Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

 

A Memorial Day poem about the need for a day of public mourning:

 

Make a little time for public mourning,
Easing the harsh pangs of hidden grief.
Maybe ritual tears will bring relief,
Offering a role for one's dark calling.
Remember the utility of sharing,
Inviting cloistered hearts to come outdoors
And dance with us along our barren shores,
Lost within the music of our longing.
Death requires our collaboration
As we render due commemoration,
Yielding sorrow to the common cause.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Nocturne. 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/makeal.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

Poem of the Week

May 26, 2011 #635

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Memorial Day.

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

Maybe it was worth it, maybe not.
Each life is priceless, yet we paid the price.
Maybe that was something we forgot.
Or maybe it was something we'd do twice.
Reason would not choose to let them die
If all the reasons on all sides could be
Against one life forced one whole night to lie,
Letting love run through them honestly.

Deep beneath the normal calculation,
A life is far more precious than a nation.
Yet war survives, and will till all agree.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 27, 2010 #583
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Memorial Day 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
 
Memories are all that I have left.
Each becomes a well-worn photograph.
Missing is the warmth, the touch, the heft
Of life, the smile, the reassuring laugh.
Real people change, they grow, relate, unfold.
In time we share the adventures of their lives
As they marry, have kids, change jobs, grow old,
Loving us – their parents, husbands, wives.
Dead people are alive in us, but they
Are not within themselves. No love revives
Your love, which I once cherished day-to-day.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon