Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair

October 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the need to taste despair if one is to know the truth of life:

Have a tiny tidbit of despair,
A little taste of what most must consume,
Letting go the blessings you assume,
Letting go the myth that life is fair.
Oh, savor it, that bitter, bitty bite,
Worthy of your easy empathy!
Endure this brutal world vicariously,
Even for a moment, that you might
Not be so thoroughly ignorant of life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havea5.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments
October 31: Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair

Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments

October 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about how life can be breathed back into abandoned hopes:

Hopes last longer than their disappointments.
An abandoned hope can haunt its house for years,
Longing to breathe life into its spirit,
Longing for the salience of its youth.
O phantom hopes, do not despair! For someone
Will soon take up the gauntlet of your dreams,
Embrace you as the child of their passion,
Embody you in the flesh of their desire.
Nor will a kind and just hope ever die.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hopesl.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments

Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart

October 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the immortality of one’s inner light:

Have a little sunshine in your heart,
A source of inner light amid the darkness,
Light enough to light your understanding,
Light enough to light your happiness.
One is like a firefly at evening,
Wisp of light within the gathering darkness,
Every now and then a blink of beauty
Enduring as a touch of timeless grace.
Nor will that grace within you have an end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havea4.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart

Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved

October 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about how love saves the spirits of loved ones from Hell:

Hell does not admit those who are loved,
All whose joy has been another's joy,
Loved enough to pay their debts in full,
Loved enough to suffer for their sins;
Oceanic love, too much to bear,
Welling up in tears that grace the heart;
Enduring love, that gives life to the dead,
Embracing what now haunts the lonely night;
Naked love that stays hand of Hell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/helldo.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved

Here Is So Much More than Here

October 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the survival of the spirit in loved ones’ memories:

Here is so much more than here;
A moment never ends.
Lines make porous boundary lines;
Life on death depends.
One lives in dreams and memories,
Wandering within,
Embracing loved ones live and dead,
Each by its spirit tenanted,
No less those long unseen.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herei4.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here

Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One

October 26, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the illusion of time:

Hear, O Spirits! The world, the world is one!
All of it - the living and the dead!
Let not time reduce reality,
Leaving us the remnant we can see,
Offering a future filled with dread.
Well may we know that one is never none;
Existence is forever, been is be.
Each consciousness may look behind, ahead,
Not knowing that the moment's never done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hearos.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One

Happy Sixteenth Anniversary

October 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 sixteenth anniversary poem about time and love:

Happy sixteenth anniversary!
After all these years, still in love!
Perhaps not more or less, but differently,
Perhaps because we know what time has proved.
Years flow past our bit of riverside
Singing inconsolably of beauty.
In sympathy, we watch the boats go by,
Xeroxing our poems in praise of duty.
There is in home an antidote for time,
Even as love lasts beyond a life,
Each passion pressed into a paradigm
New realized in the grace of man and wife.
The love that lasts is stubborn, tough, and strong,
Having need to need, both shared and long.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ30.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time
October 22: Happy Twelfth Anniversary
October 23: Happy Fifty-First Anniversary
October 24: Happiness Remains a Choice
October 25: Happy Sixteenth Anniversary

Happiness Remains a Choice

October 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 ninth anniversary poem about the choice of happiness:

Happiness remains a choice
All through one's wandering.
Perhaps it is one's inner voice;
Perhaps the heart can sing.
Yearning can be ravenous;
Need can swallow joy.
In being, one is fabulous,
Not merely, but miraculous,
The happening of happiness
Hard times cannot destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ43.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time
October 22: Happy Twelfth Anniversary
October 23: Happy Fifty-First Anniversary
October 24: Happiness Remains a Choice

Happy Fifty-First Anniversary

October 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 fifty-first anniversary poem about the commemoration after the big fiftieth anniversary:

Happy fifty-first anniversary!
A wavelet in the wash of last year's wave?
Perhaps. But may you ride it happily
Past the mark the last long groundswell laid,
Yielding to the gentle upward grade.

For every year sweeps just a little higher,
Inundating all that came before.
Foam bubbles where the incoming waves retire,
The champagne of the unresisting shore.
Years rise and fall across that timeless floor.

For you, may each year be a year of love
In which beneath the moment there is joy.
Relentless as the passing years may prove,
So may the lilt of life your spirits buoy,
The gift of love that time cannot destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ97.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time
October 22: Happy Twelfth Anniversary
October 23: Happy Fifty-First Anniversary

Happy Twelfth Anniversary

October 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 twelfth anniversary poem about taking the measure of love:

Happy twelfth anniversary!
A day to take the measure of your love,
Pleased that it still fits you comfortably,
Pleased your lives so beautiful have proved.
Years break across your wide and gentle strand,
Then draw back to curl and break again,
While you together on that shoreline stand,
Enduring through the rush of wave and wind.
Long may you live with wisdom and with grace,
Fortunate to share a sweet embrace,
Treasure you no longer have to seek,
Home where when you enter you find peace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ96.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time
October 22: Happy Twelfth Anniversary

Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time

October 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 eleventh anniversary poem about how love conquers time:

Eleven years is not so long a time.
Life goes on, and who knows what comes next?
Each moment writes its own persuasive text,
Visions in which will and fate align.
Even so, love can conquer time,
Not bound by what might come before or next.
Years, not moments, write the lyric text,
Enduring as two lives for life align.
Although in time one can't know what comes next,
Relying on the moment's reasoned text,
Sing of love, that will the stars align.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/11year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time

Here in the Midst of Happiness

October 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 sixth anniversary poem about pausing to recognize one’s blessings:

Here in the midst of happiness,
A moment's pause: How might
People know when they are blessed,
Pressured day and night?
Years pass like some vast waterfall,
So quickly yet so slowly,
In droplets that are grace writ small,
Xxx's for you only,
The moments that you will recall -
Here, now, beautiful.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herein.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness

Happy Twenty-First Anniversary

October 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 https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A twenty-first anniversary poem about the play of will and fate in making one of two:

Happy twenty-first anniversary!
A time both to reflect and celebrate.
Perhaps the years turn choices into fate.
Perhaps one chooses daily what to be.
Yet though at every moment one is free,
Time and love join forces to create
Worlds in which we live, a passionate
Embrace that shapes the will's topography.
Now you are a part of who I am,
The wheel within the wheel I call myself,
Yearning with my yearning, as two branches
From one tree reach together for the sun.
Intimacy floods the inner dam,
Reaches out across the inner gulf,
Self-healing through a love that sings and dances,
Turning two time travelers into one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ95.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary

Fighting Back

October 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from the Constitution of the Indian Federation covering Native American tribes in Southern California in 1922:

FIGHTING BACK

Adapted from the Constitution of the Indian Federation (Tribes of Southern California), ca. 1922.

The name of this Indian organization shall be
THE MISSION INDIAN FEDERATION.

Its objects are to secure by legislation or otherwise
All the rights and benefits belonging to each Indian
Both singly and collectively;
To protect them against unjust laws, rules and regulations;
To guard the interests of each member
Against unjust and illegal treatment.

"HUMAN RIGHTS AND HOME RULE"
Shall be the slogan adopted
By the Mission Indian Federation.

The Mission Indian Federation
Shall be non-political and non-sectarian,
The discussion of which
Is most stringently forbidden
In the Councils and Conventions.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fighti.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide
October 17: From the Great White Father to His Children
October 18: Fighting Back

From the Great White Father to His Children

October 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to all Native Americans in 1923 concerning their behavior:

FROM THE GREAT WHITE FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN

Adapted from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to All Indians, February 24, 1923:

Now,
What I want you to think about
Very seriously
Is that you must first of all
Try to make your own living,
Which you cannot do
Unless you work faithfully
And take care
Of what comes from your labor,
And go to dances or other meetings
Only when your home work
Will not suffer by it.

I do not want to deprive you
Of decent amusements
Or occasional feast days,
But you should not do evil
Or foolish things
Or take so much time
For these occasions.

No good comes
From your "give-away" custom
At dances
And it should be stopped.
It is not right
To torture your bodies
Or to handle poisonous snakes
In your ceremonies.
All such extreme things
Are wrong
And should be put aside
And forgotten.

You do yourselves
And your families
Great injustice
When at dances
You give away money
And other property,
Perhaps clothing,
A cow, a horse,
Or a team and wagon,
And then,
After an absence of several days,
Go home to find everything
Going to waste,
And yourselves
With less to work with
Than you had before.

I could issue an order
Against these useless
And harmful performances,
But I would much rather
You give them up
Of your own free will.
And, therefore,
I ask you now
In this letter
To do so.

If, at the end of one year,
The reports which I receive
Show that you are doing
As requested,
I shall be very glad,
For I will know
That you are making progress
In other
And more important ways.

But if the reports show
That you reject this plea,
Then some other course
Will have to be taken.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fromt2.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide
October 17: From the Great White Father to His Children

Cultural Genocide

October 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the superintendent of a Native American reservation in 1902 and the reply:

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Adapted from the "Long-hair" letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Superintendent, Round Valley, California, 1/11/1902; and the reply by the Superintendent, 6/21/1902:

The wearing of long hair
By the male population
Of your agency
Is not in keeping
With the advancement they are making,
Or will soon be expected to make,
In civilization.

You are therefore directed
To induce your male Indians
To cut their hair.
With your Indian employees,
And those Indians
Who draw rations and supplies,
It should be an easy matter,
As non-compliance
With this order
May be made a reason
For discharge
Or for withholding
Rations and supplies.

The returned students
Who do not comply voluntarily
Should be dealt with summarily.
Employment, supplies, etc.,
Should be withdrawn
Until they do comply.
And if they become obstreperous
About the matter,
A short confinement
In the guard house
At hard labor,
With shorn hair,
Should furnish a cure.

The Reply:

Sir: Referring to your letter
Of January eleventh,
There are only two or three
Very old male Indians
Who wear long hair,
And I have not thought it best
To take severe measures with them,
As there is no disposition
On the part of any others
To follow their example.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/cultur.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide

Indian Babarities

October 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day describing a massacre of Native Americans in 1867:

INDIAN BARBARITIES

Adapted from Conditions of the Indian Tribes: A Report of the Joint Special Committee of Congress (The Doolittle Report): pp. 41-42, January 26, 1867.

"When the attack was made,
The Indians flocked around the camp
Of the head chief,
And he ran out his flag.
He had a large American flag
Which was presented to him, I think,
By Colonel Greenwood some years ago.
And under this American flag
He had likewise a small white flag."

Was it light, so that the flags
Could be plainly seen?

"Yes, they could be plainly seen."

How many were killed?

"I think about seventy or eighty,
Including men, women, and children;
Twenty-five or thirty of them were warriors, probably,
And the rest women, children, boys, and old men."

Were any Indian barbarities practiced?

"The worst I have ever seen.
All manner of depredations
Were inflicted on their persons;
They were scalped, their brains knocked out;
The men used their knives,
Ripped open women,
Clubbed little children,
Knocked them in the head with their guns,
Beat their brains out,
Mutilated their bodies
In every sense of the word."

Do you know which troops those were
That actually did this work;
Whether they were the hundred-day men
Who came from Denver,
Or the regular First Colorado regiment?

"I am not able to say;
They were all in a body together,
Between eight hundred and one thousand men,
I took them to be.
I saw some of the First Colorado regiment
Committing some very bad acts there
On the persons of the Indians;
And I likewise saw
Some of the one-hundred-day men
In the same kind of business."

When they came back to the Indian village,
Were any of the Indians there,
Men, women, or children,
Left?

"No, sir; they were all gone
Except a few children
Who came into our camp
An hour after we had all returned."

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/india4.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities

A Graphic Illustration

October 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day describing how Native Americans in Oregon were told in 1855 that they were about to be inundated with white settlers:

A GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION

Adapted from The Affidavit of Charles Pitt Regarding "The Palmer Treaty, 1855" at Warm Springs, Oregon:

Palmer reached down
And raked up three piles of sand.
And he said, "Can you count the grains
In the three piles? No, you can't.
The white man in number
Is greater than the grains
In the three piles of sand.
And you can't count them.
The white man will come into your country
Like salmon go up rivers.
The great father in Washington
Is like a great chief,
But he can't stop them from coming in.
And you will be covered over by them
For they are so numerous."

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/toshel.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration

To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor

October 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from a memorial of the ladies of Steubenville, Ohio, requesting fair treatment of Native Americans, 1830:

TO SHELTER THE AMERICAN CHARACTER FROM LASTING DISHONOR

Adapted from the Memorial from the Ladies of Steubenville, Ohio, Protesting Indian Removal, February 15, 1830:

Your memorialists would sincerely deprecate
Any presumptuous interference
On the part of their own sex
With the ordinary political affairs of the country
As wholly unbecoming
The character of American Females.
Even in private life
We may not presume
To direct the general conduct
Or control the acts
Of those who are in the near
And guardian relations
Of husbands and brothers.
Yet all admit that there are times
When duty and affection call on us
To advise and persuade
As well as to cheer and console.
And if we approach the public representatives
Of our husbands and brothers,
Only in the humble character of suppliants
In the cause of mercy and humanity,
May we not hope
That even the small voice of female sympathy
Will be heard?

When, therefore, injury and oppression
Threaten to crush a hapless people
Within our borders,
We, the feeblest of the feeble,
Appeal with confidence to those
Who should be the representatives
Of national virtues
As they are the depositories
Of national powers,
And implore them
To succor the weak and unfortunate.
In despite of the undoubted natural right
Which the Indians have
To the land of their fathers,
And in the face of solemn treaties
Pledging the faith of the nation
For their secure possession of those lands,
It is intended, we are told,
To force them from their native soil,
And to compel them to seek new homes
In a distant and dreary wilderness.
To you, then,
As the constitutional protectors
Of the Indian within our territory,
And as the peculiar guardians
Of our national character
And our country's welfare,
We solemnly and earnestly appeal
To save this remnant of a much-injured people
From annihilation,
To shield our country from the curses denounced
On the cruel and ungrateful,
And to shelter the American character
From lasting dishonor.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/toshel.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor

Treaties Are Made to Be Broken

October 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day containing an adaptation of a proposed treaty with Native Americans in 1783:

TREATIES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN

Adapted from the Congressional Committee Draft Report on Indian Affairs, September 22, 1783:

Thirdly, That as the Indians,
Notwithstanding a solemn treaty of neutrality with Congress
At the commencement of the war,
Notwithstanding all the advice and admonition
Given them during its prosecution,
Could not be restrained
From acts of hostility and wonton devastation,
But were determined to join their arms
With those of Great Britain
And to share their fortunes;
So consequently,
With a less generous people than Americans,
They would be compelled to retire beyond the Lakes.
But as we prefer clemency to rigor,
As we persuade ourselves
That their eyes are open to their error,
And they have found by fatal experience
That their true interest and safety
Must depend upon our friendship,
As the country is large enough
To contain and support us all,
And as we are disposed to be kind to them,
To supply their wants and partake of their trade;
We from these considerations,
And from motives of compassion
Draw a veil over what has passed,
And will establish a boundary line
Between them and us
Beyond which we will restrain our citizens
From hunting and settling,
And within which they shall not come
But for the purpose of trading, treating,
Or other business equally unexceptionable.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/treat3.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken

Time Has No Open Channel to Despair

October 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about how time flows past despair:

Time has no open channel to despair.
It never empties out into that sea,
Moving down its streambed endlessly,
Ever flowing past whatever's there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timeha.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless
October 7: Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious
October 8: Understand, Death Has No Use for Time
October 9: Time Tends to Make the Biggest Problems Small
October 10: No Better Time than Now Can Be Imagined
October 11: Time Has No Open Channel to Despair

No Better Time than Now Can Be Imagined

October 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the present moment:

No better time than now can be imagined.
In fact, there is no time that is not now.
Nothing was or will be, only is,
Each memory or dream no more than this:
The thought of bloom upon a winter bough.
Yet all of life is full of such phantasms.

For you the moment's much too good to miss.
Open it as far as thoughts allow.
Unhinge its doors, and hear its sunlit passion
Reverberate across the fields of bliss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/nobett.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless
October 7: Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious
October 8: Understand, Death Has No Use for Time
October 9: Time Tends to Make the Biggest Problems Small
October 10: No Better Time than Now Can Be Imagined

Time Tends to Make the Biggest Problems Small

October 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about time as a healer:

Time tends to make the biggest problems small.
It heals the bitterest and deepest wound.
There is no pain, no agony at all
That Time won't turn into some sweet, sad tune.

So let Time take you as a river flows
Beyond the violent rapids where you are.
There are things that every woman knows
Once she can see her tempests from afar.

When you are young, your choices wait on you,
Or if they disappear, there'll soon be more.
The things you love and lose, the words you rue,
Sometimes, when you look back, look like a door.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timete.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless
October 7: Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious
October 8: Understand, Death Has No Use for Time
October 9: Time Tends to Make the Biggest Problems Small

Understand, Death Has No Use for Time

October 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical epitaph about time and death:

Uunderstand, death has no use for time.
No time is any better, any worse.
Cancel twenty years or eighty-nine,
Love's a loss one cannot reimburse.
Each of us lives for an eternity,
Dying only after our forever.
Early or late, we vanish equally,
All unconscious of the ties we sever,
No longer either separate or together.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/unders.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless
October 7: Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious
October 8: Understand, Death Has No Use for Time

Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious

October 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical and psychological number poem about how living in time affects love:

Time has a way of making life precious:
What we know we must lose, we love anxiously.
Even the heavens are not infinite,
No star more eternal than the flash of a quark.
Tranquility mirrors a moment of sky;
Yearning returns like the tides of the sea.

