Poem of the Week: June 2019

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

6/29: Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

6/30: Flowers Symbolize Unbridled Passion

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

June 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem about how love grows stronger over time:

Exactly when did love come to your hearts,

Vesting something one in something twain,

Exchanging simple wholes for complex parts,

Less purely self, more vulnerable to pain?

Yet passion often migrates into need,

Not needing much to crave unfeigned affection;

And so each craving does the other feed,

Need serving need as bond against rejection.

Doubt not such sweet sense can be sustained,

Not by passion, but by will and grace.

In long-lived love there's too much to be gained,

Convectively, to easy unembrace.

Oceans well up richly well within,

Letting go the air that we begin

Avidly to breathe, with passion burning,

So fraught with love no years can hold our yearning.

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/exactl.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

6/29: Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

Friday, June 28, 2019

Because like Roots We Intertwine

June 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem in which the best man is the groom’s brother and the maid of honor is the bride’s sister:

BEST MAN

Because like roots we intertwine,

Planted in a single place,

Your happiness is also mine,

Deep as love's first twisting sign

In that most labyrinthine space.

Because like roots we intertwine

And each for each the world designed,

Wrestling towards a common grace,

Your happiness is also mine

Though shared in ways we can't define,

Too close to touch, too vast to trace.

Because like roots we intertwine,

Obliterating every line

That might divide our long embrace,

Your happiness is also mine

As you with nuptial vows combine,

And with your loved one lines erase.

Like roots, your lives will intertwine.

Then let your happiness be mine!

MAID OF HONOR

Because like roots we intertwine,

Living in a long embrace,

Your happiness is also mine,

Spilling over, just as wine

Must flood the heart's too narrow space.

Because like roots we intertwine

And each for each must life define

In ways too myriad to trace,

Your happiness is also mine,

A joy that knows no boundary line,

Nor limit to its golden grace.

Because like roots we intertwine

And over years did love refine,

Planted in our single place,

Your happiness is also mine

As you with nuptial vows combine,

And with your loved one lines erase.

Like roots, your lives will intertwine.

Then let your happiness be mine!

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/becaus.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

June 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem about the beauty of love:

Beauty is the radiance of Being,

Opening a seam of inner sky.

Now we pause a moment beyond seeing,

Not at the heart of things but quite nearby,

In fields where all our deepest longings lie.

Each of us becomes more beautiful

As we are touched by love's angelic grace.

Now life seems more blessed and bountiful,

Delighting in the gift of an embrace,

Meaning more than meaning's eye can trace.

As one can be unfazed or filled with music,

Rejoicing in the glory of a song,

Kind hearts can have more Being if they choose it,

United in a gentle love and strong,

So sweet they dwell in beauty all life long.

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/beauty.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

June 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem from the bride to her mother:

As I wait at the head of the aisle

On Dad's arm, about to be wed,

I remember the light of your smile

In the days when I still was a child,

And you kissed me goodnight in my bed.

And I think, as I wait by the aisle,

Of an innocent world without guile,

An Eden where goodness is bred:

Lit by the light of your smile,

A place where one tarries awhile,

Sheltered from sorrow and dread.

I wait by the head of the aisle

With a gift that no years can defile,

A beauty no winter can shed.

And I walk in the light of your smile

To a life that was mine all the while,

And a love that is just as you said:

A love that waits down the aisle

For the warmth and the light of my smile.

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/asiwai.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

Monday, June 24, 2019

All My Happiness Goes Out to You

June 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem wishing a couple happiness:

All my happiness goes out to you:

Pride and pleasure, joy, sweet tears, and love!

Reason, hope, and faith together move

In harmony to bless all that you do.

Let this beginning be the golden dawn

At which all dew-drenched nature sings its glory!

Nor should the darkness shrouding every story

Dim the blue-eyed beauty of this morn.

More of life will come than you can hold:

A flood no mortal witness can withstand.

Rest, then, within a quiet, gentle hand,

Knowing where love is as you grow old.

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/allmyh.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

Sunday, June 23, 2019

A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

June 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem about the marriage that follows the wedding:

A wedding is the entrance to a marriage:

One drives through, and suddenly one's there!

Stepping from a fairy tale carriage

Into quite ordinary air.

Life is now a dance, though beautiful,

Requiring intense coordination;

Each self becomes, in ways inscrutable,

More fully what it is in combination.

And we who love you wait, of course, outside

As you become through love that mystery:

One flesh made whole of separate groom and bride;

Two selves, one life; two notes, one harmony.

When you are one, we then may cherish two:

Loving not just one, but both of you.

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/aweddi.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

June 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about sadness and loss:

Graduations sometimes can be sad,

Removing from our world a world of friends,

An instant that, in golden garments clad,

Divides our bright beginnings from our ends.

Underneath our confidence and pride

A sense of loss like music haunts the heart,

Telling us that what we are inside

Is presently a place we must depart.

Our years have yielded paradise and pain,

Nor will we ever taste such fruit again.

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/grad9.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

6/22: Josh2

6/23: Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Josh2

June 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A name and graduation poem for a classmate who died years before he would have graduated:

Josh would have graduated with our class,

One of us had he not long since died.

So shall he be, though years and lifetimes pass,

Here in his place, with us by his side.

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/josh2.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

6/22: Josh2

Friday, June 21, 2019

Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

June 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the wish to remember the moment of graduation:

Give me just this moment, please, forever.

Replicate it for me on demand.

As I flow unceasingly downriver,

Do not make me leave this day behind.

Understand my bittersweet confusion

As graduation crystallizes youth,

Tallying my treasures with precision,

Illuminating well a wistful truth.

Out of all my moments pluck this one,

Nor let me lose its grace when it is gone.

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

Thursday, June 20, 2019

To Graduate Is like a Crow

June 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem for children comparing graduation to a number of animals and situations:

To graduate is like a crow

Flying up into a tree.

Once he gets there he can see

The younger children down below.

To graduate is like a frog

Hopping up from stair to stair.

He doesn't know until he's there

How high he is above the bog.

To graduate is as though you

Were climbing up a rocky hill.

Up and up you go until

You’re at the top and see the view.

Up and up and up we go

From grade to grade, from hop to hop.

Why do we hop all the way to the top?

When we get there, we will know.

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/18: Given thatWe’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: GraduationsCan Be Bittersweet

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

June 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A bittersweet graduation poem about the pain and joy of graduation:

Graduations can be bittersweet,

Reminding us of all that's come and gone:

All our battles, whether lost or won,

Days of bliss, and days of near defeat.

Underneath our pride there is the sense,

Almost like a wound, of something past,

The beauty of a time that cannot last,

In which we shared the joys of innocence.

Open vistas lie before our eyes;

Now’s the time for hopes and for goodbyes.

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/grad2.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

Monday, June 17, 2019

Given that We're Happy to Be Here

June 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the losses and gains involved in graduating:

Given that we're happy to be here,

Remember what we're gaining and we're losing.

Admittedly, the moment is confusing,

Demanding sad farewells and well-earned cheer.

Underneath the moment is the motion,

A silent passage out to open sea,

Taking place regardless what may be

In front of us, this ritual commotion.

Of what we are, but little will remain,

Nor will we ever come this way again.

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/given3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

Kindergarten Graduation

June 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A kindergarten graduation poem for parents about the importance of the ceremony:

Kindergarten graduation

Is the end of a beginning.

Now they start the numbered grades,

Dancing through the years of grace.

Ends require celebration,

Rituals of well-earned winning,

Giving kids the accolades

A dancer needs to keep the pace.

Rejoice, then, in the raw sensation,

The shyness bursting, rapture spinning.

Eventually, the glory fades,

Nor will it ever be replaced.

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Happy Father's Day to My Dear Dad

June 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year is celebrated today, June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about how a father’s love shapes his child’s personality:

Happy Father's Day to my dear Dad!

As you have loved me, so have I loved you,

Pleased to tell you, now that words are due,

Pleased to have this chance to make you glad.

Your years of love and sacrifice have had

For me the force that you would wish them to,

A wind that takes me home to harbors new,

The inner voice in clothes familiar clad.

How might I be myself, except I see

Each gesture in the mirror of your grace,

Remembered as it was when long ago,

'Ere I knew why, I looked to you for love?

So am I of you inextricably,

Defined by trends not difficult to trace

As I grow into someone that I know,

Yet myself in ways that time will prove.

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/happ25.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

6/15: Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

6/16: Happy Father’s Day to My Dear Dad

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

June 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated tomorrow, June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem warning fathers not to burden their children with their own ambitions:

Your children ought not be your legacy,

For that’s a burden far too great to bear.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

Proud parent of your treasured progeny

Without conditions, as is only fair.

Your children ought not be your legacy:

They must be themselves, as generously

You shine upon them, all the while aware

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

The sole contender of your destiny,

No matter how much love you choose to share.

Your children ought not be your legacy,

Inspired to fulfill your fantasy

And not their own, displaced beyond repair.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

As all are in our longings ultimately,

Though we remain in one another’s care.

Your children ought not be your legacy.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be.

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/yourch.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

6/15: Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

Thursday, June 13, 2019

You Taught Me How to Love You

June 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem to a father who is deceased:

You taught me how to love you by

The way that you loved me;

And by your unseen sustenance,

To see what you could see.

You gave to me through who you were

The gift of what I am.

Your pride in me is now my pride;

Your faith, my caravan.

Your life does not conclude with death,

Nor will it end with mine,

For all the lives I touch, you touch,

And so on through all time.

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/youta2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

June 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about a child who was abused by his father:

I hate you, Dad, for what you did

To me when I was just a child,

A helpless thing whom you could beat

Until the excess bile was drained.

To me, when I was just a child,

You were God unmerciful

Until the excess bile was drained

And you were once again my friend.

You were God unmerciful,

And I was Satan, Lord of Hell,

Until you were again my friend

And curdled my last drops of love.

And I was Satan, Lord of Hell,

A helpless thing whom you could beat

Until you curdled all my love.

I hate you, Dad, for what you did.

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/ihatey.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

June 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about the depth of the bond between fathers and daughters:

Fathers and daughters have a romance

That goes on for the rest of their lives,

Destined to ripen and age as they dance

Through the days of their husbands and wives.

Up near the surface their love is distinct,

Like a garden surveyed in the sun,

In which seedtime and full bloom are credibly linked

By a consciousness shared and hard won.

Deep down below, where the world is a dream,

And the dream is a world of its own,

All manner of memories the moments redeem

In a place where one's never alone.

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/fathe4.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

June 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about how shared characteristics help bond parent to child:

The pursed lips that pursue a vagrant thought,

The twinkle that accompanies a smile –

Ripples in a stream by sunlight caught

Gleaming on your child’s face unsought,

Bits of turbulence drowned boulders rile.

The pursed lips that pursue a vagrant thought,

The playful love of irony that’s wrought

By centuries, millennia of style –

Ripples in a stream by sunlight caught

As generations flow through lifetimes fraught

With rocks and tree limbs, rippling all the while.

The pursed lips that pursue a vagrant thought,

Passed on and on through love, are not for naught,

But deeply bond the parent to the child,

Ripples in a stream by sunlight caught,

Dear reiterations dearly bought,

Yet calculated to one’s heart beguile.

The pursed lips that pursue a vagrant thought --

Ripples in a stream by sunlight caught.

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/thepur.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

Monday, June 10, 2019

A Little Boy Needs Daddy

June 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about various ways in which a child might need a father. (For a girl, just substitute girl for boy and her for his or him.)

A little boy needs Daddy

For many, many things:

Like holding him high off the ground

Where the sunlight sings!

Like being the deep music

That tells him all is right

When he awakens frantic with

The terrors of the night.

Like being the great mountain

That rises in his heart

And shows him how he might get home

When all else falls apart.

Like giving him the love

That is his sea and air,

So diving deep or soaring high

He'll always find him there.

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/alitt2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Fortune Often Will Return the Favor

June 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about how one might influence one’s fortune:

Fortune often will return the favor.

If one serves well, then one will be well served.

For most, the problem will be seeing it,

Thinking that their fate is not deserved.

Yet fate’s the destination of behavior.

Though one might be a droplet in a stream

Hurtling through the rapids of one’s times,

Remember that one also walks on roads,

Ever choosing to descend or climb,

Ever more in charge than it might seem.

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/fort10.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

6/7: Forty-Three Has Been Well Served by Fortune

6/8: Souls Are Sovereign in Their Own Domain

6/9: Fortune Often Will Return the Favor

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Souls Are Sovereign in Their Own Domain

June 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about the illusion of the sovereignty of the soul:

Souls are sovereign in their own domain,

In which they rule for better or for worse,

X’s turning as the tides reverse,

The flotsam calculating loss and gain

Yet floating on a sea of joy and pain.

Now they come together, now disperse,

Intent on more than yearning can contain.

Nor need they billows bless nor currents curse,

Each free to will the wind it would sustain.

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/souls2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

6/7: Forty-Three Has Been Well Served by Fortune

6/8: Souls Are Sovereign in Their Own Domain

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Forty-Three Has Been Well Served by Fortune

June 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about both the difficulty and necessity of choosing one’s fortune:

Forty-three has been well served by fortune.

Often, though, the trick is just to know it.

Reasons may abound to feel abused.

To feel blessed is like listening to music,

Yearning to hear the song that one is hearing.

There is in all lives much that is endearing.

How could one not turn to it and choose it?

Remember that sweet choice when life's confused,

Embracing what one has and quick to show it,

Each love one touches with a generous passion.

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/43f.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

6/7: Forty-Three Has Been Well Served by Fortune

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Freedom Doesn't Come from Being Free

June 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about how one might choose freely:

Freedom doesn’t come from being free.

One’s choices are not wholly of one’s will.

Reason cannot choose dispassionately,

There being too much sun for it to chill.

Yet one must choose at length, for good or ill.

So what might make one free in such a state?

Enduring choices fostered over time,

Vested in an accidental fate

Embedded in a well-conceived design,

Not free until a servant of some kind.

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/freed5.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Choice Is Just a Ripple

June 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical poem about the illusion of choice:

Choice is just a ripple in

The river of one's fate,

A moment when one's consciousness

Stamps motion with a date.

A trillion causes join to form

One tremor in one's flow.

A trillion trillion trillion tell

One's will which way to go.

And yet one chooses, for one has

No choice but to be free,

And choose each bend of the widening stream

That takes one to the sea.

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

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

Fortune Is a Patchwork

June 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about the interplay between fortune and choice:

Fortune is a patchwork. What it gives

Is always linked to what it gives away.

For one makes choices one cannot rescind

That shape the miracles of every day.

Yet chance, too, has its uninvited say.

One sets one’s sails according to the wind,

Never less than hopeful as one lives

Each moment with the choice one leaves behind.

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/fortu9.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will

Monday, June 3, 2019

Fortune Comes Embellished with Small Print

June 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fate, fortune, and free will.

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

A philosophical number poem about the acceptance of fortune:

Fortune comes embellished with small print.

Of course you get the product that you chose,

Reasonably like the one you saw,

Though, perhaps, distorted by the pose.

Yet of its codicils there is no hint.

Take it all! Take it! For who knows

What might have been? Afoot on any shore,

One who loves the sea can be content.

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/fortu8.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fate, Fortune, and Free Will