Sing for All the Years You Have Been Granted

 A 70^th birthday poem of celebration for the gifts of life:

 

Sing for all the years you have been granted,
Each blessing sing, each child, girl and boy!
Verses sing for all the things you've wanted:
Each victory, each pleasure, and each joy!
No matter age or illness, sing undaunted,
Though you may be by dreams or memories haunted,
Yet sing, and life and love this day enjoy!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singfo.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz

January 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a ninety-five-year-old jazz critic and aficionado:

Now is just the time for non-stop jazz,
Is just the perfect time to bop one's beep!
Ninety-five's the time for razzmatazz,
Enduring syncopation, life offbeat,
The music wailing, as it always has,
Years and years more life on old Beale Street.

Forget the rap, the punk, the rock and roll!
If the legs give way, the mind still swings,
Vividly in sync with funky soul,
Easing on down songs the moment sings.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz

Poem of the Week

March 10, 2011 #624

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a thank you for a birthday poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week."

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you all for coming here
To celebrate my life.
But most of all I'd like to thank
My lovely, loving wife.

One gives up a lot for love
In freedom, time, and tears,
And makes commitments that must last
For lifetimes, not just years.

What one gets I can see here –
A world one can call home,
A space that's safe for innocence,
A common comfort zone.

And so I'm glad that you have come,
All gathered in this place
To share this bit of birthday joy,
To share this glimpse of grace;

To share this meal with me as I
Another year accrue,
That I might know the happiness
I wish for all of you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 21, 2010 #604
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Fifty-one is entering the fall,
In which the colors of her life will brighten.
For her the painted world is but a wall
That shields a void no passion can enlighten.
Yet one can mime its mystery in all.
 
O season of remembrance! A shawl
Now covers the dark branches that will whiten,
Each laden with a dream none will recall.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 30, 2010 #601
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Seventy-one lives well with his afflictions,
Entering the ambiance of his age.
Vulnerable in ways not seen before,
Eating less, exercising more,
Not easily he alters predilections
To fit within the contours of his stage.
Yet how much good it does is hard to gauge.
 
One finds oneself now near the distant shore;
Now the cliffs rise up with more conviction,
Enduring truth no sea can veil or suage.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 20, 2010 #582
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon

So may your silver years pass pleasantly,
Even as you rest beside the river.
Vanities are gone, ambitions, schemes,
Evanescent as night's vanished dreams,
Nor need you be as prodigal a giver.
There is much that now will never be,
Yet what is, is more alive than ever.
 
The current hurries by; the tall grass teems
With creatures, each intent on some endeavor.
Old memories float like white sails out to sea.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 15, 2010 #577
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Twenty-three believes that life may perish.
What would any lover do but save it?
Each moment is an act of desperation,
Nor can one plead the beauty of sensation,
Though there is much good grace in those who crave it.
Yet now one must sustain what one would cherish.
 
There's nothing for it but to live one's anguish,
Having made one's life a sign, and wave it
Relentlessly, till one becomes a nation,
Embracing all who'll face despair and brave it,
Even though the rest their world relinquish.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 4, 2010 #571

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-two has friends and a young daughter.
Open up her life and you will find,
Resting at the unprotected center,
The quiet self-assurance of her mind,
Yielding nothing as the years unwind.

There is no future that can be designed.
What course the will may set, the wind will alter.
One is oneself one's fortune, cruel or kind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 25, 2010 #570

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Madeline Violet has come down to Earth,
A pinpoint of passion possessed by her need,
Destined to be the sweet husk of a seed
Eternally living through birth after birth.
Love her – this angel that innocent came
Into the world, though not by her will!
Now in the grasp of your wisdom and skill,
Enduring her first tastes of beauty and pain.
Vested in you is a trust none can keep,
Immense as a universe, vast as a quark,
Of the bonfire of being, one brief, playful spark,
Lovely with longing so frail one must weep.
Even as you vow more love than you know,
The angel is dancing to music below.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 21, 2010 #565

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-eight reserves the right to ramble,
Open to what gifts might come her way,
Remembering that every day's a gamble,
That absolutely nothing's here to stay,
Yearning for far more than she can say.

Even love eternal cannot last.
In time it passes on, like hours, like years,
Granting grace in golden goblets cast,
Hammered in a heat that blinds and sears,
That breaks the heart with happiness and tears.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 15, 2009 #551

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty can't believe that she is forty.
OMG! Already? It can't be!
Recently seems much more recently.
Though centuries ago, when she was thirty,
Years stretched ahead as far as she could see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 30, 2009 #541

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seventy-nine has just one working kidney.
Even that one doesn't work so well.
Vast domains of knowledge, passion, pleasure,
Eagerly await his ample leisure,
Nor have they aged, as far as he can tell.
The problem is he's in such pain he simply
Yearns for moments peaceful, clear, and still.

Needs are hopeless mountainsides, nor is he
Interested in digging deep for treasure.
Now it is enough each day to fill,
Enduring grace too bountiful to measure.

© by Nicholas Gordon