Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

 A number poem for 61 with some lines borrowed from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:

 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
In truth, thou shoulds't be catalogued in fall.
X-rays do show the darling Buds of May
Traveling still along th'arterial wall.
Yet thou has't late become more temperate,

Older as thou art than thy flesh seems.
Nor do thine eyes betray thy body's date,
Even as within thy spirit gleams.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

Audio and Video Music: A Kiss for Amanda. By D. J. Williams. Music free to use at YouTube. 

Seventy-Three Is Always at the Ready

 A number poem for a political activist in honor of Election Day:

 

Seventy-three is always at the ready,

Eager to march, to sign, to speak, to sing.

Victory’s the goal, but not the point,

Even though the time is out of joint,

Nor is guilt or self-regard the thing,

Though motivation’s never one, but many.

Yet for her, the love of life is plenty:

 

The love of people, animals, the Earth,

Human rights, freedom, justice, beauty,

Reveling in struggle, in doing right,

Embracing the quixotic gift of duty,

Engaged ever in the painful bliss of birth.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Kiss the Sky. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73i.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

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 .

Eighty-Two Lives by a Waterfall

 A philosophical number poem about the simultaneous experience of time and eternity:

 

Eighty-two lives by a waterfall,

In tune with time and the music of its flow.

Grace holds its tongue as one goes through its song,

Here for aye, though no one’s here for long,

Time falling, falling to the rocks below,

Yet fluttering in place like a wind-blown shawl.

 

To be for just one breath is to be all.

Words are ripples of what one might know.

One flows beneath what one gets right or wrong.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/82a.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Sing of Life That, Though It Has an End

 A philosophical number poem about the experience of eternity within time:

Sing of life that, though it has an end,

Embodies what does not and will be ever,

Viewpoint on eternity that lends

Existence the illusion of forever.

Nor should one fail to recognize this gift

That one shares ultimately with quince and slime:

Years down which one’s little boat may drift,

Taking one through landscapes beyond time.

How beautiful to live and simply be,

Removed from time by love and reverence.

Each moment is a brief eternity;

Each eon also, though not quite so dense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

To see this poem on my site, go to sing22.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Factor In the Fickleness of Fortune

 A number poem about how best to dream as one gets older:

 

Factor in the fickleness of fortune

In calculating charts that can be read.

For though the numbers do not lie, the data

Trend towards unknown variables instead.

Yet one must dream, albeit with more caution.

 

There is no substitute for an equation.

When one’s a certain age, there is less later.

One dreams more wisely as one looks ahead.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Timeless. By Lauren Duski. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/facto2.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

For What Does One Live, but for Goodness and Beauty

 

A number poem about the beauty of a life devoted to art:

 

For what does one live, but for goodness and beauty?

One’s goodness is beauty; one’s beauty is good.

Remember that when what one loves is one’s duty,

To labor brings one all the joy that one would.

Yet this does not always work out as it should.

 

Fear not the days of frustration and sorrow;

Old wounds reopened, new ones unhealed.

Undaunted by pain, you’ll turn back to tomorrow,

Renewed by the love that sustains your ideal.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forwh2.html. For more poems about a variety of professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.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 .

Seventy-Three Suspends Her Animation

Dear Reader,

I have decided to resurrect my former blog, Poem of the Day, as Poem of the Week, publishing each week a different poem from my website, Poems for Free (https://www.poemsforfree.com).

This week, the Poem of the Week is a number poem for a woman who both embraces her feminine role and at the same time dreams of one less self-sacrificing:

Seventy-three suspends her animation,
Eloping for a moment with a dream,
Vividly devouring each sensation,
Each image that means more than it can mean.
Nor can her love reality redeem.
Time moves on, and she comes back to life,
Yearning for the woman in the wife.

The love of husband, children, grandchildren,
Has been a garden long and faithfully tended,
Resulting in a peaceful, well-earned beauty,
Enduring pleasure she would not want ended,
Embrace she chooses out of more than duty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73susp.html. For more poems about feminism, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/feminismpoems.html .

Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

May 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious number poem about a love that blesses all equally at any age:

Seventy-three refocuses on love
Even as she now must live alone.
Very little waits behind the door.
Every day is like the day before.
Nestled in her heart are sleeves of stone.
Time hangs like a fog no sun will soon remove.
Yet there is much that makes her yearn for more.

To be is to be loved and blessed with grace,
However one might live or soon might die.
Revelations come like words long known,
Each an invitation to embrace
Ecstasy that needs no reason why.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul
May 13: Eid Is Bittersweet
May 14: Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me
May15: Recently I Dreamed I Talked to You
May 16: Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that this would be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. The last Poem of the Day email will be sent out on May 23rd.

I will still be posting a new Poem of the Week each week at my Web site (https://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html), as well as regularly adding new poems, drama, and fiction to the site. And you are welcome to follow me on:
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PoemsbyNicholasGordon)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/poems_for_free)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyyixnna5SPO5EIe4IAKkXQ)
and Twitter (https://twitter.com/poemsforfree).

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

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

Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

February 21, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political number poem about a political activist who sees the evil of merely accepting everyday oppression:

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in exposing
Instruments of everyday oppression,
Fantasies of normalcy sustaining
The brutal oligarchy of possession.
Yet what she does is more than mere expression.

Nor does she care what fat she might be frying
In bold pursuit of media attention,
Nemesis of all who show discretion
Even as they see so many dying.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/59b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table
February 21: Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

February 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political and philosophical number poem about a political activist who delights in life:

Fifty-eight comes often to the table,
Intent on the conundrums of the day.
For her the chance that there she might be able
To shape the world for good in some small way
Yields pleasure that no hunger can allay.

Even as she yearns for peace and justice,
In her the simple moment brings delight,
Gift of being, palpable and lustrous,
However strewn upon the field of night,
The reason and the rage for doing right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/58b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

January 31, 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 philosophical number poem about the desire to share beauty:

Thirty-four sings softly in the moonlight,
Hoping to disturb a passing soul.
In beauty only does one see God's face,
Reckoning the power by the grace,
Touching so the sunlight in the coal.
Years of song are swallowed by the night.

Fear not, for the miracle of sight
Opens up a window on the whole,
Unveiling a glimpse of time and place
Resplendent as the song one sings alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/34b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation
January 30: Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs
January 31: Thirty-Four Sings Softly in the Moonlight

Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs

January 30, 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 philosophical number poem for a youth-orchestra conductor whose glorious visions will never be realized:

Thirty-five has all the joy he needs,
Having memorized the sacred score.
Infinite beauty rests within his hands,
Rising from a sea of music stands,
The sound mere presence to the silent core,
Yet far from the rendition that he reads.

For now, the faint allusion that he leads
Intensifies his avarice for more,
Visioning the glory he demands
Even though but life can lie in store.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/35d.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation
January 30: Thirty-Five Has All the Joy He Needs

Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation

January 29, 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 philosophical number poem for a singer-songwriter who uses her past as the soil for her creation:

Sixty-five suspends her animation,
Immersed within a wistful melody.
Xylophones accompany her song,
The wave of wonder rising from her sea,
Yearning overwhelming all sensation.

For her the past is neither right nor wrong.
Instead it is the soil for her creation,
Vast fields of darkness sown by memory,
Ever yielding tunes she must pass on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/65c.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
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music
January 29: Sixty-Five Suspends Her Animation

Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music

January 28, 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 philosophical number poem for someone who listens to her inner music:

Forty-seven listens to her music,
Open to the melody within.
Rich with revelation, she remains
The dancer, ever ready to begin,
Yielding to the moment's unchanged magic.

So is music ever an alembic,
Ethereal beneath one's tell-tale skin,
Viscerally abstract, the sea in chains,
Embassy of some angelic twin,
Not you, but you, elusive, endless, tantric.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/47b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Music.
January 25: Now Is Just the Time for Non-Stop Jazz
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty
January 27: Isabella Loves the Sound of Music
January 28: Forty-Seven Listens to Her Music

Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty

January 26, 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 about the rewards of a career in music:

Thirty-seven is immersed in beauty,
Having served it since he was quite young.
If such a choice demands some sacrifice,
Refusing with regret the merely nice,
To live with the sublime cannot be wrong,
Yearning for it with a sense of duty.

So the moment flows, nor plain nor pretty,
Even as the time, nor short nor long,
Vale of voices passionate, precise,
Eases into clarity, a song
Nor more nor less than perfect, priceless, plenty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/37f.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
January 26: Thirty-Seven Is Immersed in Beauty

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

Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion

January 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for an elderly woman who continues to sing with undiminished passion:

Clara sings with undiminished passion,
Leaning all her strength into the wind.
A soul need not such lifelong pleasures ration,
Relishing what grace she still can fashion,
A labor that she would not leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness
January 16: Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune
January 17: Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion