Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies

March 31, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about Easter candy in the form of chicks, ducks, and bunnies:

Easter chicks and ducks and bunnies
All like treats to fill their tummies.
So do kids like Easter sweets -
Tiny chicks turned into Peeps,
Eggs and bunnies turned into
Rich chocolate - Yum! - for me and you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easte6.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies

Easter Comes at Springtime

March 30, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about the happiness of springtime:

Easter comes at springtime
When flowers start to bloom.
Trees begin to get their leaves,
Which will hide songbirds soon.

A happy, happy time of year
When all the world's reborn!
And even you feel bright and new
At life's sweet-scented dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easte5.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime

The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop

March 29, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem for children about an out-of-control Easter bunny:

The Easter Bunny loves to hop.
He hops too fast! Call a cop!
Tell him, please, he has to stop!
He'll get worn out and then he'll drop!

The cop turns out to be a flop.
He runs too slowly - plop! plop! plop!
He sees a store and wants to shop.
He sees a mess and wants to mop.

Time to make a call to Pop.
He will make that bunny stop!
He will give his head a bop!
And so he does. Hooray for Pop!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theeas.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop

Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

March 28, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about the Seder Haggadah as a panoply of rituals and prayers from millennia of Jewish history:

Passover Seders are like the night sky:
A moment of moments long past and just gone;
Starlight years old next to planets nearby
Shining as though joined in one joyous song.
Over our heads is a book of the ages
Vividly chanting the stories of old,
Even as under our fingers are pages
Resplendent with light come from cauldrons now cold.
So may we gaze at the past in the present,
Each prayer a jewel in a darkness undone,
Destined to light on our eyes in a moment
Embracing all slaves out from Egypt as one.
Rejoice, then, in this living graveyard of light,
Singing the words, that they last one more night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passo3.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder
March 26: Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales
March 27: People Are a People by Design
March 28: Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

People Are a People by Design

March 27, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about how a national identity can be created and sustained:

People are a people by design,
Embracing who they were by who they are.
So does history become a meal,
A ritual that makes a memory real,
Calcifying what, beyond the bar,
Has not the substance of a glass of wine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/people.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder
March 26: Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales
March 27: People Are a People by Design

Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales

March 26, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about the ethics of celebrating an escape from slavery when slavery still exists:

Perhaps this is no time for telling tales.
After all, the slaves are still not free.
So what if God once parted the Red Sea,
Saving us, when slavery still prevails?
Ought one turn to save those left behind?
Very few would face the Pharaoh's host,
Emerging from the sea with little lost,
Ravenous to kill who would be kind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perha7.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder
March 26: Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales

Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

March 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about the ritual of the Seder for non-religious Jews:

Perhaps your only ritual is the Seder,
All that's left of what was once a Jew.
Suppose you've found the rest's no longer you,
Still working on a self that surfaced later.
Oh, yes, this one last bit of times gone by,
Vividly alive in prayer and song,
Endures, although the past for which you long
Remains rooted in a faith you now deny.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perha8.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder

Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True

March 24, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about how myths become themselves historical truths:

Please be assured that what you read is true,
Although to some it may seem more symbolical.
Sometimes the myth itself becomes historical,
Sustained by being simply what one knew.
On Passover, we read the ancient story,
Very certain that what happens there
Embodies something true that all Jews share,
Remnant of when God revealed His glory.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/pleas5.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True

Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us

March 23, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about national survival:

Time after time they come to destroy us,
Day after day we live;
In love that flows from parents to children
We find the strength to give,
In love that flows beneath all memory
We find the strength to give.

Under the earth we lay our sorrows,
Life keeps them fresh and green;
In growth that springs from sunshine and rain
We find the strength to dream,
In hope that springs from the wounds of the earth
We find the strength to dream.

Come with me and fill my heart,
Come fill me with your song;
In the beauty of your smiling face
I know I will be strong,
In the beauty of your grieving face
I know I will be strong.

Tenderness lies enwrapped in darkness,
Music fills the night;
In love we feel for those who have loved us
There is eternal light,
In love we feel for one another
There is eternal light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timeaf.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us

Praised Be Those Who Don't Believe the Tale

March 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about continuing the tradition of the Seder even without faith in God:

Praised be those who don't believe the tale,
Although they will recite it every year
So as to pass on rather than pass over
Symbols that retain their ancient power.
Old myths survive because they don't go stale,
Vivid founding fables long held dear,
Epics binding epochs time would sever,
Restoring richness to each passing hour.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/prais3.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale

Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 21, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the inevitable passing of the Ireland of old:

Sing of Ireland, that salad bowl!
The greens are tossed with bits of yellow and brown.
Perhaps the tossing might make some folks frown,
Although the taste be tangy to the soul.
There is no past for which the bells don't toll,
Regardless how its ways are handed down.
In time its heroes, once of great renown,
Come faded to the fun house of the whole.
Know, then, that the Ireland of old
'Ere long will be what none alive remember,
Save for remnants treasured by a few.
Deep within the heartache that takes hold,
An ancient ecstasy becomes an ember,
Yielding over years to Irelands new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo5.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served
March 20: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls
March 21: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the difference between one’s self and one’s soul:

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,
As what might change is never what must be.
In one we find pure light; the other, coals,
Now burning, now burned out, now memory.
The self is something that can grow and change,
Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,
Alive to faith or innerly estranged,
The lonely witness to what one has been.
Remember that the soul is also you,
Is what is, which is eternal love,
Called to love by love you know is true,
Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selves.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served
March 20: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A philosophical St. Patrick’s Day poem about the self as part of a greater whole:

Self becomes less self the more self-served,
As who one is arrives from parts unknown.
Identity is never one's alone,
Nor can one learn unchanged a single word.
Thus the self by nature is a part,
Present in the body of the whole.
A healthy arm or leg is not a goal
That one pursues regardless of the heart.
Remember, then, that one is more or less
In common with the boundaries one draws,
Choosing or not the love that sings and soars,
Knowing or not what brings one happiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selfbe.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

March 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the greater guilt of those in charge of abusive priests:

So let them be, who have had sex with children!
And turn Your rage on those who turned their eyes,
Intending to defend Your church with lies!
Nor were they ever fit for Your dominion!
These hypocrites are far worse than the poor
Polluted souls they moved from place to place,
Avid to avoid undue disgrace,
Trafficking in silence to be sure.
Remember them when You return! For they,
Instead of proper penance, yet remain
Cardinals, bishops, princes in Your name,
Knowing well what price they ought to pay!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/solett.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

March 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the changing ethnic composition of Ireland:

So let it go, that mythic Ireland!
Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!
Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --
All of it -- but that was long ago.
The time when states were nations is now ending.
Races know no borders; people move
In search of life, their clothes and colors blending
Cultures that must now their presence prove.
Know, then, that not politics, but art,
'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,
Sustains a people's history and heart,
Dependent more on ritual than place.
As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,
Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soleti.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

So I'm the Patron Saint of Ireland

March 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about St. Patrick as a former Englishman:

So I'm the patron saint of Ireland!
Then let me be for it a sign of peace.
Perhaps few know that I was born in England
And always thought of England as my home.
There was no England then, of course, nor Ireland.
Regardless, here's an irony that should
Inhabit those possessed by racial hatred:
Come to love even those who wrong you,
Knowing I was an English slave in Ireland.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soimth.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland

Going Home to a Place You've Never Been

March 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the emotional return to Ireland of the child of Irish immigrants:

Going home to a place you've never been,
To long-loved landscapes that you've never seen,
To where your soul was sculpted by a wind
Your parents' parents left still young behind.

How long do such ancestral memories last?
When, if ever, can the past be past?
You do not know, but only know right now
This place has gripped your heart like home somehow.

Your plane descends above green hills where once
Your people for millennia learned to dance
The dance you learned third hand, yet dancing still,
You land, weeping hard against your will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goingh.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been

Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn

March 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the difficulty of social change:

Change comes slowly, like a dawn.
Hours seem like generations.
As night gives way, we too soon mourn,
Not equal to our aspirations.
Good takes wisdom, wit, and will,
Enduring through a life of ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single
March 14: Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn

Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

March 13, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem to an uncle about the interplay between society and self:

Ultimately, everyone is single,
Nor does one live or die except alone.
Children, nieces, nephews, lovers, friends
Lie just beyond the dream that never ends,
Even as one's love and longing mingle,
Sweet harmony where nothing is one's own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

Shadows Aren't Visible at Night

March 12, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the negative existence of shadows:

Shadows aren't visible at night,
Empty forms negatively made.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They are pure absence, if we read aright,
Nothingness made visible as shade.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Their temporary presence here is slight --
A cloud floats by, and they abruptly fade.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

They diminish and then lengthen as the bright
Sun rises and then sets, to slumber laid.
Shadows aren't visible at night.

Sometimes they are vivid black-on-white,
Our avatars on stuccoed walls displayed.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

Eternal Being, to which all else is trite,
What life have they, upon your shores arrayed?
Shadows aren't visible at night.
Ironically, to be they must have light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/shado4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night

For Every Disappointment There's a Dream

March 11, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the flow of time through the landscape of eternity:

For every disappointment there's a dream.
Old, dried-up hopes are soluble in laughter.
Re-vision can restore serenity.
Time flows in a continual surprise:
Yesterday another brief illusion closed its eyes.

One lives in the landscape of eternity,
Not knowing a time before time or after,
Each memory a loss love can redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forev8.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream

The Sun Was Salmon on Water

March 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the desire of youth to escape into an open mind:

The sun was salmon on water;
We watched with blood-red eyes.
Each day dies in splendor;
Night blooms with boisterous friends.
Today we lied with silence;
Yesterday, with words.

For ourselves, we ask only
Open sea on which to think,
Unfastening points of worship,
Removing what seems firm.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thesu4.html. For more philosophical poems about , go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water

Life Can Be Quite Ravenous

March 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the need to slow down:

Life can be quite ravenous,
Eating one alive.
At times one needs to slow it down,
Striving not to strive.

Space does not come easily.
One must make space for space,
Leaving room for simply room
And place that's simply place.

The self can be a mirror into
Infinite regress.
Look away, just look away
Into emptiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous

A Life in Six Movements

March 8, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem describing the course of an ordinary life from loneliness through passion, love, hate, loneliness again, and death:

A LIFE IN SIX MOVEMENTS

LONELINESS

The heart's a desert fringed by distant mountains.
Look! The wanderer has lost his way!
See where your restlessness has taken you!
You, who would not settle for your home!

Not even one cloud floats across to shade you.
At night you cannot share the brilliant stars.
Time moves so slowly you can scarcely bear it.
Yet this you would prefer to feeling pain!

PASSION

We are the puppets of an inner master,
Passive playthings pulled along by passion,
Seized by ecstasy, and not let go
Until we tumble senseless on the strand.

Oh, Master, bring to us that touch of Heaven!
That icy fire that lights the whirling stars!
That moment that obliterates the moment!
And play upon us with your golden hands!

LOVE

Did you know we can return to Eden
And recreate the innocence of old?
And unashamed walk naked through the garden?
And take our pleasure in the sacred groves?

Love's a choice - to step out of the self
Into sunlight, into Eden's joy,
Where we might hear the music of our lovers,
And dance with them the dance of grateful giving.

HATE

Betrayed! Yes! We think we are betrayed!
Oh, wanderer in Hell, why do you suffer?
There is no pleasure in your grim obsession,
Nor release from pain except through love.

We must repeat again, again, again
Our livid curses! We lust for bitterness!
And yet the people whom, in savage dreams,
We boil in oil turn out to be ourselves.

INDIFFERENCE

The flame's turned low; the cauldron merely simmers.
The sky is overcast; it does not rain.
We sleep too much to sleep well, dreaming dreams
More frightening and lustful than our days.

We wait for thunder, lightning, wait for rain
In fear and hope, with trembling and desire.
We do not care, we care, we do not care,
We do not want to care, but, yes, we care.

LONELINESS AGAIN

Oh, wanderer, at last you have come home!
The house is empty; everyone is gone.
Is no one with you? What happened to your love?
Never mind. Now it's all the same.

Don't worry, nothing terrible awaits you.
You are and then you're not, it's nothing more.
Come, we'll take you to the dreaded line,
Which, though we're with you, you must cross alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements

Health and Happiness Proceed from Love

March 7, 2021

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 love and passion:

Health and happiness proceed from love,
As love proceeds from uncorrupted passion.
Praised be the gift that does so blissful prove,
Poured forth from paradise for us to fashion.
Yet passion, like a wave, can come and go,
Even as love waits upon the shore,
Looking to put down some roots and grow,
Embracing of life's joys the quiet core.
Vested in one heart, one finds a place
Eternal in the beauty of its longing,
Nor does one ever tire of a face
That years have given unexpected grace,
Hallowed by the wonder of belonging.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing
March 3: Forty Years of Marriage Are Pass
March 4: Happiness Comes Wholly from Within
March 5: Ten Years! Such a Round, Emphatic Number
March 6: Harbors Hold Our Cravings in Their Arms
March 7: Health and Happiness Proceed from Love

Harbors Hold Our Cravings in Their Arms

March 6, 2021

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 39th anniversary poem about the need for emotional harbors:

Harbors hold our cravings in their arms
After days out on the open sea.
Passions, sheltered, unrestrain their charms,
Perhaps because at anchor we are free.
Years, like mist, reveal familiar beauties,
The freshness of the newly unforeseen,
Hidden in the diligence of duties
In obeisance to what has been.
Remember, then, the grace that comes with being
The harbor each to hold the other's heart,
Yearning for precisely what you're seeing,
Needing what you cannot have apart.
In celebration of your years together,
Neither circumstantial nor forever,
Take this day to tally up your trove,
Harboring your lust within your love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing
March 3: Forty Years of Marriage Are a Pass
March 4: Happiness Comes Wholly from Within
March 5: Ten Years! Such a Round, Emphatic Number
March 6: Harbors Hold Our Cravings in Their Arms

Ten Years! Such a Round, Emphatic Number

March 5, 2021

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 tenth anniversary poem comparing married love to a dance:

Ten years! Such a round, emphatic number!
Each step's an invitation to a dance
Not unlike the foxtrot or the rumba,
Yielding to the rhythms of romance.
Each is one, yet dances as a couple,
A single body joined by love and art,
Rejoicing in the movement, sure and supple,
Singing to the music of the heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/10yea2.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing
March 3: Forty Years of Marriage Are a Pass
March 4: Happiness Comes Wholly from Within
March 5: Ten Years! Such a Round, Emphatic Number

Happiness Comes Wholly from Within

March 4, 2021

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 in praise of those who know the secret of happiness:

Happiness comes wholly from within,
A gift of wisdom, temperament, and love.
Praised be those who know what is worthwhile,
Pleased to find their pleasures in the heart,
Yearning for a beauty that is theirs.

For them, good feelings aren't hard to spin.
One can care for life despite one's cares.
Underneath the feeling is the art,
Returning grace for grace and smile for smile.
They bear their riches on an inner wind,
Holding course for lands that blessed will prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ68.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing
March 3: Forty Years of Marriage Are a Pass
March 4: Happiness Comes Wholly from Within

Forty Years of Marriage Are a Pass

March 3, 2021

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 40th anniversary poem in which the anniversary is a mountain pass on which one can gaze on both the future and the past:

Forty years of marriage are a pass
On which one rests to see the view both ways,
Remembering the valleys left behind,
Taking in the grandeur just ahead.
Yet there is far too much for one to see.


Years of youth must blend like distant brass
Even as love knots the migrant days
And time blows through the moment like a wind.
Regrets and gratitude are here well wed,
So much alike, one could the other be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/40yea2.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing
March 3: Forty Years of Marriage Are a Pass

For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing

March 2, 2021

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 50th anniversary poem for a very happily married couple:

For some the years turn out to be a blessing:
In life and love the choices of the heart
Find their way to lushly colored meadows
Touched at night by fantasies of stars.
Yearnings sway like dancers in the wind.

You have learned the secrets of caressing,
Each in passionate tune with each other's part.
All the wind-whipped ripples in your shallows
Reappear as song that nothing mars,
Sheer happiness unfolding without end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/50yea2.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life
March 2: For Some the Years Turn Out to Be a Blessing

How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life

March 1, 2021

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 fifth anniversary poem for a couple who got together late in life:

How might a couple couple late in life,
A time when some are loath to start anew?
Perhaps the heart retains its appetite;
Perhaps one's lust for love is never through.
Years may modify that primal need,
For passion fades like a slowly setting sun.
Intimacy stays, though tides recede;
Fulfillment comes as lucid mornings come.
The task of making coupling make sense
Has the benefit of experience.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howm13.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
March 1: How Might a Couple Couple Late in Life