Poem of the Week: November 2019

11/28: There Is No Substitute for Gratitude

11/29: For You the Earth Shall Bring Forth Greater Glory

11/30: Salvation Is a Song That One Can Sing

For You the Earth Shall Bring Forth Greater Glory

November 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is The Gifts of Life, in honor of Thanksgiving, which this year is celebrated on Thursday, November 28.

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

A philosophical number poem about how Earth returns the gifts one gives her:

For you the Earth shall bring forth greater glory,

Opening itself to your delight,

Returning joy for joy and gift for gift.

The seeds you sow shall sing their way to sunshine,

Yielding fruit and flowers, grain and grace.

Earth, like us, responds to an embrace.

Ill-made for instant bliss, it takes its time,

Giving generously to those who give,

Healing psychic wounds, restoring blight,

Turning love to life with patient fury.

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/fory11.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Gifts of Life

11/28: There Is No Substitute for Gratitude

11/29: For You the Earth Shall Bring Forth Greater Glory

Thursday, November 28, 2019

There Is No Substitute for Gratitude

November 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is The Gifts of Life, in honor of Thanksgiving, which this year is celebrated on Thursday, November 28.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about the gift of gratitude:

There is no substitute for gratitude.

Here or there, the gift is just the same.

A joyful life depends on attitude,

Nor does one need a giver or a name.

Knowledge is not needed, nor is faith,

So long as one is struck by being's beauty,

Going humbly, as the preacher saith,

Immersed in the minutiae of one's duty.

Vast the suffering and fierce the pain.

In life is death; in every moment fear.

Nonetheless, one would one's life sustain,

Grateful for the gift of being here.

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/ther34.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Gifts of Life

11/28: There Is No Substitute for Gratitude

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Eleven Embraces Each Breathtaking Day

November 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is The Gifts of Life, in honor of Thanksgiving, which this year is celebrated on Thursday, November 28.

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

A number poem about the gift of love of life:

Eleven embraces each breathtaking day,

Loving the beauty that life sends her way,

Enthused about all the new things she has learned,

Voraciously curious, vastly concerned,

Empathetic to all who might be

Needing her solace and sympathy.

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/11b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Gifts of Life

Monday, November 25, 2019

Forty-Five Is Wiser than Before

November 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is The Gifts of Life, in honor of Thanksgiving, which this year is celebrated on Thursday, November 28.

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

A number poem about the gift of acceptance:

Forty-five is wiser than before,

Old enough, perhaps, to know himself.

Reason needs experience to see

That truth is far more likely “and” than “or.”

Yet most prefer their options off the shelf.

For it’s not easy to traverse the gulf

In between the will and what must be.

Vast though it may seem, eventually

Each humbled soul succumbs to love and awe.

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed b others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/45g.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Gifts of Life

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Sixty-Seven's in Her Golden Years

November 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is The Gifts of Life, in honor of Thanksgiving, which this year is celebrated on Thursday, November 28.

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

A number poem about the gift of a healthy retirement:

Sixty-seven’s in her golden years,

In which at last she’s free to please herself.

X-rays might show evidence of aging,

Though time, for her, has taken a short break.

Years pass, of course, but do not touch her heart.

Sing, then, sing, with all your strength and art!

Each moment sing, and your sweet senses wake!

Voices fill the void with grace, engaging,

Even from across the windswept gulf,

Nothing less than joy that feasts on tears.

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/67c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Gifts of Life

Happiness Accumulates Through Time

November 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A fifty-second anniversary poem about the beauty of looking back on years of married life on one’s anniversary:

Happiness accumulates through time,

As you may gather from a backward glance,

Perhaps upon a day planned in advance,

Providing a grand vista by design.

Years from such a vantage point combine,

Forming one vast field of circumstance

In which a couple can be seen to dance,

Finding grace they’ll over years refine.

There is much pleasure, then, in looking back,

Yielding to the honors of the day,

Sharing in the silence of the heart,

Each to each, the beauty you have wrought.

Coming through the press of life intact,

Old enough to say love’s had its say,

Now both content as whole and each as part,

Dream to flesh, you have what you once sought.

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/happ92.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

11/22: Here’s a Sonnet for Your Anniversary

11/23: The Fortunate Have More to Thank than Fortune

11/24: Happiness Accumulates Through Time

Friday, November 22, 2019

The Fortunate Have More to Thank than Fortune

November 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A thirteenth anniversary poem about the balance between luck and will in determining a couple’s fortune:

The fortunate have more to thank than fortune.

Hard work, good habits, morals, values, love –

In these one finds the field that yields one’s portion,

Rich in all that would one’s fortune prove.

There is, of course, some luck that is like lightning,

Energy descending from the sky,

Emerging from a storm, a brutal brightening,

Needing neither rhyme nor reason why.

Yet even lightning has a natural cause.

Every bit of luck, for good or ill,

Adheres to knowable, predictive laws.

Regard luck, then, as wilderness, where skill

Sustains the balance between grace and will.

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/thefo2.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

11/22: Here’s a Sonnet for Your Anniversary

11/23: The Fortunate Have More to Thank than Fortune

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Here's A Sonnet for Your Anniversary

November 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A fifteenth anniversary poem about how such a poem might be written:

Here’s a sonnet for your anniversary,

A little poem to brighten up your day,

Pleased to be considered more than cursory,

Pleased to be perused along your way.

Yet tuneful words are sometimes out of tune:

From a distance one applies one’s art

In all good faith to what one must assume –

Feelings that one conjures in one’s heart.

There in the fiery cauldron of one’s love

Emotions can be hammered into grace,

Each with little heft and much to prove,

Now situate where form and sense embrace.

Then off the tiny package goes to you,

Hoping it’s both beautiful and true.

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/heres6.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

11/22: Here’s a Sonnet for Your Anniversary

Here We Have a Couple Quite Well Suited

November 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A twelfth anniversary poem poem about how married love can make the sacrifices of a life pursuing social change easier to bear:

Here we have a couple quite well suited

As they travel on a single path,

Pleased to share a passion deeply rooted,

Pursuing change through complementary crafts.

Yet change is never easy, and the toll

Taken over years of sacrifice

Would perhaps have far outstripped the goal,

Except that love reduced the labor’s price.

Love makes life a joy and eases toil,

Frees one to escape to happiness,

Tempers tears with sweets that else would spoil,

Heals the anguished heart with tenderness.

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/herew8.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Here's a Bit of Happiness

November 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A twenty-seventh anniversary poem about the beauty of watching married life go by:

Here’s a bit of happiness,

A moment brief but bright,

Placed upon the edge of time,

Perched upon the night.

Years pass by like sailing ships,

Tall and stately, while

We watch from the water’s edge,

Exchanging a quick smile.

Nothing is more beautiful

Than being here with you,

Yearning for the love we share,

Savoring the view.

Eternity is like that:

Vastness tucked within

Each unsuspecting moment,

Neither kith nor kin.

This is our forever,

Here beside the wind.

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/heres5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Three Years Together! And Yet How Much More

November 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A third anniversary poem about how time matures marital love:

Three years together! And yet how much more

Our love has grown, and blossomed, and matured,

Restoring what commitment can restore

In a world where nothing is assured.

Choices are the children of our needs,

Hard put to long survive on grit alone.

As the time we made our choice recedes,

Roots reach into soil that once was stone.

Days turn into months, and months to years.

A moment is the handiwork of time.

Now is sculpted by past joys and tears,

Defined by love in ways we can’t define.

Passions come and go; love remains,

A choice that wisdom proves and need sustains,

Turning toil to dance and truth to wine.

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/3years.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries