Trevor Is a Dancing Cavalier

February 28, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for a bright, self-assured young man whom life has not yet humbled:

Trevor is a dancing cavalier
Rejoicing in his beauty and his youth.
Even though his days are much too full,
Vivaciously he charms whatever's dull,
Opening his blue sky bright and clear,
Rain not yet darkening his hard-edged truth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stanle.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song
February 26: Said Is “Dr. Happy”
February 27: Stanley’s Everything I’ve Ever Wanted
February 28: Trevor Is a Dancing Cavalier

Stanley's Everything I've Ever Wanted

February 27, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for an ideal lover:

Stanley's everything I've ever wanted:
Tough and sexy, tender, sweet, and strong;
Aggressive, playful, funny, proud, undaunted;
Needy, caring, ready to be wrong.
Love loves not a calm consistency.
Each heart longs to be helpless, hopeless, haunted,
Yearning for the wind to stir its sea.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stanle.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song
February 26: Said Is “Dr. Happy”
February 27: Stanley’s Everything I’ve Ever Wanted

Said is "Dr. Happy"

February 26, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for someone who at ninety is still dancing through life:

Said is "Dr. Happy," even now
At ninety, with death living in his heart.
If one must sorrow, he can show us how,
Dancing still with wisdom and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/said.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song
February 26: Said Is “Dr. Happy”

Nessen Sings a Solitary Song

February 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who is able to transform the world by embracing it:

Nessen sings a solitary song,
Entering the forest of his fears.
So must we all make peace with what must be,
Singing of life's beauty lustily,
Embracing what would else be cold and sere.
Nor can the forest fail to sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/nessen.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song

Alessandro Savors Solitude

February 24, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who has withdrawn deep into our common soul:

Alessandro savors solitude,
Looking for connection to the whole.
Each is everyone, and so includes
Such rapture as resides in every soul,
Selfless self, with neither will nor goal.
Anticipating death, he undoes life,
Needing nothing, wanting, wishing nothing,
Delivered from what would engender strife,
Relinquishing all but simple acts of being,
Old conqueror of all that's worth the winning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/aless2.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude

Alan Is an Absolute Delight

February 23, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for a person with a sunny disposition who devotes himself to alleviating another’s sorrow:

Alan is an absolute delight --
Like a saint who's gorgeous, buff, and funny,
Always so considerate and sunny,
Nestled in the eaves of someone's night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alan.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight

Adam Is a Model for Us All

February 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about the interactive nature of revelation:

Adam is a model for us all,
Demanding interactive revelation.
All of us are fit for condemnation,
Making us the reason for his fall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/adam.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All

Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

February 21, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political number poem about a political activist who sees the evil of merely accepting everyday oppression:

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in exposing
Instruments of everyday oppression,
Fantasies of normalcy sustaining
The brutal oligarchy of possession.
Yet what she does is more than mere expression.

Nor does she care what fat she might be frying
In bold pursuit of media attention,
Nemesis of all who show discretion
Even as they see so many dying.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/59b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table
February 21: Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

February 20, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political and philosophical number poem about a political activist who delights in life:

Fifty-eight comes often to the table,
Intent on the conundrums of the day.
For her the chance that there she might be able
To shape the world for good in some small way
Yields pleasure that no hunger can allay.

Even as she yearns for peace and justice,
In her the simple moment brings delight,
Gift of being, palpable and lustrous,
However strewn upon the field of night,
The reason and the rage for doing right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/58b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies

February 19, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A name poem for George Washington’s Birthday about the myth that he never told a lie:

George does not admit to telling lies,
Even though he tells them every day.
One lives in a perpetual disguise,
Reduced to a self-marketed display.
Great men wear life well, for they are wise
Enough to know the things that none need say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/georg2.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies

Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith

February 18, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political name poem about someone who was blinded by a political ideology and now regrets it:

Andrew was a soldier of the faith:
No one was more loyal or more true.
Despite the hard, rich texture of illusion,
Reality insisted on confusion,
Eviscerating much that Andrew knew.
What remains stalks him like a wraith.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/andrew.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith

Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 17, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political poem for Presidents Day about the virtues of the separation of powers:

Praised be those who would distribute power,
Reconciled to bickering and waste,
Enduring, even in the darkest hour,
Such hacks as pander to the popular taste.
In such a system, life can be frustrating,
Demanding patient tolerance to rule.
Everyone has blessings worth berating,
Nor need one much at stake to be a fool.
The president is forced to be a leader
Since all are free to follow or oppose;
'Mid maelstroms, both captain and conceder,
Deftly tacking when a headwind blows.
All know divided power leads to strife,
Yet few would yield to one vain will their life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/praise4.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 16, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political poem for Presidents Day on the motivations and dangers of pursuing political power:

What might make a person want to lead,
To bear the brutal burden of a state?
Power is for some a noble need
That only shaping history can sate.
One wishes to do good, but on what scale?
The wounded world lies heavy on one's heart.
One's gaudiest ambitions tend to pale
Upon the stage on which one plays one's part.
So there are just a few who would ascend
To where one's choices change the way things are,
And over many years to one's will bend
The iron bolts that one's bright visions bar.
And yet such power corrupts, unless one sees
The need to search one's soul upon on one's knees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/whatmi.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 15, 2021

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 Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A poem for Presidents Day on how to spell the holiday’s name:

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?
Regarding spelling, what's the difference?
Even apostrophes must have their say,
Subtly shading each rendition's sense.
In the first, Washington alone
Deserves the day, the only president
Every state has honored on its own.
Nor does the change of name change what is meant.*
The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,
Should share the honor, combining holidays
'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,
Depending on which state such honor pays.
All presidents, too, the second could convey,
Yet the third one must be read that way.

*Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays used to be celebrated separately, though not all states recognized Lincoln's Birthday as a holiday.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presid.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

A Valentine Is Nothing Like

February 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem about what a Valentine is, and is not, like:

A Valentine is nothing like
A chocolate or a rose.
For in a week these shall be gone,
But Valentines remain.

If love were always sweet to tongue
Or fragrant to the nose,
Each day would be like Valentine's,
And we would go insane.

A Valentine just hangs around
Waiting to be kissed
Long after special days have passed
And every days are here.

So one is wise to choose one well
And chocolates to resist.
For in the midst of mania
It's nice to have one near.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/avalen.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love
February 11: Blessed Are Those Who Cherish Well Their Loves
February 12: Carrie Is My Valentine
February 13: From a Secret Admirer
February 14: A Valentine Is Nothing Like

From a Secret Admirer

February 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem from a secret admirer that is a humorous version of a much more famous poem:

From a Secret Admirer

(After Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”)

Whose gift this is you cannot know.
My heart is in your keeping though.
You will not mind my writing here
To tell you that I love you so.

I know that you must think it queer
For me to love and not come near
But linger by some frozen lake
This most romantic time of year.

I sometimes give my head a shake
And ask if there is some mistake.
It's lonely out here 'mid the sweep
Of bitter wind and icy flake.

My love for you is dark and deep,
But it's a promise I will keep
As from afar I watch and weep,
As from afar I watch and weep.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/frost.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love
February 11: Blessed Are Those Who Cherish Well Their Loves
February 12: Carrie Is My Valentine
February 13: From a Secret Admirer

Carrie Is My Valentine

February 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day name poem about second chances in love:

Carrie is my Valentine,
A fantasy come true,
Reminding me that fortune can
Reenter what we do.
I said what words were in my heart,
Each one to her heart new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/carrie.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love
February 11: Blessed Are Those Who Cherish Well Their Loves
February 12: Carrie Is My Valentine

Blessed Are Those Who Cherish Well Their Loves

February 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem about the importance of cherishing one’s love:

Blessed are those who cherish well their loves!
Each enduring love is like a river:
Making bloom the land through which it moves,
Yielding bounty in exchange for labor.
Very few appreciate this treasure,
As most desire more while giving less,
Liable to miss joy pursuing pleasure,
Each dragged into love under duress.
Nor does one understand so easily
That love requires one to be a lover:
Intimate in ways that set one free,
Needing for one's sense of self the other,
Even as one is oneself an other.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bless3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love
February 11: Blessed Are Those Who Cherish Well Their Loves

Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love

February 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem from a group to a stranger who is alone:

Be with us in the circle of our love,
Even if by chance you are alone.
Our greetings will, we hope, propitious prove,
Uniting our good wishes with your own.
Remember there are those who think of you,
Vested in the will to be a friend.
As distant hills give depth to what we view,
Let these distant words new vistas send.
Each life is lived behind a sheltering veil,
Not lifted but for love. Yet when we will,
There is a wind that shifts the curtain frail,
Invading with kind thoughts the spirit still.
Now may we all enjoy this special time,
Each to each a new-found Valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bewith.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love

Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains

February 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem to a former lover:

Although our love is over, it remains
An unfrequented garden in my heart,
Its beauty quite inseparable from pain,
A wilderness where once was willful art.

I hope a little piece of you is still
Reserved for me, a place you may not go,
But where my room, untenanted, can fill
A moment with my music, sweet and slow.

There are no wishes like a former lover's
That from the dark, repentant night must shine.
And so though we have both moved on to others,
I send you from afar this Valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/altho3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains

Hunger Is an Organ Tone

February 8, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem about the ubiquity of longing:

Hunger is an organ tone,
A single note sustained
Perhaps until one is before
Paradise arraigned.
Yearning doesn't end with love,
Vintner of despair.
All the love one can conceive
Leaves some longing there.
Even in one's lover's arms,
Needing nothing more,
There's a void within the heart
Increasing loss with store.
Nor can one love but feel that pang,
Empty at its core.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hunger.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone

Lust for the One You Love

February 7, 2021

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 enrich the pleasures of lust:

Lust for one you love
Is like a garden flower
That must be pruned and weeded
Before it yields its treasure.

Years refine its grace,
But only with devotion
And much imagination
To freshen the familiar.

But, ah! what then the freedom
That comes alone from giving
And knowing that your wishes
Will be your lover's pleasure!

For in the utmost chamber
Lust is quickly sated
While love still brings redemption,
Ever life's sole savior.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
February 4: Love Comes Unexpectedly
February 5: Love Is Not a Simple Yes or No
February 6: Love Redeems the Passions of the Moment
February 7: Lust for the One You Love

Love Redeems the Passions of the Moment

February 6, 2021

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 philosophical love poem about the fundamental attraction that underlies all being:

Love redeems the passions of the moment
Underneath the qualms that quell the sea.
All the queries that have room to comment
Know quite well how good it is to be!
Love allows the rivers to run freely,
The tides to turn without the least regret,
The mountains to give way to time, sincerely
Pleased with what the eons will forget.
Love turns every moment to forever,
And every thing to unintended song,
And makes a worship out of all endeavor,
And through its suffering, denounces wrong.
Bear witness, then, to love, that you might bear
To be, with neither purpose nor despair.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
February 4: Love Comes Unexpectedly
February 5: Love Is Not a Simple Yes or No
February 6: Love Redeems the Passions of the Moment

Love Is Not a Simple Yes or No

February 5, 2021

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 to identify true love:

Love is not a simple yes or no.
Only will and time ordain its truth.
Visions of sweet pleasure come and go.
Embracing love takes wisdom more than proof.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovei4.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
February 4: Love Comes Unexpectedly
February 5: Love Is Not a Simple Yes or No

Love Comes Unexpectedly

February 4, 2021

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 depth of spiritual experience that can be had through love:

Love comes unexpectedly,
An arrow to the heart,
But stays only reluctantly
Through patience, will, and art.

The full-length version of the story
Has both joy and pain,
Boredom, lust, betrayal, glory,
Anger, comfort, shame.

It ends in grief, inevitably,
Through death or separation,
The harshness of the agony
As strong as the relation.

So why, then, love? And why persist
In love long after passion
Has gone its way? And why resist
An urge one need not ration?

The answer is in something more
Than fantasy and pleasure --
A passion passion never saw,
A hunger beyond measure;

A longing for the One in one
One longs for all one's life,
And is love, yes, the same that binds
A husband to a wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovec3.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
February 4: Love Comes Unexpectedly

Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

February 3, 2021

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 philosophical love poem about the wisdom of choosing love over lust:

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn't stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self's less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

Dreams Do Come True

February 2, 2021

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 dreams to survive disillusionment before they can come true:

Dreams do come true, but only when
They make it through despair,
Limping into everyday
Transformed beyond repair.

No dream would be a dream if it
Could pass for something real,
Nor would we sail for paradise
Would it its shoals conceal.

So it is with love: the dream
Long longed for, now possessed,
Must be a dream no longer, but
An emperor undressed.

Stark naked it must come to us
In unaccustomed shame,
And we must take it in our arms
And love it all the same.

And we must love love as it is
That dreams might still come true,
Mangled into miracles
To make our lives anew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True

A Love Duet for Contrary Voices

February 1, 2021

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 contrasting free love with commitment:

A LOVE DUET FOR CONTRARY VOICES

ONE

Let me love you as I would,
Not as you will or as I should.
For love, to linger, must be free,
And what you wish for isn't me.

TWO

You might love me as you would,
But I must spurn you, as I should.
For though love is a choice that's free,
Once made, it means that you love me.

ONE

Only you? I might love two,
Or three or four. As might you.
For love will ever have its way,
Regardless what we do or say.

TWO

Those who say that they love two
Love only one--themselves. For you
Confuse desire with love, whose way
Is willed, regardless what you say.

ONE

Is willed? Confuse love with desire?
But what is love without the fire?
A cage in which two birds expire,
Each to each a gutless liar.

TWO

Love begins, yes, as desire,
But then one must maintain the fire,
Lest it, lacking care, expire,
Making one a faithful liar.

BOTH

On this point we both agree:
Love loves not dishonesty.

ONE

But some would love upon the sea,

TWO

While some would love more vertically,
That past and future rooted be
In one well-tended, fruitful tree.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices