Death Came to Me When I Was at a Meeting

An Epitaph for a Social Activist

 

Death came to me while I was at a meeting,
Opened up my chest and wandered in.
Nor did it leave until a few days later,
Satisfied it need not come again.
It was a death both unforeseen and fitting,
Living as I did for what I did,
Being one averse to merely being,
Engaged in service to the world I would.
Remember me, then, as I was when death
Made its sudden entrance to my heart:
Attentive in my seat, my wife beside me,
Night come, the meeting just about to start.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/death2.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

Poem of the Week

September 15, 2011 #651

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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Agafya is plain, old-fashioned good --
Giving, caring, loving, generous, kind.
A person doesn't get that way by chance.
Fortune isn't merely circumstance.
Years are fields on which the play of mind
And will create what character one would.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 7, 2011 #628

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Adelaide is gracious to a fault,
Desiring harmony more than desire.
Each disagreement threatens to turn dire.
Likes and dislikes never leave the vault.
A child of war becomes adept at peace.
Intuitively, she skirts the hidden mines,
Determined not to cross long-vanished lines,
Eluding rage long after her release.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 27, 2011 #618

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Aisha is a model Muslim woman:
Intelligent, loving, faithful, modest, kind;
Serving selflessly the words of Islam,
Having held them long in heart and mind;
A soul that seeks, yet knows what it will find.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 29, 2010 #592
 
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 post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Maria is a woman of the world:
As fluent in kultura as in tongues;
Reigning with a smile, poised and pearled;
Inside, duty; outside, charm unfurled;
A diplomat at ease on many rungs.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

June 24, 2010 #587
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a poem to a teacher on his retirement.
 
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
 
No one juggled time as well as you,
Interweaving literature and law,
Nor served as long and well, nor rendered to
Our students so much life as in your store.
Favors were your pleasure; ease, your grace.
Although you did much, much of what you did
Lay unobserved, so leisurely your pace,
Careful to keep agita well hid.
Over forty years you taught of beauty,
No less for love than conscientious duty,
Embracing with a zest your time and place.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 13, 2010 #581
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is an epitaph.
 
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
 
Life blessed me with a sunny disposition
Even as I lived through terrible storms.
Sport was my passion; justice was my mission.
The world, I thought, was something one reforms.
Embrace it, then, with all your warmth and joy!
Rebel, as I did, for, and not against,
Resolving to create, not to destroy,
Open-armed and loving, not incensed.
Delight, exuberance, a child's wonder --
Not naively did I these display.
Even though the wide world split asunder,
Yet one needs to live and love and play.

© 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

February 18, 2010 #569

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for George Washington's birthday.

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

Great ends demand great sacrifice,
Else the dream becomes a debt.
Open hearts will pay the price,
Redeeming loss without regret.
Great leaders also make demands,
Else the mandate turns to dust.
Willing minds find willing hands,
As courage shared engenders trust.
So a nation moves ahead,
Having found its avatar,
In hard times hungry to be led,
Navigating by its star.
Great followers must take great care
To choose a leader who will be
Out of love and duty there,
Not shy, but still reluctantly.

© by Nicholas Gordon