Each of us has some slight notion of why
Infinite moments take less than a minute.
Gripped by love, each soul is contagious.
Holding each other, we walk in the dark.
Through you I am and continue to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timeh2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless
October 7: Time Has a Way of Making Life Precious

Even So, One's Time Seems Endless

October 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about experiencing the flow of time within what seems a timeless self:

Even so, one's time seems endless,
Infinite, although we know
Gifts of being come and go,
However brief, refulgent, senseless.
Time moves towards one's end, relentless,
Yet one cannot see it so.

One seems One, eternal, causeless,
Neither in nor of the flow,
Eye and I transparent, changeless …

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/evenso.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast
October 6: Even So, One’s Time Seems Endless

Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast

October 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about how different time seems to parents and children:

Time for parents tends to go too fast,
While for children seems to go too slow.
Each looks back or forward with delight,
Loss or gain depending on one's height,
Visions of the future or the past
Enveloped in a sentimental glow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timefo.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Time
October 5: Time for Parents Tends to Go Too Fast

Talk to Me as Lovers Do

October 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for honesty in love talk:

Talk to me as lovers do,
Regardless what you have to say,
And I will gladly talk to you.

Be kind, but most of all be true:
Throw your masks and shields away.
Talk to me as lovers do,

Anger, pain, and boredom, too,
Let all that's in you come my way,
And I will gladly talk to you.

We've had rough times, but we get through:
We choose through hurricanes to stay.
So talk to me as lovers do.

Beneath the storm I will renew
My vow to love you more each day,
And I will gladly talk to you.

All darkness turns to light when you
And I can weep and touch and play.
Come talk to me as lovers do
And I will gladly talk to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/talkto.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
September 28: Pleasures Come and Go: Love Abides
September 29: I Don’t Know Why My Feelings Are So Strong
September 30: How Can I Know So Surely that I’ll Love You
October 1: Just Loving You Has Been a Revelation
October 2: Love Is like an Iceberg
October 3: The Past Is like a Sculpture
October 4: Talk to Me as Lovers Do

The Past Is like a Sculpture

October 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about how love can change someone for the better:

The past is like a sculpture:
Cold, unyielding stone,
Shaped in all the heat of life
But now best left alone.

If you'd like to look at it,
I'm sure that you will see
Someone somewhat similar,
But not the same as me.

The difference is in loving you,
Which changes sex to light,
From ego-driven ecstasy
To mutual delight;

From self-consuming pleasure
That can the self destroy,
To self-surpassing tenderness,
And joy in giving joy.

I am no longer who I was,
But am completely yours
In all my passion and desire,
In all that faith restores;

So do not turn away from me,
Jealous of the past,
And we in our embrace shall dance
To music that will last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thepas.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
September 28: Pleasures Come and Go: Love Abides
September 29: I Don’t Know Why My Feelings Are So Strong
September 30: How Can I Know So Surely that I’ll Love You
October 1: Just Loving You Has Been a Revelation
October 2: Love Is like an Iceberg
October 3: The Past Is like a Sculpture

Love Is like an Iceberg

October 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about how much of love is beyond knowing:

Love is like an iceberg in that
Most is not observed.
The deep part grinds against far shores
No port has ever served.

My feelings for you are beyond
All words, all thoughts, all knowing.
My love lies deep beneath my sea,
With need and passion showing.

But the bulk of it moves silently,
Counting days in years.
I think of you and suddenly
My heart is wrenched with tears.

I feel within me something huge,
Unseen but lovely, move;
I know I'm just a breath across
This dark and awesome love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iceber.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
September 28: Pleasures Come and Go: Love Abides
September 29: I Don’t Know Why My Feelings Are So Strong
September 30: How Can I Know So Surely that I’ll Love You
October 1: Just Loving You Has Been a Revelation
October 2: Love Is like an Iceberg

Just Loving You Has Been a Revelation

October 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and love poem about what one can learn from love:

Just loving you has been a revelation,
Even if you hadn't loved me back.
My heart now knows the secret paths of pleasure,
Exchanging ends and means for greater treasure,
Losing lust and grateful for the lack,
Yet relishing the play of shared sensation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/justlo.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love
September 28: Pleasures Come and Go: Love Abides
September 29: I Don’t Know Why My Feelings Are So Strong
September 30: How Can I Know So Surely that I’ll Love You
October 1: Just Loving You Has Been a Revelation