that comes and goes,

And comes and goes according to the moon,

Giving and receiving as it flows

Between high headlands weathered and rough-hewn.

For love becomes itself the cause of love,

A double-knot not easy to remove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovec2.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

11/17: Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

11/18: Love Comes to Those Who Love

Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

November 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the need to declare one’s love:

Lest your love lie undisclosed,

Simply say what's in your heart,

With neither eloquence nor art,

Unafraid to be exposed.

Some fear their love might be accepted,

Inspiring an expectation;

Others fear humiliation,

Too restrained to be rejected.

Either way, you're sure to lose

By hiding what you know is true.

The love you feel is merely you

Rendered up to whom you choose.

So say it, let your love be known,

And be more fully who you are!

The fear of pain ought never bar

The joy that else might be your own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lestyo.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

11/17: Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

November 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem comparing love to sunlight on jewels:

Jewels are cut from more than precious stone.

A life, too, is cut to catch the light.

No beauty is refracted when a lone,

Isolated stranger walks the night.

Can you be jewels to each other's sun?

Each needs a light to shine upon the heart,

Awakening the loveliness that one

Never could reveal if still apart.

Do, then, give both sunlight and refraction,

So you may be at once both light and jewel,

Having made your mutual attraction

Attain a glow no single source could fuel.

When two are one, both are at once in play:

Now each heart will the other's light display.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewel2.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

November 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the need to take risks for love:

In love you let the heart do all the thinking

And say with courage simply what seems true.

Time may in good time do the looked-for linking,

But you must know you've done what you can do.

Passion understands far more than reason,

Seeing in the dark with more than sight.

Truth, in truth, can vary with the season,

Nor can you ever know you've got it right.

So throw yourself into the stream of being

And let the moment take you where it will.

Fear does nothing for the bitter keening

That only love's sweet sacrifice can still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/inlove.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

November 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem about love as both giving and taking:

Gifts given freely, out of joy and love,

Are, like the gift of life, conceived in pleasure.

Blest are those whose hearts in that way move,

Receiving more of life than they can measure.

In giving, then, alight with hope and passion,

Each wanting, wanted, desperate with delight,

Lovers incandescent moments fashion,

As meteors slash through a starry night.

No love is strong without its strong demands.

Demons do not need as lovers do!

Love weaves its joys of mutual commands:

In giving pleasure, taking pleasure, too.

So may you give, and find such pleasure there

As lights the darkest dreams of those who care.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/gifts.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

Desire Is

November 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about love and desire:

Desire is

The hook

Love

The eye

Which forgives

More

Than it

Is

Willing to

See

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/desire.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

November 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem about two kinds of love felt simultaneously:

Eventually, we learn that love is as seasonal as potatoes.

Long days of sunshine are followed by short, lusty nights.

Long nights of easeful meditation are followed by doleful, inconsequential days.

Even sex is squeezed by moon, sun, and stars into potato pancakes and candy canes.

Nor do we know what tides pull on our kisses.

Way down deep below the senses is another sort of love,

As equable as the bottom of the sea.

Yet its currents are more powerful than bullrushes,

More seductive than the fragrance of orange blossoms.

At noon it is not heated by the sun,

Nor is it chilled by the midnight mourner’s cries.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/potato.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

Voices of the Dead Are All Around Me

November 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated today, November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem about the unreality of reality after the more compelling reality of war:

Voices of the dead are all around me.

Everyone alive seems much less real.

The smoke and screams and bombs and blood surround me,

Enduring through the love I still can't feel.

Reality is rarely in the present

As truth and falsehood are defined by pain.

Nor can I stand one moment that is pleasant.

Sanity to me just seems insane.

Death is more attractive than a wife,

And loneliness a far less lonely life.

Yet I must turn and somehow live again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/voice2.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

11/8: Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

11/9: Veterans of Wars Unjust or Just

11/10: Victories Are Never Victories

11/11: Voices of the Dead Are All Around Me

Victories Are Never Victories

November 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem calling all wars evil:

Victories are never victories.

Every battle waged is a defeat.

The end contains the seeds of the repeat.

Even heroes will take liberties.

Remember this, then, when you go to war:

Although the cause be just, the means is not.

None can write in blood without a blot

Seeping back beneath the bedroom door.

Death cries for vengeance; destruction for destruction.

A battle plan is always a reduction:

You kill your foe yet murder so much more.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/victo2.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

11/8: Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

11/9: Veterans of Wars Unjust or Just

11/10: Victories Are Never Victories

Veterans of Wars Unjust or Just

November 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem about honoring vets from both just and unjust wars:

Veterans of wars unjust or just

Equally deserve consideration,

Their anger, hatred, fear, and livid lust

Equally in service to their nation.

Remember that the battlefield remains

A place where murder is one's daily duty.

Nor can one be so brutal without stains

Seeping into one's one well of beauty.

Do, then, pay them homage due, for they

Are heroes, though their bitter battles may

Yield peace or conquest, joy or simply pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veter3.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

11/8: Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

11/9: Veterans of Wars Unjust or Just

Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

November 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran's Day poem about the need to honor veterans regardless of whether one approves of their wars:

Veterans have claims upon the hearts

Even of those who railed against their wars.

The years of sacrifice transcend the cause,

Endured through agonies no word imparts.

Reason cannot comprehend such hell,

As strangers murder strangers out of duty.

Nor does the bleak, obscene, nightmarish beauty

Stop haunting dreams that love and rage compel.

Decency demands we do them honor,

Albeit with a hatred of the horror

Yet harrowing our world, alive and well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veter4.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

11/8: Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

Very Soon I'll Hear the Victims' Screams

November 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem about a vet’s recurrent nightmares:

Very soon I'll hear the victims' screams,

Even in the midst of my content,

The end not quite enough to quell the means,

Each nightmare not exactly what I meant.

Recruited in a time of peace, I went

Abroad to serve more adolescent dreams,

Not unaware, of course, I might be sent

Someday to where the widow wails and keens.

Dumb ignorance! For now I must repent

Aberrations no regret redeems,

Yet hounding me like dogs on mayhem bent.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veryso.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

November 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem addressed to parents in a military cemetery:

Vast fields of crosses, all the same,

Each embellished with a name.

This is what your love has wrought!

Embrace the child become a thought,

Reduced to regimented loss,

A name screwed on a plain, white cross!

Nor can you feel what you must feel

Since what is real cannot be real.

Devour the moment, make it yours,

As life continues on all fours,

Yearning, begging at closed doors.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/vastfi.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

Thank You's Howl like Wind Across the Dead

November 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem of thanks to the dead, who can no longer hear:

Thank you's howl like wind across the dead,

Howl dark and cold through trees that cannot speak,

As none below has ears for what we say,

Nor can a smile crease a vanished cheek.

Killing lays all souls on one small bed.

Yet we must thank you for ourselves, to seek

One moment of forgiveness on our way,

Unloosing tears we weep but cannot shed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/vetday.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

Have a Little Hell to Salt Your Heaven

November 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the need to include some horror in one’s life:

Have a little Hell to salt your Heaven,

A dash of horror in your well-whipped cream.

Love and joy are not all you’ve been given.

Let some unsavory nightmare spice your dream!

Open up your long-sealed inner dungeon

Wherein you keep the monsters of your heart.

Enjoy one midnight just a rare smoked smidgeon,

Exquisite taste of what you are, in part,

Night shades for your culinary art!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play

11/3: Hollow, Hollow Halloween

11/4: Have a Little Hell to Salt Your Heaven

Hollow, Hollow Halloween

November 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the plight of lost souls:

Hollow, hollow Halloween,

All hollow at the bone

Like a loud but silent scream

Long entombed in stone.

O hollow, hard, unhallowed souls

Wandering the night:

Ever weep on daylight’s shoals

Even as the matin tolls,

Never reaching light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hollow.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play

11/3: Hollow, Hollow Halloween

Horror Is a Kind of Play

November 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the real-life function of Halloween horror:

Horror is a kind of play,

A need to undergo

Life along the borderline,

Lest death be just a name.

On Halloween we dream away

What wailing we well know,

Enchanted by the danger sign

Each savors up and down the spine,

Near haunts that are no game.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/horror.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play

Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

November 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which was celebrated yesterday, Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about how much scary creatures delight in scaring people:

Hobgoblins know the proper way to dance:

Arms akimbo, loopy legs askew,

Leaping into darkness with delight,

Lusting for the ecstasy of fright,

Open to the charm of horrors new.

Well may you start your screaming in advance,

Even as you give a ghoul a chance,

Each creepy creature craving to say, "Boo!",

Near heaven in its netherworld of night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hobgob.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance