From Teachers, There Is Much That One Can Learn

 

A poem about the teaching profession:

 

From teachers, there is much that one can learn.
One ought not judge their worth by what they earn.
Rather, it's the task one should judge by:
To teach not only what, but how and why,
Yielding goods no teacher's pay could buy.

Even though teaching's a profession,
In fact, it is for many a vocation,
Given the knowledge and the expertise,
Having earned the requisite degrees
To touch the soul of each new generation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fromte.html. For more poems about professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

 

Voices of the Dead Are All Around Me

 

A Veterans Day poem about the psychological difficulty of returning to civilian life:

 

Voices of the dead are all around me.
Everyone alive seems much less real.
The smoke and screams and bombs and blood surround me,
Enduring through the love I still can't feel.
Reality is rarely in the present
As truth and falsehood are defined by pain.
Nor can I stand one moment that is pleasant.
Sanity to me just seems insane.
Death is more attractive than a wife,
And loneliness a far less lonely life.
Yet I must turn and somehow live again.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: End of Time. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/voice2.html. For more Veterans Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

November Knows the Beauty of a Line

 

A calendar poem for November:

 

November knows the beauty of a line:
One stroke across the heart of a gray sky.
Vacancy is where true vision lies,
Eternity redacted into time.
Memory now moves into the garden,
Bringing with it music never heard.
Each slender, naked branch is like a word
Recalling the lost happiness of Eden.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/novemb.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Hell Has Little Hope of Happiness

 

HELL HAS LITTLE HOPE OF HAPPINESS

A Halloween poem about why the inmates of Hell visit us on All Hallows’ Eve:

 

Hell has little hope of happiness.
A devil is eternally on fire,
Locked within unquenchable desire,
Longing with hatred for lost holiness.
On Halloween the devils and the dead
Wander through the world as though to warn
Each soul of an eternity forlorn,
Evangelists condemned to speak through dread,
Nightmares that must preach through pain till dawn.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Sharp Senses. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

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

Clearly, I Was a Person of My Times

A poem for Columbus Day in which Columbus asks us to understand the context of his actions and appreciate his role in creating our times:

 

Clearly, I was a person of my times,

One who treated races not my own

Like savages, sub-humans. Now my crimes

Understandably must stand alone,

Must, like Washington's, like Jefferson's,

Be seen as though memorialized in stone,

Unfit for celebration, the preference

Switched to those whose brutal genocide

Deserves far more than I to be remembered.

A plea for context, though: the seas I plied

Yielded up a future I engendered.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Destination Unknown. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear4.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

September Lingers in the Arms of Love

 

A calendar poem for September:

 

September lingers in the arms of love
Even as a certain crispness calls.
Perhaps some fear she's not yet conscious of
Takes messages as she slows down and stalls,
Embracing joys that soon must be entombed.
More frequently, she starts to feel marooned.
Business bustles busily with tasks,
Each answering more questions than it asks,
Reminding her how life can be consumed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/septem.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Clearly, There Can Be No Better News

 

A congratulations poem on the birth of a child:

 

Clearly, there could be no better news.
Of life and love, now there will be more.
Nor can we guess what grace we have in store,
Granted but imaginary views.
Rejoice in the creation of a soul,
A universe again emerged from darkness,
There being nothing, then a veiled vastness,
Unknowable, infinite, and whole.
Let there be again that bolt of light,
Again the wonder and the mystery,
The being that no cause could cause to be,
Incandescent day from utter night!
O children of desire, what have you done?
New-made a universe, another one,
Shard of One too luminous to see.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear2.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

August

 

A calendar poem for August:

 

August starts to shade a bit towards shade,
Upon the cusp of full tide and retreat,
Grace, poised upon a turning point of time,
Unwilling to welcome what it can't decline,
Sweet season no foreboding can defeat.
Though evenings earlier begin to fade.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Please. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/august.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Farewell, My Friend and Confidante

 

A goodbye poem to a friend who is going away:

 

Farewell, my friend and confidante!
As you go, so must I
Resume alone the well-worn path
Each soul must travel by.
Wend where you will, my wanderer,
Even as you stay
Long treasured in my lonely heart,
Loved well, though far away.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/farewe.html. For more goodbye poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodbyefarewellpoems.html .

Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

 

A poem for Bastille Day about how idealistic ends can inspire brutal means:

 

Good and honest people can do evil
As just ends can inspire brutal means.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Calculating what might be the level
Of suffering the greater good redeems.
Good and honest people can do evil

As well-honed ideologies give ample
Right and cause to murder for one's dreams.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Romantic as the idealistic rebel,
Tyrannical as truth splits at the seams.
Good and honest people can do evil,

Reducing life's complexities to simple
Slogans that are best conveyed by screams.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

More saint, more devil, a hammer on an anvil
That shapes the willing faithful into fiends.
Good and honest people can do evil.
In politics, a saint can be a devil.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Cantus Firmus Monks. By Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodan.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

July

 

A calendar poem for July:

 

July lies lazy, like a muddy river
Unconscious of its slow slide to the sea.
Life seems like it just goes on forever,
Yet deeper currents know it cannot be.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

May

 A calendar poem for May:

 

May is innocent and hot to breed,
Alternately chaste and ruled by need,
Yielding to the wisdom of her seed.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/may.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Part of Being Jewish Is a Choice

 

A Passover poem about how each Jew’s participation in Jewish ritual enabled Judaism to survive two thousand years of exile:

 

Part of being Jewish is a choice
As one becomes an act of preservation.
Seders start the stream of admonition,
Stories meant to bind one to the past.
On words alone the exiles had to last,
Verses reified by repetition,
Each an heirloom of a generation
Reared to give those ancient words a voice.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Mysterious Sorrows. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

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

April

 

A calendar poem for April:

 

April is quite conscious of his beauty,
Poised to sing a more idyllic song.
Regrettably, he sometimes gets it wrong
In coming on delayed a bit too long,
Losing all sense of his springtime duty.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Dancing Star. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/april.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

March Marches to the Beat of Her Own Drum

 

A calendar poem for March:

 

March marches to the beat of her own drum,
Angry in the way of eager youth,
Rebelling against the adult she’ll become,
Challenging the too-long-frozen truth.
How beautiful, though raucous and uncouth!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Buccaneer’s March. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/march2.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

February Knows His Fortune Well

 

A calendar poem for February:

 

February knows his fortune well,
Even in the bitterness of dawn
Breaking in the coldest hour of hell,
Revealing but the worst that must be borne.
Underneath the ice the passions sleep
Ablaze with all the beauty of their burning,
Rendering a richness that will keep
Yet warm within the cavern of his yearning.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/februa.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Seventeen Is Such a Lovely Age

 A number poem about being seventeen:

 

Seventeen is such a lovely age,

Ever on the edge of something new!

Vested in a multitude of plans,

Even as the calendar commands.

No choice has yet been made that one need rue,

Though soon, perhaps too soon, time turns the page.

Even at this sweet rehearsal stage,

Each must reduce the many to the few,

Needing dreams to comb through tangled strands.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Lifting Dreams. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/17d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

How Beautiful the Light upon the Water

April 29, 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 4th anniversary poem about the inexpressible beauty of every moment:

How beautiful the light upon the water!
A momentary dance across the heart:
Past all wit, all will, all words, all wonder;
Past hope, past dream, past truth too deep to chart.
Yes, there is much that cannot be forsaken,
For it is far too lovely to conceive,
Of which no single part can be partaken
Unless one would with weft alone worlds weave.
Remember, then, this joy beyond all feeling,
Touched by tears more grateful than revealing,
However shaped by ritual or art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howbe2.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
April 26: Here There Are No Platitudes to Share
April 27: Home Must Be a Daily Re-Creation
April 28: How Beautiful the Blandishments of Spring
April 29: How Beautiful the Light upon the Water

Home Must Be a Daily Re-Creation

April 27, 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 anniversary poem about the interplay between physical homes and love:

Home must be a daily re-creation
As two make whole a space not wholly theirs.
Places are part passion, part sensation,
Pending love to place the charms and chairs.
Yearning can appropriate the earth,
Annexing stone to self and eye to sea;
Nor can the wind bring wandering souls to birth,
Needing love to wake their will-to-be.
In shared dominion domicile sits,
Vestal fires lighting hearth and heart,
Equal reigns derived from equal writs,
Restorations none can tell apart.
So must home be both gift and cherished choice,
An outer bulwark and an inner voice,
Requiring love to work its wonders well,
Yet well worth loving for both pith and shell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
April 26: Here There Are No Platitudes to Share
April 27: Home Must Be a Daily Re-Creation

Here There Are No Platitudes to Share

April 26, 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 35th anniversary poem about a depth of feeling well beyond words:

Here there are no platitudes to share;
After all these years, no words to measure.
Perhaps such love is more than one can bear;
Perhaps one's joy lies far beyond one's pleasure.
Yet words are merely sluices to the flood
That wells well inland from the graceful wall
Holding in its smile a truth that would
Inundate the bare brown fields of fall.
Remember, then, the beauty that will grow
Till time lets down the curtain of its longing;
Years are fast, but happiness is slow,
For there is no replacement for belonging.
In love there is an ease not easily won,
Freedom from a freedom too undone,
Tears no tears can drain or words can tell,
Held in a heart that knows its passions well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/heret4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.
April 26: Here There Are No Platitudes to Share