Facts Are Less Reliable than Dreams

April 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, ironically for April Fool’s Day, is truth.

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

A philosophical number poem about facts, dreams, and truths:

Facts are less reliable than dreams,

On which one’s future happiness depends.

Unless the moon of one’s ambitions gleams,

Reason will homogenize one’s ends.

There is no fact that goes beyond the fact,

Embracing all the bliss of what might be.

Each dream creates a truth the truth may lack,

Now sailing with the wind far out to sea!

© 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/facts2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Truth

4/1: Facts Are Less Reliable than Dreams

Become the Person That You Want to Be

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

A Bat-Mitzvah poem for a girl’s first Torah reading about the choice of faith:

Become the person that you want to be,

Always faithful to your better self,

The one you must be honest with, or else*

Miss the grace of inner unity.

If you don’t have faith, then that’s your truth,

Though you don’t need faith to be a Jew.

Zealous faith and prayer may not be you.

Values, symbols, memories need no proof.

A Jew is both by birthright and by choice.

Here’s the song – now lend it, or not, your voice.

*For a Bar-Mitzvah poem for a boy: … self./Remember to confide in it or else

© 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/become.html. For more poems about Judaism, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jewishpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

3/27: Six Years Old? How Can That Be

3/28: You’re Seven Years Old

3/29: Eight Years Old! A Happy Time

3/30: Eleven Is the Very Best Age to Be

3/31: Become the Person That You Want to Be

Eleven Is the Very Best Age to Be

March 30, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

An eleventh birthday poem saying that each age is the best age equally:

Eleven is the very best age to be!

Like ten and twelve, thirteen, eight, and seven.

Each age is the best age equally.

Very strange, but true. And so eleven

Enters your life as the best age ever for you.

Now’s always best. Don’t you think so, too?

© 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/11isth.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

3/27: Six Years Old? How Can That Be

3/28: You’re Seven Years Old

3/29: Eight Years Old! A Happy Time

3/30: Eleven Is the Very Best Age to Be

Eight Years Old! A Happy Time

March 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

An eighth birthday poem saying that eight is just the right age for an eight year old:

Eight years old! A happy time!

Is it just right for you?

Good! Because you aren’t nine!

Happiness comes to

Those who love what’s true.

© 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/8year2.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

3/27: Six Years Old? How Can That Be

3/28: You’re Seven Years Old

3/29: Eight Years Old! A Happy Time

You're Seven Years Old

March 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

A seventh birthday poem about the birthday child as the star of the day:

You're seven years old! Hooray! Hooray!

Now isn't this your lucky day?

You'll get a cake, and presents, too,

And all this hoopla, just for you!

Now aren't you special? Aren't you great?

The person that we celebrate?

Oh, yes! Oh yes! You are! You are!

On your birthday, you're the star!

© 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/youre7.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

3/27: Six Years Old? How Can That Be

3/28: You’re Seven Years Old

Six Years Old? How Can That Be

March 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

A sixth birthday poem about how swiftly time goes by:

Six years old? How can that be?

Just weeks ago, you were three!

I remember! Yes, I do!

Just months ago, you were two!

Oh, my! Oh, my! The time goes by!

And now you're six? Please tell me, why?

© 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/6years.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

3/27: Six Years Old? How Can That Be

You're Five

March 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

A fifth birthday poem about how long the child has been alive:

You're five! You're five!

So long alive!

So many years

You've had your ears!

And had your nose!

And had your toes!

So Happy Birthday, little one!

We hope you have a lot of fun!

© 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/yourfi.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

3/26: You’re Five

Brenda Is Four

March 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is children’s birthdays.

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

A fourth birthday poem about how fast a child grows:

Brenda is four!

Soon she'll grow more.

Soon she won't fit

Through the front door!

Soon she'll be bigger

Than you ever saw --

Too big for the house!

Too big for the floor!

Ouch! Brenda cried

As she fell through the floor.

And what do you know?

Soon she'll grow 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/brenda.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Children’s Birthdays

3/25: Brenda Is Four

Joy Is Not a Treasure You Can Lose

March 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a musician:

Joy is not a treasure you can lose.

Unless you will not, you will be consoled.

Linger with me long as you may choose.

In music as in life no joy is cold.

Undo, then, the tight corset of your grief

So that you might enjoy the moment's keening.

Give ear to music, eloquent though brief,

Restoring to the miracle its meaning.

Of all we think and feel and say and do,

So little, really, must be bound by time.

Still palpable, I'm here with all of you,

Musical as ever in this rhyme.

All I was, I am, and yet will be,

No less in love, although in memory.

© 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/joyisn.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

3/21: Clarity Is Something That I Savored

3/22: All of You Must Know How Much I Loved You

3/23: Do Believe I’ll Never Leave You

3/24: Joy Is Not a Treasure You Can Lose

Do Believe I'll Never Leave You

March 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph from a father, addressed to his children:

Do believe I'll never leave you:

Always I'll be in your heart.

Don't forget my soul is near you:

Death might take my presence from you,

Yet we'll never be apart.

© 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/daddy.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

3/21: Clarity Is Something That I Savored

3/22: All of You Must Know How Much I Loved You

3/23: Do Believe I’ll Never Leave You

All of You Must Know How Much I Loved You

March 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a mother, addressed to her children:

All of you must know how much I loved you.

Never did I stint on saying so.

In death you were the song that let me go

To sleep in beauty, dancing as I sang you.

And though I'm gone, don't think that I'll forget you.

Just think of me as waiting, even though,

Agnostic or believer, you may know

No certainty beyond what love can tell you.

Each of you still lives within my heart.

Though I am not, I am. So is the truth

Opposed to sense, more relevant than thought.

What is, is often what could never be.

Nor need you grieve, though we may seem apart.

Sing with me, as we look back with ruth,

Each the source of what sweet balm we sought,

No mother and children more in touch than we,

Deep within life's unsolved mystery.

© 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/allofy.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

3/21: Clarity Is Something That I Savored

3/22: All of You Must Know How Much I Loved You

Clarity Is Something That I Savored

March 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a woman who devoted her life to social change:

Clarity is something that I savored,

Lending reason to a worthy cause.

An uncommitted life is not worth living,

Relinquishing the claims for the rewards,

Embracing the illusions of the favored.

Remember me as one who never wavered,

Obeying stubbornly the highest laws,

Defending what had little chance of winning,

Not caring for the consequence, or giving

Even one brief glance at waiting jaws,

Yet loving well the world for which I labored.

© 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/clarity.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

3/21: Clarity Is Something That I Savored

Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

March 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for someone for whom death was a release from pain:

Unlike some, to me death was a gift:

No longer to live pointlessly in pain.

Choosing death, I might have on my own

Let loose the darkness gathered in my heart,

Except that luck has seen the matter through.

How simple, then, to let one's fortunes drift

Away from one, nor care for loss or gain.

Remember me as one who, not alone,

Relinquished well my moorings, to depart

Yet not without a backward glance towards 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/unlike.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

March 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a university professor devoted to reason:

Reason is a calling of the heart.

One rarely reasons deeply but for love.

Best thought is passionate, a well-wrought art

Endeavoring to free as much as prove.

Remember me, then, for the many loves

That with reason I once sought to serve,

And the people that my spirit moved,

Returning far more joy than I deserved.

Eventually, all one gives one gains.

Years and people pass; the love remains.

© 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/reaso4.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

Bulldogs Don't Let Go of What They've Got

March 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a construction worker:

Bulldogs don’t let go of what they’ve got.

Enduring love requires tenacity,

Requires strength and dogged loyalty.

No bulldog latches on to what is not.

All I asked of life was what I had.

Reality was rhapsody enough.

Days of tense, hard labor might be tough;

Well worth it to come home and be called Dad.

“Accept” bears no resemblance to “submit.”

Yielding is no match for an embrace.

Maybe life is hard, but one can place

A chair outside the door and simply sit,

Not needing more to be consumed by grace.

© 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/bulldo.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

So Shall the Singer Serve the Song

March 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about service:

So shall the singer serve the song;

The speaker, the sense; the self, the soul.

Praised be the part that serves the whole,

And the lover, the love that is loyal and long!

To serve is a gift that not all enjoy,

Recounting with relish the lust one might lose,

Imagining pleasures one would not refuse,

Craving a grace that would one’s grace destroy,

Knowing a truth one is too vain to choose.

© 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/sosha3.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

3/16: So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

3/17: So Shall the Singer Serve the Song

So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

March 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about crime and reconciliation:

So how long should England pay for what it did

To Ireland? Or India? Or Kenya?

Perhaps justice would require a famine,

A few million dead, its stolen wealth

Taken back by those from whom it came.

Remember well the crimes, and on the grid

In history’s ledgers enter in full the terror.

Choose truth and reconciliation, else,

Kind for kind, there is no end to 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/sohowl.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

3/16: So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

St. Patrick's Day Celebrates the Turning

March 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the importance of historical events to all:

St. Patrick's Day commemorates the turning

To Christianity of Irish clans.

Perhaps, if you're not Irish, there's no burning

Ache to march, so you've got other plans.

The day, however, marks a special moment

Regarding the persuasion of us all.

Islands are not islands of the spirit;

Callings come to more than hear the call.

Know that we are one, and Irish monks

'Ere we were born redeemed us with their prayers,

Sang our chants and gave our gracious thanks,

Died our deaths and climbed our golden stairs.

All changed for all after Patrick's day;

Years turn, and yet their winds within us 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/stpat2.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

March 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about both inner and outer saints and inner and outer snakes:

St. Patrick rid the emerald isle of snakes,

Though only those that crawl upon the ground.

Perhaps not even he had what it takes,

Although a puissant saint, and well renowned,

To cast out those whose children still abound.

Remaining in our hearts, as when of old

In Eden green they tempted us to sin,

Cold and lean they grow more passing bold,

Knowing we've cast out the saint within.

© 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/stpatr.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

March 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the ubiquity of God’s love:

Sinners all, we ask for Your forgiveness

As we await the hour of Your return.

If only grace were something one could earn!

Nor can we hope to imitate Your goodness.

The saints know well the hopelessness of being

Put upon the pedestal of faith

As though we had already gained Your grace.

The heart is naked to Your restless seeking.

Regard us all, then, equally with love:

In saints and vicious pederasts find lovers,

Cherishing not one above the others,

Knowing none has anything to prove.

© 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/sinner.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

March 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day love poem:

Sing me a love song for my Irish boy;

Take from me my heart, my head, my home;

Pass to him my body, life, and joy;

Add to his my fields of fertile loam.

To him I am and will be earth and heaven,

Resting in the sanctum of his fire;

In me he'll find all his gods have given,

Creating dynasties of his desire.

Know, my love, that I will come to you

'Ere this sun has set on Patrick's Day;

So you must find the courage to be true,

Daring to give other dreams away.

After this leap, all loneliness is past:

Years may come and go, but love will last.

© 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/singme.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

Sing in Celebration of Your Race

March 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the effect of ethnicity on one’s personality:

Sing in celebration of your race,

The anonymous composer of your song,

Passionate provider of your grace,

A host to which you cannot help belong.

Take a day to sing of who you are,

Rejoicing in the choice of what must be,

In gratitude for what, beyond the bar,

Chooses in dark joy one's history.

Know the lineaments of ancient lore

'Ere you feel and act, and know not why.

Stories long forgotten lie in store,

Destined for revision by and by.

All you are and do is not by chance,

Yet you may face your partners as you dance.

© 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/singi2.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

How Can I Have a Fight with My Best Friend

March 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about fearing love after fights:

How can I have a fight with my best friend?

The mountain blows, the landscape is destroyed.

A desert where there once were fields and gardens.

Black lava where flowers once brought joy.

And then shoots of grass come through the blackness;

Slowly love asserts itself again.

He calls, I cry, we go through days of whispers,

And fields once more grow lush in sun and rain.

Ah! but now I'm fearful of the mountain:

I walk by trembling, set for it to blow.

Life's beautiful, but also very painful;

I have the strength to love, now that I know.

© 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/howca3.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

3/6: Love Lingers in the Alleyways

3/7: The Apartment Is Dark

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

3/9: When Love Is an Affliction

3/10: How Can I Have a Fight with My Best Friend

When Love Is an Affliction

March 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the fear of breaking up a painful love:

When love is an affliction,

There's not much one can do.

Despite the way you've treated me,

I'm still in love with you.

I am the wave and you the rock

Against which I must break:

Again, again the crushing jolt,

The pain I can't forsake;

Again, again the long retreat

To safety, far from shore,

And then again, I don't know why,

The long trip back for more.

Perhaps it is nostalgia for

A long uncertain glow,

Or just some hope so beautiful

I cannot let it go.

Perhaps it is the need to try

For those who must depend

On who we are and what we do,

For whom this should not end.

What evil makes you hurt me so,

What defect of the heart?

What sense there is no greater whole

Of which you are a part?

What lonely choice that only you

Be served by what you choose?

What hard, hard fear of losing what

It is a gift to lose?

I dream sometimes my waiting love

Has made you turn again.

But you care only for yourself,

And I must love in vain.

© 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/whenlo.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

3/6: Love Lingers in the Alleyways

3/7: The Apartment Is Dark

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

3/9: When Love Is an Affliction

You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

March 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about a healthy fear of love that is not mutual:

You wrote your name upon her thigh

And looked at me. I wondered why

You hurt me so. What demon drew

You on to be so not like you?

Sometimes it seems you want to cause

Me grief, as if to test the loss

Of me, to see how much sweet pain

You need to feel alive again.

I love you, yet I fear a love

In which my function is to prove

Repeatedly you cannot lose

The thing you want but cannot choose.

I stay in hopes that you will see

Someday you cannot hope to be

Both fully loved and fully free,

For love comes only mutually.

© 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/youwro.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

3/6: Love Lingers in the Alleyways

3/7: The Apartment Is Dark

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

The Apartment Is Dark

March 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the calm after a tempestuous breakup:

The apartment is dark.

I like it that way.

Through unshaded windows

I look across the street.

People there have lights on.

I see them through curtains.

A muscular young man

Washes dishes with his wife.

A woman drinks beer

In the blue light of TV.

On the top floor a mother,

A daughter, a daughter:

Three without men.

Next door an old couple

Smothers the fear

Of who will die first.

In a singles bar

I meet a woman

And have nothing to say.

Too many times

I have said the same things.

I watch here in darkness,

In the peace of aloneness,

And think about me,

And think about 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/aptdar.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

3/6: Love Lingers in the Alleyways

3/7: The Apartment Is Dark

Love Lingers in the Alleyways

March 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about fearing the chains of love, and fearing the loss of what love might destroy:

Love lingers in the alleyways

And wafts across the streets,

And knocks upon my double doors

But never does come in.

Love finds a home in entrance ways

And rattles round retreats,

And scurries past the faint applause

Just two doors down from sin.

Ah! Would I love would I but know

What love might have in store!

For I have fears of heavy chains

That jangle in my joy.

And I have fears of floods that flow

From asking life for more.

Silent, I prefer the gains

Such tempests would destroy.

© 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/loveli.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

3/6: Love Lingers in the Alleyways

There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

March 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem to someone in pain who is afraid to love again:

There is no life without its share of pain,

Nor can you love and not feel agony,

A need whose hunger drives you near insane,

A state in which you must, but cannot be.

There is no cure, nor anything to say,

Nor any aspirin for unhappiness.

Other friends and loves will come your way

And then pass on through death or faithlessness.

And so if you would ever dwell in joy,

You must embrace the agony of sorrow.

Time will all you love and need destroy,

But you will heal to love again tomorrow.

© 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/isno2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

3/5: There Is No Life Without Its Share of Pain

Your Fear Is Not Surprising

March 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem to someone who is afraid to love:

Your fear is not surprising.

It's always ended badly:

Fury, betrayals, recriminations.

Then, for days and weeks and months

An agony worse than grief

Because you also feel like such a fool.

Love is like diving or rock climbing:

Spectacular, but your heart sticks in your mouth

Every moment you're there.

There's an ease in not caring,

A looseness in the belly.

Then, as love approaches, a knot tightens like a snake.

Being alone and free is like looking in from outside:

People give and get affection,

Are seized by extraordinary happiness and pain,

Live in prison and in heaven,

Deal with the necessity of working on what must be worked out,

While you watch them as if they were on TV.

Life is full of love and difficulty.

Its riches cannot be gotten at except through choice.

You must enter it by loving this person or that person,

And people inevitably fall short of your hopes.

But to live and not love, and not be loved,

Is like spending your entire life alone in your room.

© 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/yourfe.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/4: Your Fear Is Not Surprising

Nine: A Number Poem About the Last Single-Digit Age

March 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is one-digit number poems for children under ten.

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

A number poem to a nine year old about the last single-digit age:

Nine is the last single-digit age.

In a year, you’ll require two.

Now, though, it’s too soon to turn the page.

Enjoy this last year of one-digit 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/9b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: One-Digit Number Poems for Children under Ten

2/25: One: A poem about delight in simply being.

2/26: Three: A poem about the gift of childhood imagination.

2/27: Four: A poem about the secret of happiness.

2/28: Five: A poem about what five year olds like.

3/1: Six: A poem about the power of the imagination.

3/2: Eight: A poem about childhood fantasies.

3/3: Nine: A poem about the last single-digit age.

Eight: A Poem About Childhood Fantasies

March 2, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is one-digit number poems for children under ten.

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

A number poem for an eight year old focusing on childhood fantasies:

Eight year olds have fantasies of power:

In space or castles old, or under sail,

Grappling against darkness they prevail.

However foul the night or bleak the hour,

Troll-spirits wake, and dream a hero's tale.

© 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/8.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: One-Digit Number Poems for Children under Ten

2/25: One: A poem about delight in simply being.

2/26: Three: A poem about the gift of childhood imagination.

2/27: Four: A poem about the secret of happiness.

2/28: Five: A poem about what five year olds like.

3/1: Six: A poem about the power of the imagination.

3/2: Eight: A poem about childhood fantasies.

Six: A Poem About the Power of the Imagination

March 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is one-digit number poems for children under ten.

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

A number poem for a six year old about the power of the imagination:

Six-year-olds love acting out their parts.

Imagination underlies all arts,

X-ing out the humdrum in their hearts.

© 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/6b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: One-Digit Number Poems for Children under Ten

2/25: One: A poem about delight in simply being.

2/26: Three: A poem about the gift of childhood imagination.

2/27: Four: A poem about the secret of happiness.

2/28: Five: A poem about what five year olds like.

3/1: Six: A poem about the power of the imagination.