Poem of the Week: January 2020

1/29: I Know that You Don’t Feel for Me

1/30: Eventually, You’ll Understand I Love You

1/31: Love Me the Way I’ve Long Loved You

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Eventually, You'll Understand I Love You

January 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem from a spurned yet still-hopeful lover:

Eventually, you'll understand I love you.

Miracles turn commonplace in time.

I'll simply be there, and then my feelings for you,

Like saplings planted in your yard, will find

Years enough to shield you from 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/eventu.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love

1/29: I Know that You Don’t Feel for Me

1/30: Eventually, You’ll Understand I Love You

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

I Know that You Don't Feel for Me

January 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about unrequited love between friends:

I know that you don't feel for me

The way I feel for you.

We're good friends, I value that,

There's nothing you need do.

But as a friend I need to tell you

What is in my heart.

An unsaid truth is like a wall,

Keeping us apart.

My love for you will go nowhere,

Will just remain with me.

I'll hold it in my quiet arms

And feel it constantly,

And just enjoy it, as I now

Enjoy your company.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love

1/29: I Know that You Don’t Feel for Me

Monday, January 27, 2020

I Want You, but I Don't Want You to Know

January 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about shyness in love:

I want you, but I don't want you to know.

I fear the loss more than I trust the gain.

You are my love. I will not let you go.

Nor do I have the courage to bestow

My love on you, that you might see me plain.

I want you, but I don't want you to know.

I fear your presence like an undertow

That drags me out unready, trite, inane.

You are my love. I will not let you go.

And yet when you are near I feel your glow

Like sunlight dancing through my windowpane.

I want you, but I don't want you to know.

Empty but for you, I cannot show

You anything of interest I contain.

You are my love. I will not let you go.

I am a box within a box, safe so.

Sealed from self, I hide from your disdain.

I want you, but I don't want you to know.

You are my love. I will not let you go.

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/iwan10.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love

Sunday, January 26, 2020

You Don't Love Me, but Ah! Do I Love You

January 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem expressing the jealousy a spurned lover might feel:

You don't love me, but ah! do I love you!

It kills me that right now you have another!

Each day I watch the antics of you two

Happy hopping birds and say, why bother?

But I am chained to you as fish to sea,

Or as the moon to Earth, or Earth to sun.

The thought of letting go so tortures me

That I would rather let my anguish run.

I know that if I wait you will be mine.

Such love as this must sweep all walls away!

I am your natural light, and I will shine

Till due rotation turns your night to day.

Until then, this sorrow will remain:

My hope of joy must be my source of pain.

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

This week’s theme: Unrequited Love

The Smartest Way Is Always the Easy Way

January 26, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Nationality and Race/Lunar New Year in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 20^th, and the Lunar, or Chinese New Year, which this year is celebrated on January 25^th.

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

A Lunar New Year poem for the Year of the White Metal Rat, from the rat’s point of view:

The smartest way is always the easy way.

Hard ways are for pigs or dogs or sheep.

Even fools can take what’s given away,

Yet it takes brains to take what fools would keep.

Earnings are no substitute for winnings,

As life, like rats’ teeth, pierces more than grinds.

Reserve your ruses for the final innings;

One sees the landscape better from behind.

Forget the common lie that labor pays.

Tricks pay by the truckload, not the hour.

Have up your sleeve a clever scheme that plays

Each bright-eyed bush according to its flower.

Remember: This is life, not some ideal

A pumpkin head would like to think is real.

Tiny folk must use their wits for power.

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/thesma.html. For more Lunar New Year poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

1/24: Let Your Birth Sign Lie upon Your Chest

1/25: Lest You Leave Your Longings in the Sunshine

1/26: The Smartest Way Is Always the Easy Way

Friday, January 24, 2020

Lest You Leave Your Longings in the Sunshine

January 25, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A Lunar New Year poem about the value of observing ancient holidays:

Lest you leave your longings in the sunshine

Unprotected from night's bitter shade,

Now you may take them on the lunar wind,

Alive to phantoms vivid as your face

Reveling in front of Reason's door.

Nor could your own inventions offer more,

Even those transfigured from your race,

Which, privatized, seem downsized, somehow thinned.

Yet here is all the wealth the past has made,

Each relic well preserved in ancient brine,

A treasure-trove of comedy and grace

Resting where your faith would else be blind.

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/lest.html. For more poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/poems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

1/24: Let Your Birth Sign Lie upon Your Chest

1/25: Lest You Leave Your Longings in the Sunshine

Let Your Birth Sign Lie upon Your Chest

January 24, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A Lunar New Year poem about the relationship between reason and religion:

Let your birth sign lie upon your chest,

Unity of character and fate

Now played out in fantasy and flesh,

A tableau to which readers may relate,

Reason and religion on a date.

Nor does this mean your reason has regressed,

Even if seduced by such a guest.

What faith might say is often reason dressed,

Yielding metaphors that illustrate

Exactly what no logic could suggest,

A time-encrusted truth by beauty blessed,

Retaining wisdom in its gnomic state.

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/letyo2.html. For more Lunar New Year poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

1/24: Let Your Birth Sign Lie upon Your Chest

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Love Is Far More Various than Race

January 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem about love and race:

Love is far more various than race.

It goes much deeper than a person's skin.

It reaches to the heart, which is the same

In all the human race. It is the name

Of a hundred thousand feelings held within,

Yearning to be consumed in an embrace.

How does one particular embrace

Become more intimate than one's own name?

How of all the humans in this race

Do we find the one whose spirit is the same?

Of course we love to touch our lover's skin,

But what love touches is the soul within.

In marriage we must build one home within

Two hearts, one world in an embrace.

What matters is the will and not the race,

The choice to love what lies beneath the skin.

In every love the choice is just the same;

Without it, love is nothing but a name.

How do we make love more than just a name?

How do we not tire of the skin

We touch every day? In the race

To succeed, how do we keep the embrace

From smothering the passion still within?

How do we make our days not all the same?

Love is the decision to embrace

One body, one soul, one universe, one name.

To give up all we are and have within

And share the world beneath another's skin.

Once we do, the world is not the same:

The love two share enriches the whole race.

This is how love intersects with race:

Humanity is held in your embrace.

Your love will never leave the world the same:

When it looks for peace, it calls your name.

Do not fear the politics of skin:

Choose love each day, and joy will reign within.

Within your love is all you need embrace.

Love caresses skin and values race.

Two in name, you are in love the same.

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/race.html. For more poems about nationality and race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Maybe This Was Harder than I Thought

January 22, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about the sorrow he might feel looking at the state of race relations today:

Maybe this was harder than I thought.

And, believe me, I knew it would be hard!

Race remains a flag, a wall, a card

That all sides play to stir up base support.

If love and justice were the ends I sought,

Neither was achieved. The rosiest bard,

Looking at black children bleak and scarred,

Understanding what our struggles wrought,

The jails packed with blacks, the gangs, the guns,

Hatred hovering hawk-like over Heaven,

Each bias fanned by electronic winds,

Rage bubbling over, would not sing of joy.

Knowing this, the truth that stings and stuns,

In sorrow I survey the burnt-out ruin,

Needing faith to walk across our sins,

Great with hope no future can destroy.

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/mayb19.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

Might Not Racism Cut Both Ways

January 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about how racism is destructive to all who hate:

Might not racism cut both ways?

All are crippled equally by hatred.

Racist rage consumes the darkest days,

Taking with it all one sees as sacred.

In all of us that ancient fire still smolders,

Needing but a bit of breeze to flare.

Let Atlas bear the world upon his shoulders:

Under all that love, the hate's still there.

Then what is one to do but know one's heart,

Hating hatred in a wash of tears,

Even as one's world is torn apart,

Rage raging all around one, stoked by fears?

Know that, white or black, your rage is wrong,

Incinerating all that you desire.

Nor will that rage light up your days for long,

Given the proclivities of fire.

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/mightn.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

Monday, January 20, 2020

Maybe Dreams Cannot Come True, but They

January 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 20^th, and the Lunar, or Chinese New Year, which this year is celebrated on January 25^th.

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

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday about how a leader uses dreams to guide us towards a better life:

Maybe dreams cannot come true, but they

Are mountains that give shape to the horizon,

Reference points to guide us on the way

Towards lands long promised us in distant Zion.

If we never get that far, we'll be

Nearer for the journey we have taken,

Letting the next generation see

Up close the dreams they else might have forsaken.

The dreamer lives a bit beyond what is,

Having had the courage to say no,

Existing in a future wholly his,

Revealing through his grace where we must go.

Knowing well this world of lust and greed

In which the dream but rarely marks the deed,

None could bear to dream but for the soul

Great enough to bear it for the whole.

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/maybed.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

Sunday, January 19, 2020

How Does Love Mature into a Garden

January 19, 2020

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 .

An anniversary poem about the need to cultivate one’s love:

How does love mature into a garden?

A wild field, of course, need not be wed.

Pure pleasure tends the softest soil to harden;

Perhaps the heart requires that tears be shed.

Yearning blooms when it becomes a song,

A melody that savors its own beauty;

Nor will requited passion linger long

Not stroked from time to time by naked duty.

In gardens one defines where nature ends;

Vividly one wills the world to be.

Each swath of loveliness on love depends,

Restored each day to passion one can see.

Sing, then, of sweet desire turned to love,

And of the grace that does all lovers move,

Renewing in your song each day the vow

You never made more willingly than now.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

1/17: Habitués of Heaven Hate to Hurry

1/18: Heaven Isn’t Known for Being Easy

1/19: How Does Love Mature into a Garden

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Heaven Isn't Known for Being Easy

January 18, 2020

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 .

An anniversary poem about the need to give up the desire for power if one is to love:

Heaven isn't known for being easy.

Although the door is open, few desire

Peace and inner glory, ecstasy,

Purchased through the sacrifice of power.

Yet there are those who find their way through love.

After all attempts at ecstasy--

Nocturnal, furtive, loyal, desperate, easy--

No hunger is diminished, nor is love

Inviolate in the sunburst of desire.

Venery's delight derives from power

Etched into the grinning face of love.

Rarer is unbidden ecstasy,

Simple as delight free of desire,

A nakedness that masquerades as easy,

Removed from the necessities of power.

Yet there are those who find their way through love.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

1/17: Habitués of Heaven Hate to Hurry

1/18: Heaven Isn’t Known for Being Easy

Friday, January 17, 2020

Habitués of Heaven Hate to Hurry

January 17, 2020

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 seventh anniversary poem asking angels to join the celebration:

Habitués of Heaven hate to hurry,

After eons soaked in ecstasy,

Perched upon a pinhead, pink and blurry,

Passionately pleased simply to be.

Yet those of us below, who work and worry,

Send from time to time an urgent plea,

Ever hoping for a glimpse of glory

Vouchsafed from beyond what we can see.

Enter, then, O angels, in your fury,

Nether worlds no bigger than a pea,

To brush the moment with your burning beauty,

Hallowing this anniversary!

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

1/17: Habitués of Heaven Hate to Hurry

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Four Years? No, It Cannot Be That Long

January 16, 2020

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 fourth anniversary poem about how time flies:

Four years? No, it cannot be that long!

Only yesterday you two were married!

Unplug the sundial! The shadow must be wrong!

Rotating somethings somewhere have miscarried!

Yet so it is -- four years have passed already,

Even as the moment is still here.

As time moves on, the miracle holds steady --

Real life, real love, far more than one can bear,

Simply, truly, beautifully 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/4years.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

We've Traveled Several Rocky Roads Together

January 15, 2020

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 25^th anniversary poem about a love that through difficulties endured:

We've traveled several rocky roads together.

Sometimes I didn't think we'd get this far.

Three children and twenty-five years later

We're more a couple than we ever were.

Years of trying polished off the edges

Because we both possessed the will to try.

What we got is one of life's great treasures:

A garden on the shifting sands of time.

Love demands a kind of self-surrender

That sometimes is with difficulty won.

All who join in marriage must endeavor

To make another's happiness their own.

This sacrifice quite often seems so easy,

But day by day and year by year it's not.

Trust enables one to love completely,

Living with one's charity unlocked.

Our love is like a deep and verdant valley

Nestled in the mountains of desire.

Though all of life's a dream that passes quickly,

We've made a place among the circling stars.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Harvests Do Require Times of Planting

January 14, 2020

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 .

An anniversary poem about the need for discipline in love:

Harvests do require times of planting:

After months of labor comes the prize.

Peace arrives at evening, passion slanting;

Pleasure, deep and true, is no surprise.

Yet on the way, in moments of affection,

A glance can turn the heart to liquid gold.

No paradise has ever reached perfection,

Nor is love less rich as one grows old.

In love there is infinity and time:

Vast truths are glimpsed just past the ecstasy;

Each moment comes complete with wind and chime,

Reminding us of what it means to be.

Sing, then, of goals that discipline require,

And loves that years of loyalty inspire,

Revealing joys that over time accrue,

Yet are eternal, infinite, 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/harves.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Monday, January 13, 2020

All the Love You Ask of God Is Here

January 13, 2020

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 name and fortieth anniversary poem about a need that never ends:

All the love you ask of God is here,

Delivered by yourselves, but made elsewhere,

Eden's legacy, that you might be

Less fearful that your time pass by untouched.

Even after forty years of loving

And sixty years of life, you need no less,

Needing still the kiss that stills the darkness,

Desperate for the one who shares the night.

Long, then, may you love, each giving each

A window to a mirror, in which both

Will see a grace beyond the grace of being,

Rendered into life by your own hand.

Every moment sings in celebration,

Noticed mainly when the hour chimes.

Carillons now clang joyfully in tribute,

Eloquent reminders of your love.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Alisha Is a Creature of the Morning

January 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A name poem for a woman who has numerous insights, while she leaves their development to others:

Alisha is a creature of the morning,

Letting fresh light slant on all she knows.

In every moment new ideas are dawning,

Seeds that she can scatter as she goes.

Her insights come upon her without warning,

Although she rarely reaps the thoughts she sows.

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/alisha.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

1/10: Tashina Is a Cry of Liberation

1/11: Thirty-Six Knows Well by Now His Goal

1/12: Alisha Is a Creature of the Morning

Friday, January 10, 2020

Thirty-Six Knows Well by Now His Goal

January 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical number poem about a budding writer who is not yet ready to turn his insights into art:

Thirty-six knows well by now his goal.

He follows in his head his untold story.

Intent on excellence, he'd like to hone

Recurring insights into polished stone,

Turning wisdom into lasting beauty.

Yet not yet has he refined his role.

Sunlight gilding his intended duty,

In quiet ecstasy he walks alone,

Xeroxing the thoughts that move his soul.

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/36b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

1/10: Tashina Is a Cry of Liberation

1/11: Thirty-Six Knows Well by Now His Goal

Tashina Is a Cry of Liberation

January 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical name poem about the need to share one’s insights:

Tashina is a cry of liberation

As all in darkness listen to her plea.

She knows the joy of being part of Being,

Having glimpsed her self through selfless seeing,

In love and beauty finding clarity.

Nor can she have alone this revelation:

An insight must be shared to fully 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/tashin.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

1/10: Tashina Is a Cry of Liberation

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Forty-One Must Cross Her Swollen Streams

January 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A number poem about a woman whose lack of joy and love is redeemed by hope:

Forty-one must cross her swollen streams

On slippery stones, not often looking back.

Revelations come and go while what

The moment brings is floating bric-a-brac.

Yet she still looks forward to her dreams.

Of love and joy, she does not feel the lack,

Nor does she think the exit’s fully shut,

Enduring what enduring hope redeems.

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/41d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Every Moment Sings with Fascination

January 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical poem about the gifts of life and death:

Every moment sings with fascination

As silence sits behind the vivid veil.

There is no rock not rife with revelation,

Nor word that will not ultimately fail.

Likewise, we are masks upon the void,

Uncreated at our empty core,

Mirror of what cannot be destroyed,

The nothing that the thing is destined for.

The being of our being is delight;

The nothing of our nothing, pure perfection.

Just beyond our day is utter night;

Just within our heart, its blank reflection.

The gift of life brings joy well worth the pain;

The gift of death brings us home 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/everym.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

Monday, January 6, 2020

Thank You for a Memorable Evening

January 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6.

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

A thank you poem for a host whose conversation included some revelations:

Thank you for a memorable evening.

Heaven is suffused with verbal light.

As souls peer through the glass of conversation,

No one knows what may be wrong or right.

Kindness teaches far more truth than reasoning.

Your food for tongue and thought was rich with seasoning,

Opening a window on delight,

Uniting repartée with revelation.

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/than16.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

Forty-Two Surrenders to Desire

January 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Insight and Revelation, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated today, January 6.

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

A number poem about the revelations that come through surrender:

Forty-two surrenders to desire,

Opening the door to greet the wind.

Revelation ever comes unbidden,

The gift of sight to those who travel blind,

Yielding all a pilgrim might require.

To love is to go through an open fire,

Witness to what life one has been given

Only after fear is left 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/42b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Insight and Revelation

Sunday, January 5, 2020

I Love You and I Never Want to Hurt You

January 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is pregnancy and childbirth, in honor of the birth of a new year.

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

A poem from an unmarried, pregnant teenager to her parents asking for their blessing:

I love you and I never want to hurt you,

But sometimes I do things to hurt myself.

I'm eighteen now, and this need not involve you;

I turn to you for love and not for help.

What I ask of you is just your blessing.

I'm pregnant and I soon will have a child.

I know this news is bound to be distressing,

But I hope that on my future God has smiled.

No child should come to life except in joy,

And so, although I'm scared, that's what I feel.

Much that I want this child may destroy,

And yet my love for it is deep and real.

My stupidity of course I'm not proud of,

But please now turn to me in joy and love.

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/ilove5.html. For more poems about teenage pregnancy, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/teenagepregnancypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth

1/3: Thank You for Coming2

1/4: You Cannot Now but Be Afraid

1/5: I Love You and I Never Want to Hurt You

Friday, January 3, 2020

You Cannot Now but Be Afraid

January 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is pregnancy and childbirth, in honor of the birth of a new year.

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

A poem from an unmarried teenage mother to the father of the child still in her womb:

You cannot now but be afraid

Of all that you might lose,

And curse the granite circumstance

That forces you to choose.

You are too young, a child yourself,

As I am, too, and yet

There is a child between us, whom

We cannot just forget.

This child - our child - has no one else

To be its only father.

Others may be guardians,

But you can be no other.

This fact will not relent, though battered

Hard by bitter tears.

Time moves only forward as

Our yearnings turn to years.

And everything we've wanted turns

To what we must accept,

And what we'd least relinquish comes

From what we most regret.

I do not ask to live with you

Or ever be your wife;

Only that you share the gift

And burden of a life

That waits upon your willing love

To greet its upturned face

That it might twist your heart with joy

And unimagined grace.

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/youcan.html. For more poems about teenage pregnancy, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/teenagepregnancypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth

1/3: Thank You for Coming2

1/4: You Cannot Now but Be Afraid

Thank You for Coming2

January 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is pregnancy and childbirth, in honor of the birth of a new year.

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

A thank-you poem from the unborn baby for coming to a baby shower:

Thank you for coming,

Holding me dear,

Although I'm not born yet,

Nor made myself clear.

Know that I know what

Your gifts want to say,

Older than sunshine

Upon a new day.

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/than23.html. For more poems about pregnancy and childbirth, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthpregnancypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth

1/3: Thank You for Coming2

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Gifts Come in Many Shapes and Guises

January 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is pregnancy and childbirth, in honor of the birth of a new year.

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

A poem about adopting a new-born infant:

Gifts come in many shapes and guises:

Apples meant to nurture seeds

Wind up in many strange disguises,

Ministering to other needs.

When a soul comes into being,

Hope anew springs from the Earth:

No one has the gift of seeing

What new gift comes with each birth.

What brings a young girl savage pain

Can bring joy to a man and wife:

One cannot weigh the loss or gain,

But one can always treasure life.

Life's a gift beyond what we

Can know or understand or say:

There's a nonstop ecstasy

Beneath the hum of every day.

There's a love so radical

That nothing can escape its glow,

Luminous and magical,

Everywhere we are or go.

And so we take this gift of love,

A little piece of it, new-born,

And feel some lovely fortune move

Within us towards eternal dawn.

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/gifts2.html. For more poems about adoption, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/adoptionpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth