I Wear My Mask for You

May 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical health poem for children about the ethics of wearing masks during the COVID pandemic:

I wear my mask for you.
You wear your mask for me.
Together we stay safe,
Together distantly.

I don't breathe on you.
You don't breathe on me.
We watch out for each other.
We act responsibly.

Masks protect the air we share.
Wearing masks means that we care
About what things we do
Might do to others.

Masks make us safer, you and me,
So I act not as I, but we,
Knowing that we're all in this
Together.

I wear my mask for you.
You wear your mask for me.
Together we stay safe,
Together distantly.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iwearm.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You

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)
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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

How Might One Find the Strength to Will One's Fate

May 4, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Mother’s Day.

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

A Mother’s Day poem for a woman who cannot have children:

How might one find the strength to will one's fate,
Accepting childlessness with heartfelt grace?
Perhaps no joy can take a child's place.
Perhaps no love can such loss compensate.
Yet one ought not regret one's present state,
Making oneself the self one would erase,
One's identity, with all one would embrace,
The one no other fortune could create.
How beautiful to cherish who you are,
Even your frustration and your yearning,
Reveling each moment in what is,
'Mid joy or pain, the miracle of being.
So might you sometimes sail beyond the bar,
Distant from the restless tidal turning,
And let the wild wind fill you with its bliss,
Yielding to a presence that is freeing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howm14.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Mother’s Day.
May 3: Mothers Never Mind a Little Cuddling
May 4: How Might One Find the Strength to Will One’s Fate

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

Rights Are Not Equivalent to Freedom

April 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Ramadan, which begins on April 13.

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

A poem for Ramadan about how the individual shapes and is shaped by society:

Rights are not equivalent to freedom.
All have claims upon the lives of all.
Make yourself a servant of the kingdom,
Acting in the interests of the whole.
Deeds are sermons preached upon the plain
As each from each has much to lose or gain;
Nor is faith the free choice of one soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/rights.html. For more poems about Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Ramadan.
April 12: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World
April 13: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within
April 14: Read the Holy Book as Though Asleep
April 15: Reason Is No Cause for Revelation
April 16: Righteousness Remains the Rock of Faith
April 17: Rights Are Not Equivalent to Freedom

Reason Is No Cause for Revelation

April 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Ramadan, which begins on April 13.

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

A poem for Ramadan about the need for revelation:

Reason is no cause for revelation.
A moment comes and goes; a word endures.
More than sense must underlie sensation.
A holy mind and heart such faith secures.
Depend, then, on your fasting to awaken
A love of Allah easily forsaken.
Nor is there mooring where one's reason moors.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/reason.html. For more poems about Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Ramadan.
April 12: Ramadan Reminds Us that the World
April 13: Rapture Comes Most Easily Within
April 14: Read the Holy Book as Though Asleep
April 15: Reason Is No Cause for Revelation

Every Year Each Hemisphere's Reborn

April 3, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Easter, which is this year is celebrated on April 4.

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

An Easter poem about Easter as a fairly recent myth celebrating the coming of spring:

Every year each hemisphere's reborn
As it leans its visage towards the sun.
So have people celebrated this
Turning of the season with a myth.
Easter is a fairly recent one,
Rich in symbols of an inner dawn.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever12.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Easter.
March 29: The Easter Bunny Loves to Hop
March 30: Easter Comes at Springtime
March 31: Easter Chicks and Ducks and Bunnies
April 1: Easters Come and Go; The Thought Remains
April 2: Every Bunny Loves the Spring
April 3: Every Year Each Hemisphere’s Reborn

Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A philosophical St. Patrick’s Day poem about the self as part of a greater whole:

Self becomes less self the more self-served,
As who one is arrives from parts unknown.
Identity is never one's alone,
Nor can one learn unchanged a single word.
Thus the self by nature is a part,
Present in the body of the whole.
A healthy arm or leg is not a goal
That one pursues regardless of the heart.
Remember, then, that one is more or less
In common with the boundaries one draws,
Choosing or not the love that sings and soars,
Knowing or not what brings one happiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selfbe.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

For Every Disappointment There's a Dream

March 11, 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 flow of time through the landscape of eternity:

For every disappointment there's a dream.
Old, dried-up hopes are soluble in laughter.
Re-vision can restore serenity.
Time flows in a continual surprise:
Yesterday another brief illusion closed its eyes.

One lives in the landscape of eternity,
Not knowing a time before time or after,
Each memory a loss love can redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forev8.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
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream

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

A Life in Six Movements

March 8, 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 poem describing the course of an ordinary life from loneliness through passion, love, hate, loneliness again, and death:

A LIFE IN SIX MOVEMENTS

LONELINESS

The heart's a desert fringed by distant mountains.
Look! The wanderer has lost his way!
See where your restlessness has taken you!
You, who would not settle for your home!

Not even one cloud floats across to shade you.
At night you cannot share the brilliant stars.
Time moves so slowly you can scarcely bear it.
Yet this you would prefer to feeling pain!

PASSION

We are the puppets of an inner master,
Passive playthings pulled along by passion,
Seized by ecstasy, and not let go
Until we tumble senseless on the strand.

Oh, Master, bring to us that touch of Heaven!
That icy fire that lights the whirling stars!
That moment that obliterates the moment!
And play upon us with your golden hands!

LOVE

Did you know we can return to Eden
And recreate the innocence of old?
And unashamed walk naked through the garden?
And take our pleasure in the sacred groves?

Love's a choice - to step out of the self
Into sunlight, into Eden's joy,
Where we might hear the music of our lovers,
And dance with them the dance of grateful giving.

HATE

Betrayed! Yes! We think we are betrayed!
Oh, wanderer in Hell, why do you suffer?
There is no pleasure in your grim obsession,
Nor release from pain except through love.

We must repeat again, again, again
Our livid curses! We lust for bitterness!
And yet the people whom, in savage dreams,
We boil in oil turn out to be ourselves.

INDIFFERENCE

The flame's turned low; the cauldron merely simmers.
The sky is overcast; it does not rain.
We sleep too much to sleep well, dreaming dreams
More frightening and lustful than our days.

We wait for thunder, lightning, wait for rain
In fear and hope, with trembling and desire.
We do not care, we care, we do not care,
We do not want to care, but, yes, we care.

LONELINESS AGAIN

Oh, wanderer, at last you have come home!
The house is empty; everyone is gone.
Is no one with you? What happened to your love?
Never mind. Now it's all the same.

Don't worry, nothing terrible awaits you.
You are and then you're not, it's nothing more.
Come, we'll take you to the dreaded line,
Which, though we're with you, you must cross alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alifei.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

Said is "Dr. Happy"

February 26, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for someone who at ninety is still dancing through life:

Said is "Dr. Happy," even now
At ninety, with death living in his heart.
If one must sorrow, he can show us how,
Dancing still with wisdom and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/said.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song
February 26: Said Is “Dr. Happy”

Nessen Sings a Solitary Song

February 25, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who is able to transform the world by embracing it:

Nessen sings a solitary song,
Entering the forest of his fears.
So must we all make peace with what must be,
Singing of life's beauty lustily,
Embracing what would else be cold and sere.
Nor can the forest fail to sing along.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/nessen.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude
February 25: Nessen Sings a Solitary Song

Alessandro Savors Solitude

February 24, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who has withdrawn deep into our common soul:

Alessandro savors solitude,
Looking for connection to the whole.
Each is everyone, and so includes
Such rapture as resides in every soul,
Selfless self, with neither will nor goal.
Anticipating death, he undoes life,
Needing nothing, wanting, wishing nothing,
Delivered from what would engender strife,
Relinquishing all but simple acts of being,
Old conqueror of all that's worth the winning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/aless2.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All
February 23: Alan Is an Absolute Delight
February 24: Alessandro Savors Solitude

Adam Is a Model for Us All

February 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about the interactive nature of revelation:

Adam is a model for us all,
Demanding interactive revelation.
All of us are fit for condemnation,
Making us the reason for his fall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/adam.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men.
February 22: Adam Is a Model for Us All

Love Redeems the Passions of the Moment

February 6, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical love poem about the fundamental attraction that underlies all being:

Love redeems the passions of the moment
Underneath the qualms that quell the sea.
All the queries that have room to comment
Know quite well how good it is to be!
Love allows the rivers to run freely,
The tides to turn without the least regret,
The mountains to give way to time, sincerely
Pleased with what the eons will forget.
Love turns every moment to forever,
And every thing to unintended song,
And makes a worship out of all endeavor,
And through its suffering, denounces wrong.
Bear witness, then, to love, that you might bear
To be, with neither purpose nor despair.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovere.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love.
February 1: A Love Duet for Contrary Voices
February 2: Dreams Do Come True
February 3: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
February 4: Love Comes Unexpectedly
February 5: Love Is Not a Simple Yes or No
February 6: Love Redeems the Passions of the Moment

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

Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A philosophical name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the need for hope and love to bring about change:

Meaning is a morning song,
A dawn, a dance of light.
Reason merely sings along
To get the lyrics right.
In what you know is what you are,
Not what you'll become.
Let not sight your vision bar,
Undone by what is done.
To love must be to hope, for love
Has far too much to lose.
Embrace the good you're wary of,
Refusing to refuse.
Knowledge is as knowledge does.
It so quickly turns to was.
Now is ever when
Grace will come again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani3.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 21: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living2
January 22: Meaning Is a Morning Song