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 .

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 .

Poem of the Week

August 18, 2011 #647

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Time passes like music, a tangle of voices
Harmonious, dissonant, yearning, resolved.
In turn it is passionate, calm, poignant, tearful,
Rhapsodic, despondent, a tumultuous earful,
The score of which leaves one with chances and choices,
Yet gives form and function to all those involved.

Sing, then, with love, as harmony dictates
Each note in a melody wholly your own.
Voices find freedom in shaping their own fates,
Even as each would sound poorly alone,
Needing the chords to make sense of each tone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 28, 2011 #631

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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

Fortune is the child of will and chance.
In seeking cause, one finds a mute regression.
For some, life is an incandescent dance,
Though others tend to look at it askance,
Yearning for what's not in their possession.

Nor can one ever know what would have been.
In judging fortune, there is no reward.
Now is what one has to choose or spin,
Ever of one's will the sovereign lord.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 24, 2011 #622

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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

There is no better time of life than now.
Whatever age you are, this time is best.
Ever in the prime of life, the soul
Needs no source of joy more than the whole,
The One, in whom contingent souls are blessed.
Yet one finds joy as time and change allow.

So may you know the pleasures of your years
Even as they pass, for others come,
Vivid in the moments of their being.
Each lives in both the datum and the sum.
Nor can one separate delight from tears.

© 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

July 22, 2010 #591
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a feminist 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
 
Thirty-six sets out on her career
Halftime, with her baby on her mind.
If women are emancipated, still,
Remaining issues wait upon the will,
That tends to track the turmoil of its kind,
Yearnings that can sing and soar and sear.
 
So must she balance melodies with skill,
Interior harmonies, by love designed,
X-rays of a heart that one can hear.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 8, 2010 #589
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical 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

Fortune comes in many shapes and guises.
It is by choice what one might never choose.
For those who like to limit their surprises,
There's always less to gain and more to lose.
Years bring heartbreak one cannot refuse.
 
Even so, one's fortune is oneself.
If choice and chance like lovers bring to birth
Good progeny or bad, there is no gulf
Hovering between one's wish and worth.
There is but one ecology, one Earth.
   
© 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

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