Each of Us Must Sacrifice Our Selves

July 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is service, in honor of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, which this year is celebrated on July 31.

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

A poem for Eid al-Adha about the love that fills those who serve Allah:

Each of us must sacrifice our selves

If we would hope to know eternal love.

Deep within the spirit that rebels

Abides a moment time cannot remove.

Leave your self behind in prayer and be

A willing servant in your master's hands,

Devoted to good deeds and faithfully

Holding to the life Allah commands,

And love will fill your silence like a 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/eacho5.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems.html .

This week’s theme: Service

July 27: Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

July 28: Alain Is an Absolute Delight

July 29: Nine-Year-Olds Have Dreams That Dance and Sing

July 30: Thirty-Nine Is Often Full of Wonder

July 31: Each of Us Must Sacrifice Our Selves

Thirty-Nine Is Often Full of Wonder

July 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is service, in honor of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, which this year is celebrated on July 31.

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

A number poem about a surgeon who has found a purpose for her life in healing others:

Thirty-nine is often full of wonder,

Having found a purpose for her life.

If some prefer the surface, others dive,

Reaching for a reason they're alive,

The meaning that might moor a man and wife,

Yearning that sustains them deep down under.

Nor is her life a palace she might plunder,

In which the stone-faced, dancing idols thrive.

Nothing will her will from her heart sunder,

Even as she wields her healing knife.

© 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/39e.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Service

July 27: Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

July 28: Alain Is an Absolute Delight

July 29: Nine-Year-Olds Have Dreams That Dance and Sing

July 30: Thirty-Nine Is Often Full of Wonder

Nine-Year-Olds Have Dreams That Dance and Sing

July 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is service, in honor of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, which this year is celebrated on July 31.

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

A number poem about the idealism of some nine-year-olds:

Nine-year-olds have dreams that dance and sing,

In which they save the world and make things right.

No one needs to suffer as they bring

Each soul in need a little love and 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/9c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Service

July 27: Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

July 28: Alain Is an Absolute Delight

July 29: Nine-Year-Olds Have Dreams That Dance and Sing

Alain Is an Absolute Delight

July 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is service, in honor of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, which this year is celebrated on July 31.

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

A name poem for someone gorgeous, buff, and funny who devotes himself to serving those in need:

Alain is an absolute delight --

Like a saint who's gorgeous, buff, and funny,

Always so considerate and sunny,

Intentionally tuning in to blight

Nestled in the eaves of someone's night.

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

This week’s theme: Service

July 27: Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

July 28: Alain Is an Absolute Delight

Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

July 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is service, in honor of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, which this year is celebrated on July 31.

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

A poem about the joy of being an instrument of God’s love:

Let there be joy, always joy in giving,

In serving those who cannot serve themselves.

There is no better gift one gets from living

Than that sweet will that from the heart upwells.

Let there be pleasure in giving others pleasure,

Enjoyment in giving others joy,

Sheer happiness, beyond all one might measure,

In toiling in a loving God's employ.

So may we be the instruments of love,

The flesh of God's will working in the world,

Each a thread within the banner of

Redemption, to the winds of time unfurled.

Sacrifice is then no sacrifice,

Obligation then no obligation,

For what is gained has neither peer nor price,

There being none remotely in relation.

How might one find sanctity in service,

Each menial task a grateful act of prayer?

Perhaps if one believed that life was senseless,

Old folk were simply woe one wouldn't share.

Only love gives dignity to all,

Restoring faith in those who heed its call.

© 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/letth5.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Service

July 27: Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

These Seven Months That We Have Been Together

July 26, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A seven-month anniversary and thank-you poem about the beauty of the couple’s time together:

These seven months that we have been together

Have been the loveliest of all my life.

All moments dance within your balmy weather,

Nor could my heart be anything but blithe,

Knowing I have all that I desire.

You've chosen me, with all the world to choose,

On whom your glance falls like a holy fire,

Undoing all that would such joy refuse.

© 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/these7.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 22: You’ve Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

July 23: Two Years We’ve Been Together

July 24: Your Birthday Was the Day We First Were Us

July 25: Twenty-Five Years on the Farm

July 26: These Seven Months That We Have Been Together

Twenty-Five Years on the Farm

July 25, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A 25^th anniversary poem for a farm couple who has stayed true to each other through a hard life:

Twenty-five years on the farm

Will drain the strength out of

Every loud, shrill false alarm

Near drowned out by love.

Through years of hot, dry winds, and through

Years of steady rain,

Fortune has been good to you

In reaping what remains.

For you have kept your first love true

Through much hard work and pain,

Here now to choose 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/25year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 22: You’ve Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

July 23: Two Years We’ve Been Together

July 24: Your Birthday Was the Day We First Were Us

July 25: Twenty-Five Years on the Farm

Your Birthday Was the Day We First Were Us

July 24, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem for an anniversary that coincides with a birthday:

Your birthday was the day we first were us,

And so for me it is a day twice blessed.

