The Pride I Feel Is Nothing like the Pride

May 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the significance of the learning that led the degree:

The pride I feel is nothing like the pride

Of one who's made it through the thousand gates

That stand between one's hopes and one's degree.

How much have you learned? And what inside

Equals your diploma, which equates

Grades and credits with reality?

Remember: Your achievement is not only

A tribute to the things that you have done,

Determined as you have been to succeed.

Underneath the sign is still the story,

A tale of what through learning you've become,

The graduate to those who records read,

Even as you sail to shores unknown.

© 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/thepri.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation

4/29: These Past Few Years Have Not Been Easy for Me

4/30: The Years of Getting Ready Are Now Over

5/1: The Pride I Feel Is Nothing like the Pride

The Years of Getting Ready Are Now Over

April 30, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the challenges that await:

The years of getting ready are now over.

On you now lies the burden of your life.

The teachers that await you will be tougher,

Having need to use you for their wealth.

Even so, you stand upon tall shoulders,

Granted the sweet chance to be prepared,

Ready to assume the work of others,

Anxious for the wind that bears your word.

Do well, my dear one! All my love goes with you

Underneath the rhythm of your day,

An organ tone that will not wane or waver

Though you run through the gates that mark your way,

Exultant in your work as in your 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/theyea.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation

4/29: These Past Few Years Have Not Been Easy for Me

4/30: The Years of Getting Ready Are Now Over

These Past Few Years Have Not Been Easy for Me

April 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A thank-you poem from a graduate to his or her family:

These past few years have not been easy for me.

How I made it through them, I can't say.

All your love has helped me reach this day.

Now I cast my thanks upon your sea,

Knowing of the love that's there for me,

Yearning all these years for what’s now mine.

Only in that love can I define,

Unloosing all my fears, my self-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/thesep.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation

4/29: These Past Few Years Have Not Been Easy for Me

Zion National Park

April 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the beauty of Zion National Park:

Zion Canyon is the work of water

In concert with the winds that shape the heart.

One sees a grandeur equal to one's wonder;

Nor can one be, but of such grace a part.

© 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/zion.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

4/25: Thirty-Two Guards Well a Sacred Place

4/26: Twenty-Five Remembers When the World

4/27: Bryce Canyon National Park

4/28: Zion National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

April 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the beauty of Bryce Canyon National Park:

Bryce Canyon is a crumbling sculpture garden

Resting in a giant cup of stone,

Yielding in a golden wash of sun

Colors so intense as to awaken

Embers of a love from time unknown.

© 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/bryce.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

4/25: Thirty-Two Guards Well a Sacred Place

4/26: Twenty-Five Remembers When the World

4/27: Bryce Canyon National Park

Twenty-Five Remembers When the World

April 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A number poem about the harmony between humans and their environment before the domestication of plants and animals:

Twenty-five remembers when the world

Was not our slave, when rivers danced and sang

Entering their gauntlets, when grass and fire

Needed each other, and earth and flood. The choir

Then sang full throated, the food each season sprang

Yet thrashing to the feasts of those who served.

For thousands of millennia we lived

In harmony with those we ate, their spirits

Vested momently in flesh, their avid

Embers still in love with those who grieved.

© 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/25b.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

4/25: Thirty-Two Guards Well a Sacred Place

4/26: Twenty-Five Remembers When the World

Thirty-Two Guards Well a Sacred Place

April 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A number poem about the psychological significance of wilderness:

Thirty-two guards well a sacred place,

Hallowed not by faith but by raw beauty.

In wilderness one finds an ancient other,

Remnant of a long-forsaken mother,

To safeguard which is both a joy and duty.

Years pass, yet he will guarantee this grace.

Tough and succulent, bare-boned and fruity,

Wilderness presents the world full face,

Over which no qualm has thrown its cover.

© 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/32g.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

4/25: Thirty-Two Guards Well a Sacred Place

Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

April 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the psychological significance of mountains:

Mountains mark the boundaries of our dreams.

Over them lies nothing more than Heaven.

Use them to take well your wistful measure,

Nor can you enter them without the pleasure

That comes from being dwarfed by one great given,

As Being becomes just the God it seems.

In awe one finds a tonic for the soul,

Needing to pay homage to the whole,

Silent angel swelling sacred streams.

© 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/mount2.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

4/24: Mountains Mark the Boundaries of Our Dreams

Global Warning

April 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about our responsibility to save all of life from our destructive ways:

Global warning,

Likening us to lichens

Or pairing us with pandas

Because we are bone of one bone

And flesh of one flesh:

Life can end.

What would we?

Are we driven to be driven?

Revved to rev?

Need we what we need?

If each cell is a cellmate,

Now all may lose all,

Given that life is not a given.

© 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/global.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmental/poems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

4/23: Global Warning

And These Are the Islands

April 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the environment, in honor of Earth Day, which is celebrated today, April 22, and Arbor Day, which is celebrated on April 26.

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

A poem about the increasing destruction of hurricanes and typhoons due to global warming:

And these are the islands, tiny green drops

On the broad bright blue canvas of tropical seas.

And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops,

Swallowing mountains as the sea swallows rocks,

Swallowing churches and children and trees,

Swallowing islands like tiny green drops

With their warehouses, schoolhouses, dollhouses, shops,

With their dreams and intentions and sweet fantasies,

All smashed by the great white wheels spinning like tops

That gorge on the profits of energy stocks

And the fumes of our lust for convenience and ease,

Heedless of islands like tiny green drops

And the people who live on them tending their crops

Or working in offices, homes, factories,

Devoured by monsters spinning like tops

In a line of disasters no tragedy stops

Despite the raw poignance of powerless pleas …

And these are the islands, tiny green drops.

And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops.

© 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/andthe.html. For more poems about the environment, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/environmentalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Environment

4/22: And These Are the Islands

Each Soul Is like a River Bearing Love

April 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover was on April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated today, April 21^st.

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

An Easter poem about soul and the self:

Each soul is like a river bearing love

Across a desert thirsty for its treasure,

Sliding towards the sea, where it will lose

The self, which would its burden weigh and measure,

Even as it irrigates green fields,

Rewarded by the grace its gift reveals.

© 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/eachso.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

4/20: Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

4/21: Each Soul Is like a River Bearing Love

Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

April 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover was on April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A poem for both Easter and Passover for someone who is of both Jewish and Christian heritage:

Every holiday makes life more special

And waters well the roots of one’s relations.

Some are more and some are less essential,

Though all are built upon the same foundations.

Each holiday, of course, has its own story,

Religion, rites, meaning, icons, beauty,

Practices that perpetuate some glory,

All mitzvot combining joy and duty.

Still, if one’s a bridge between two cultures,

Savoring the holidays of both,

One can see, beneath their varied pleasures,

Vaults haunted by the same primeval ghosts.

Each soul depends on holidays to be

Restored to an else unclaimed legacy.

© 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/everyh.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

4/20: Every Holiday Makes Life More Special

Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

April 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is tonight, April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A Passover poem about the Seder, or Passover meal:

Perhaps a meal ought not bear so much weight.

A dining room is not a synagogue.

Sometimes, however, food's a pedagogue.

Sometimes one's best text is what one ate.

One finds in food the sense in many senses,

Vested in a symbol that will last.

Even as a people needs its past,

Ritual foods dismantle time's defenses.

© 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/perha6.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

4/19: Perhaps a Meal Ought Not Bear So Much Weight

Here We Have a Story for the World

April 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A Passover poem about the universality and endurance of the story of Passover:

Here we have a story for the world,

A tale of justice served and freedom won,

Principles of goodness, universal,

Printed out on stone by God's own hand.

Yes, the past was bloody, and the old

Promise was by faithlessness undone.

And wonders ceased, memories turned brittle,

Shadows fell, and love turned into land.

Still, the story breathes the air of worlds

Old and new, a tale not writ in stone,

Vast as the hard history of a people

Ever changing, ever one, a grand

Recital running through time's glass like sand.

© 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/herew2.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

4/18: Here We Have a Story for the World

Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

April 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

An Easter poem about emotional resurrection:

Everyone at times is resurrected.

A person’s passion needs to be reborn.

So some turmoil ought to be expected;

Troubled feelings ought not be rejected;

Each muddled midnight leads one to the dawn,

Restoring the sweet sun one thought was gone.

© 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/every9.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

4/17: Everyone at Times Is Resurrected

Each Moment Is a Miracle

April 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

An Easter poem about the miracle of each moment:

Each moment is a miracle,

An is that cannot be,

Singing down an alleyway

That leads to unobstructed day,

Each soul a canticle

Rising from the 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/eachm3.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

4/16: Each Moment Is a Miracle

Every Garden Needs Diversity

April 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter and Passover. The first night of Passover is April 19^th, and Easter is celebrated on April 21^st.

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

A poem for both Easter and Passover about the need for diversity:

Every garden needs diversity,

As grace and function both require it.

So ought gardeners desire it

To make a rich and robust harmony.

Every faith needs faiths that it might be

Resistant to the skeptics who surround it,

Pleased to have believers all around it –

Although segmented, a community.

So is life impoverished by a sameness

Self-imposed to ward off painful change,

Often through a fear that faith be lost.

Very little that one does is blameless.

Each embrace is not without its cost,

Redeemed by love, to which no soul is strange.

© 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/everyg.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html . For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Easter and Passover

4/15: Every Garden Needs Diversity

As Though I Were Just Flowing, Flowing

April 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem from the point of view of someone with Alzheimer’s:

As though I were just flowing, flowing,

Leaving not a trace behind,

Zest for life not one whit less,

However blank the roving mind;

Emptiness the space for being

In the moving moment still,

Meaning nothing more than meaning,

Each ellipse elliptical;

Reminiscences like flowers

'Ere the garden was convened,

So sweet the disconnected hours . . .

© 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/asthou.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

4/10: When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

4/11: Grace Comes with a Patina of Pain

4/12: Forty-Nine Is on the Edge of Fifty

4/13: Fractures Rarely Heal Right on Their Own

4/14: As Though I Were Just Flowing, Flowing

Fractures Rarely Heal Right on Their Own

April 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the healing both of fractured bones and fractured feelings:

Fractures rarely heal right on their own.

One must set them with great care and skill.

Remember that the healing power of bone

Takes over once the site is left alone,

Yielding to some autonomic will.

Feelings fracture on a bed of stone.

One sets them and they heal – just like bone,

Uniting heart to heart as fractures fill,

Restored to happiness by that same will.

© 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/fractu.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

4/10: When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

4/11: Grace Comes with a Patina of Pain

4/12: Forty-Nine Is on the Edge of Fifty

4/13: Fractures Rarely Heal Right on Their Own

Forty-Nine Is on the Edge of Fifty

April 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about handling the aging process:

Forty-nine is on the edge of fifty,

Offering a glimpse of flinty age.

Reason says, of course, he's in his forties,

Too youthful – and too young – to turn the page.

Yet life must amble on from stage to stage.

Now his spirit seems quite hale and hearty --

Infinite, in fact, though it engage

No less in time than his well-tended body,

Each requiring care, sustained and sage.

© 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/49d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

4/10: When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

4/11: Grace Comes with a Patina of Pain

4/12: Forty-Nine Is on the Edge of Fifty

Grace Comes with a Patina of Pain

April 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A get-well-soon poem about the inevitability of pain:

Grace comes with a patina of pain.

Each creature must endure what it desires.

There are days one would not wish again,

When all one is, is wish till pain expires.

Expire it does in time, and will for you,

Lest it seem as though time will not run,

Lounging by the bed though dawn is due,

Sensing savagely you want it gone.

Oh, yes, we know that this is life, and we

Owe life both pain and joy. The will to be

Needs sometimes to rest till pain is done.

© 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/grace2.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

4/10: When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

4/11: Grace Comes with a Patina of Pain

When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

April 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about both the isolation and need for companionship of someone in pain:

When life becomes a sea of pain

And every moment agony

I must endure again, again,

It is a curse to have to be.

And every moment agony,

And every longing fixed on death;

It is a curse to have to be

And fight by instinct for each breath.

And every longing fixed on death

Even as I must go on

And fight by instinct for each breath,

Sailing thus, though loved, alone.

Even as I must go on,

You watch me helpless from the shore;

Sailing thus, though loved, alone,

I need you with me all the more.

You watch me helpless from the shore

As I endure again, again;

I need you with me all the more

When life becomes a sea of 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/whenli.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

4/10: When Life Becomes a Sea of Pain

Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

April 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about running for one’s health:

Thirty-eight is running for her life.

Health, of course, is her concern, not fear.

It seems that humankind was born to run,

Regardless whether after game or from,

There being early on just axe and spear.

Yet even now, a daily run feels right.

Evolved to use our bodies, we must fight

Illnesses whose provenance is clear,

Grappling with the damage we have done,

Healing ourselves by running, running where

The labor of our longing greets the 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/38i.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

4/9: Thirty-Eight Is Running for Her Life

Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

April 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A get-well-soon poem about enduring pain:

Give your pain a bit of gratitude.

Endure it with due deference to its cause.

The healing instruments could not intrude

Without obeying certain natural laws.

Each moment is a step towards getting well,

Light shining past the doorway of your pain.

Let time take you gently through this hell,

Sure that time will heal what wounds remain.

One lives in hope yet suffers in despair,

Often bearing more than one can bear,

Needing time to savor time 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/givey2.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Health

4/8: Give Your Pain a Bit of Gratitude

Even When the Sky Is Stone

April 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the role of imagination in perception:

Even when the sky is stone

The earth is free to sing;

The best potatoes know the songs

That season every spring.

Even when the wall is dry

The paint is not asleep;

Some foul-mouthed cuckoo keeps it up

With jokes that make us weep.

Even when the frog is free

It may not know the dance;

What good is it to have the right

And leave the choice to chance?

Even when the water's clear

Things aren't what they seem;

To understand the simplest words

There is a need to dream.

© 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/skysto.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

4/3: What You Think You Know, You Don’t

4/4: A Double-Blind Study Is Truly Doubly Blind

4/5: Beverly

4/6: Each Moment Is a Word of Glass

4/7: Even When the Sky Is Stone

Each Moment Is a Word of Glass

April 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about words and the perception of reality:

Each moment is a word of glass;

Each life, within a bubble sealed.

No pleasure save what one has said,

No love save self in glass concealed.

How shall we gaze like fiery stars

Upon this gallery of breath?

One says only what one is;

There is no rostrum beyond death.

Speak, then, of dancing particles

Within the curvature of eyes,

And with equations sow the seeds

Upon which data crystallize;

While in the forests lovers gleam

Like whispers on a moonlit stream.

© 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/wordgl.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

4/3: What You Think You Know, You Don’t

4/4: A Double-Blind Study Is Truly Doubly Blind

4/5: Beverly

4/6: Each Moment Is a Word of Glass

Beverly

April 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about language and perception:

Beverly enjoys a conversation.

Even when alone, she chatters on

Vivaciously, convivial as a bird,

Eager in pursuit of some bright word.

Reality to her is a relation:

Language is the sculptor of sensation

Yielding to the wisdom of the stone.

© 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/bev.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

4/3: What You Think You Know, You Don’t

4/4: A Double-Blind Study Is Truly Doubly Blind

4/5: Beverly

A Double-Blind Study Is Truly Doubly Blind

April 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the limitations of double-blind studies:

A double-blind study is truly doubly blind:

First, because it thinks it's in control;

Second, because it's in too much control,

Masking viscera with the face of mind.

Being's neither linear nor lined;

Cause and effect are interactive; the whole

Disintegrates divided into parts; the goal

Must be with more humility defined.

One sees by flashlight; variables unknown

Cannot be controlled; nothing is

Isolable; each moment is unique.

Yes, statistics help, but they are prone

To hide what might be missing. Scientists quiz

The world and get the answers that they seek.

© 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/adoubl.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

4/3: What You Think You Know, You Don’t

4/4: A Double-Blind Study Is Truly Doubly Blind

What You Think You Know, You Don't

April 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the need for skepticism, especially when dealing with the truth about oneself:

What you think you know, you don't,

And what you don't, you do,

If you know that you don't know

What you think is true.

From inside out, you're pretty sure

That you are who you are.

But then, from outside in, some comment

Leaves a door ajar.

You cannot help but take a peek

At what your life has been

To someone else, a person whom

You now can glimpse within.

And there you are a stranger to

Yourself, for what you see

Is nothing like the person who

You thought that you would be.

So who are you? What's the truth

Of you? You'll never know.

For there is simply nothing, nothing,

Nothing simply so.

© 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/whatyo.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

4/3: What You Think You Know, You Don’t

The Truth Is Far Too Truthful

April 2, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the need to handle truth with care:

The truth is far too truthful for

The literalness of light.

Best to serve it tastefully

On little pools of night.

Secrets are as natural

As shadows in the sun.

Those who would tell all ought tell

A priest, a god, a stone.

There are parts of everyone

That no one wants to share.

Truth is good, but only when

It's detoxed with great 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/thetru.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

4/2: The Truth Is Far Too Truthful