I celebrate my having you twice over:

First, that you exist, then that you're mine.

I never felt a love so free and fine,

So much a part of me, I’m but a lover,

So rich and full, it crowds out all the rest,

All time before I turned from me to us.

I am so joyful to be part of us,

To be at home with you and not a guest,

To celebrate this day and not another,

To share with you a common boundary line.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There BeAngels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 22: You’ve Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

July 23: Two Years We’ve Been Together

July 24: Your Birthday Was Day We First Were Us

Two Years We've Been Together

July 23, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A second anniversary poem about how to deal with marital ups and downs:

Two years we've been together, and

We're very much in love.

Of course we've had our minor wars,

Yet none would heartfelt prove.

Each time we think: What if else?

A wind goes through our souls,

Rippling through our tangled sheets,

Sweeping out our woes.

© 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/2years.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 22: You’ve Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

July 23: Two Years We’ve Been Together

You've Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

July 22, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A second anniversary poem about what a wife loves most about her husband:

You've been with me two sweet and awesome years:

The best years of my life; that is, so far.

You are my passion and my guiding star,

Whose steady radiance calms my foolish fears.

How easily you wipe away my tears!

How bright you make my days! How good you are!

I love the way you leave yourself ajar,

Letting in my anger till it clears.

I love the way you play with little kids,

A father in the rough, yet soft and kind.

I love the way you laugh with warmth and ease.

I love the way you close your eyes, the lids

Shutting out the worlds you'd leave behind,

Your head upon the pillow of my knees.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 22: You’ve Been with Me Two Sweet and Awesome Years

To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 21, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An anniversary poem in praise of the grace and wisdom of a wife:

To Ellen, lady of such grace

As well might grace a husband's life;

Whose gentle Quattrocento face

Conveys the wisdom of the wife.

As well might grace a husband's life,

She has a way with words, whose wit

Conveys the wisdom of the wife

Obliquely, bit by subtle bit.

She has a way with words, whose wit

Works patiently, as each dawn comes

Obliquely, bit by subtle bit,

Till even fools can see the sun.

Works patiently, as each dawn comes

To bring the blind Earth’s gloom to light,

Till even fools can see the sun

Restore the truths long lost to night.

To bring the blind Earth’s gloom to light,

Whose gentle Quattrocento face

Restores the truths long lost to night?

To Ellen: lady of such grace!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 20, 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A fourth anniversary poem about angels coming to help celebrate the occasion:

For you, let there be angels lost in song,

Oceanic choirs in your sky,

Unified in joy, an ethereal throng

Rejoicing in your earthly love on high!

Yes, angels flock to those on Earth who love,

Each drawn to love like butterflies to bloom,

A fluttering host of pure delight, who prove

Romantically inclined, though we assume

Still baffled by some things they know not of.

© 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/fory12.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

There Is Within My Happenstance

July 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A humorous political poem about the guilty innocence of liberals:

There is within my happenstance

An unshed innocence,

Not rare among those buttercups

Whose sun is fueled by shame.

No matter what the circumstance,

My heart must hie me hence,

For all the quince of Nottingham

Is squandered in my name.

Extant there are no photographs

Of who or what I am,

For they were in the sandwiches

We ate one moonlit night.

Instead my mirror must reveal

The marmaladed ham

That lies atop the tabletop

And stuffs itself with light.

Ay me! What might I do that might

Undo my unfelt pain?

My life must gorge on life, and yet

I sorrow for my mice.

Ay me! The cherubs hunger as

My goods are shipped by plane.

And I must dance with polar bears

Across the shrinking ice.

© 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/quince.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 18: The Triumph of the Victor

July 19: There Is Within My Happenstance

The Triumph of the Victor

July 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political poem about the irony that the moment of victory often contains the seeds of the victor’s eventual defeat:

The triumph of the victor means

The losses have begun.

To be well-nigh invincible

Is to be on the run.

Power is a current that

Goes swiftly out to sea.

One's will is wind on grass; one's only

Hope is to be free.

Safety lies in wisdom more than

Strength since strength must die,

While wisdom rides the waves beneath which

Sunken victors lie.

© 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/thetri.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 18: The Triumph of the Victor

Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political name poem about a scientist whose skills are devoted to the practical realization of his dreams:

Richard is a restless dreamer,

Idealist with a practical bent,

Careful carer, benevolent schemer,

Heart and mind with one intent,

A skilled, professional redeemer,

Reason to love’s frontiers sent,

Delivering grace with science blent.

© 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/richa2.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! ItCould Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political number poem about the need to raise one’s voice against injustice:

Shake up the world! It could use some shaking.

Every moment waits for your commands.

Voices were created to be heard;

Enduring wrong politely is absurd;

Nor can one hope for change without demands.

There is no justice simply for the taking,

Yet some would silent raise their righteous hands.

The birthplace of the whirlwind is the word,

Wind that shapes the contours of the land,

One wind of many wills, the world remaking.

© 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/shakeu.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political poem about where one must begin one’s battle against hatred:

The last depression led to holocaust.

The rationale for massacre is fear.

Long before it starts, the game is lost.

The neighborhood of hate is always here.

The best place to begin is one's own heart.

There the mad dogs pull against their chains,

Lusting to tear some stranger's throat apart,

Rage that only love and patience tames.

Each heart becomes a lantern in a crowd.

Yes, people see according to your light,

As you by theirs -- but speak of love aloud,

Lest other voices drown the coming night.

And do not turn away from victims' cries,

For evil's spooked by nothing more than eyes.

© 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/thelas.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

Obama/Osama

A poem contrasting the political styles of Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden, written when the two were adversaries:

Obama meets Osama,

Brandishing a word

As deadly as the sunlight,

More potent as more heard,

As true as it's absurd.

Osama meets Obama;

Suicide meets life.

As certainty meets hope,

Meaning meets the knife.

Absolutes need night.

© 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/obama.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

Darfur/Darfur

July 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political poem about genocide in Darfur containing two opposing points of view about whether to intervene in such a catastrophe:

Darfur's another test of whether we

Are ready to become a sovereign world,

Restraining with state violence a state

From genocide and other crimes of hate,

Unleashing thunderbolts from heaven hurled

Right through the savage heart of sovereignty.

Dirty truths devour clean designs,

A process that turns dreams to spit-out bones.

Remember to be wary of the good,

For what one does is rarely what one would,

Uniting love with skulls heaped up like stones,

Reading story books with snakes for spines.

© 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/darfur.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

After Love and Fear, There's Pride

July 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem from a spouse to his or her soldier posted far away:

After love and fear, there's pride;

After tears, the night;

After all the words are gone,

A chair with just one light.

After memories, the dream

That you will come home safe;

After sleep, another day

Of waiting for my life.

After hope, the happiness

Of thinking of your love;

After moments of despair,

A stone no thought can move.

After all the sacrifice,

The hunger and the pain,

The passions and the promises,

The losses and the gains,

There's nothing but my love for you,

Which waits upon the wind

To bring you from the barricades

That now you must defend.

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

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 8: Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

July 9: We Choose to Stay Together

July 10: In Many Ways, It’s as if I Last Saw You

July 11: I Miss You, Though I’m Not Quite Sure I Love You

July 12: After Love and Fear, There’s Pride

I Miss You, Though I'm Not Quite Sure I Love You

July 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A not-quite love poem about the first experience of missing someone:

I miss you, though I'm not quite sure I love you.

All I know is I like my music sad.

Long, empty days I'm pensive, thinking of you,

And while you're gone, I'm never really glad.

I think of love as some enormous sea,

Tempestuous or still, but never ending,

Something that once there will always be.

But that is not the message that I'm sending.

Missing you, for me, is something new:

An opening into my changing heart.

Love is something that I won't yet do,

But my feeling for you is a start.

Love, like prayer, should not be lightly said,

So I'll just say, "You're in my heart" instead!

© 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/imiss6.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 8: Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

July 9: We Choose to Stay Together

July 10: In Many Ways, It’s as if I Last Saw You

July 11: I Miss You, Though I’m Not Quite Sure I Love You

In Many Ways, It's as if I Last Saw You

July 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and love poem about remembering the last time one saw one’s lover:

In many ways, it's as if I last saw you

Recently, the image is so clear --

Even your eyes, hidden behind sunglasses on the pier;

Nor does it take much to restore you

Exactly, as if once again you were here.

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

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 8: Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

July 9: We Choose to Stay Together

July 10: In Many Ways, It’s as if I Last Saw You

We Choose to Stay Together

July 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about reasons for staying together even when apart:

We choose to stay together

Even though we're far apart,

Joined by the strong tether

Of the longings of the heart.

We could not face the pain

That giving up would bring,

And so we must sustain our love

Despite our suffering.

You are my sovereign princess,

Whom I will not betray,

Nor be your subject any less

Because you're far away.

Though rivers run as swift as deer

And mountains turn to dust,

I'll wait as year gives way to year

Because I simply must.

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

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 8: Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

July 9: We Choose to Stay Together

Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

July 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and love poem about missing one’s lover more as time goes by:

Every day I think of you and miss you,

More as time spreads open like a sea.

My pillow knows how much I long to kiss you,

As I must dream till you come back to me.

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

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 8: Every Day I Think of You and Miss You

I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

July 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the cruel irony of losing one’s lover by remaining honorable in his or her eyes:

I live behind forbidding walls

Made of adamantine words.

I could walk out when my heart calls,

But, ah! Here flight is just for birds.

It was my luck to find my love

Just after I had been engaged.

I would for love the whole Earth move,

Nor care what god might be enraged.

Cruel irony! That word I gave,

My lover looked to me to keep;

For love performs as we behave,

Nor do respect and trust come cheap.

And so I did what all thought right,

Though it was wrong, and honor kept.

I stayed an angel in his sight,

And ever since in silence wept.

Our love remains, though we're apart,

Unsullied as a distant star,

While I must walk within my heart,

Condemned as haunted spirits are.

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

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 7: I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

July 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem from a soldier to his or her loved one about bearing their separation:

Your heart broke when I said I had to leave you

To serve our country somewhere far away.

But every day tells me how much I love you,

And how I'll mend it once I'm home to stay.

For life is but a dream, and we the dreamers,

Making what we will of what we are.

When gates clang shut, we are our own redeemers,

As love leaves for us a door ajar.

So dream with me these empty months of sorrow

As we find ways to be together still.

No longing can be brighter than tomorrow,

Nor dream less certain than our strength of 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/yourh2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love and Separation

July 6: Your Heart Broke When I Said I Had to Leave You

America Can Never Be America

July 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of American Independence Day (July 4th), is America.

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

A poem for American Independence Day (July 4th) about calculus and dreams:

America can never be America.

Maybe no nation can ever be America.

Each nation can approach it fervently,

Reaching halfway, then halfway, then halfway.

In approaching dreams, there is no calculus

Calculating how one might finally reach one.

A good thing. Calculus is the death of dreams.

© 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/ameri7.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: America

June 29: America Is Built on a Foundation of Hope

June 30: America Is on a Long Journey

July 1: America Is Not an Exclusive Club

July 2: America’s Is the World’s Eventual State

July 3: America’s Built on Stolen Land

July 4: America: An Ideal That’s Less than Ideal

July 5: America Can Never Be America

America: An Ideal That's Less than Ideal

July 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of American Independence Day (July 4th), is America.

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

A poem for American Independence Day (July 4th) about the nature of ideals:

America: An ideal that’s less than ideal.

Maybe all ideals are less than ideal,

Except those that have never been realized.

Reason is a house that’s never been lived in,

In which the furnishings are always new.

Children have never tested the bedsprings or pillows.

Adults have never soiled the backsplash with their greed and passion.

© 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/ameri6.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: America

June 29: America Is Built on a Foundation of Hope

June 30: America Is on a Long Journey

July 1: America Is Not an Exclusive Club

July 2: America’s Is the World’s Eventual State

July 3: America’s Built on Stolen Land

July 4: America: An Ideal That’s Less than Ideal

America's Built on Stolen Land

July 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of American Independence Day (July 4th), is America.

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

A poem for American Independence Day (July 4th) about America’s debt of sin:

America’s built on stolen land

Made profitable by stolen labor.

Equity with interest should,

Reinvested properly,

Irrigate urban deserts,

Create rural gardens,

Amortize a debt of sin.

© 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/ameri5.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: America

June 29: America Is Built on a Foundation of Hope

June 30: America Is on a Long Journey

July 1: America Is Not an Exclusive Club

July 2: America’s Is the World’s Eventual State

July 3: America’s Built on Stolen Land

America's Is the World's Eventual State

July 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of American Independence Day (July 4th), is America.

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

A poem for American Independence Day (July 4th) about America as a multi-national nation:

America’s is the world’s eventual state:

Multi-national, a nation of nations,

Enduring the backlash, the hatred, the political divide,

Reaffirming the oneness of humanity,

Inching forward, falling back, inching forward,

Crawling, like a soldier under fire,

As ever towards hope, towards acceptance, towards beauty, towards love.

© 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/ameri4.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: America

June 29: America Is Built on a Foundation of Hope

June 30: America Is on a Long Journey

July 1: America Is Not an Exclusive Club

July 2: America’s Is the World’s Eventual State

America Is Not an Exclusive Club

July 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of American Independence Day (July 4th), is America.

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

A poem for American Independence Day (July 4th) about America and immigration:

America is not an exclusive club.

Membership ought not be difficult.

Each gathering should be a kaleidoscope of colors,

Robes, tongues, tastes, music, poetry, faith, and song.

In the end, all rivers flow into America’s sea,

Coming together to fulfill the tidal dream,

As love, over generations, unites us all.

© 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/ameri3.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: America

June 29: America Is Built on a Foundation of Hope

June 30: America Is on a Long Journey

July 1: America Is Not an Exclusive Club