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)
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

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

Every Moment Is a Resurrection

April 4, 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.

A philosophical Easter poem about each new moment as a rebirth:

Every moment is a resurrection
As is arises from the tomb of was,
Steps out into the miracle of light,
Turns every buried did to blissful does,
Endures just long enough to preach salvation,
Reborn again, again from shapeless night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever13.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
April 4: Every Moment Is a Resurrection

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

Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

March 13, 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 to an uncle about the interplay between society and self:

Ultimately, everyone is single,
Nor does one live or die except alone.
Children, nieces, nephews, lovers, friends
Lie just beyond the dream that never ends,
Even as one's love and longing mingle,
Sweet harmony where nothing is one's own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ultima.html. For more philosophical poems, 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
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single

Life Can Be Quite Ravenous

March 9, 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 about the need to slow down:

Life can be quite ravenous,
Eating one alive.
At times one needs to slow it down,
Striving not to strive.

Space does not come easily.
One must make space for space,
Leaving room for simply room
And place that's simply place.

The self can be a mirror into
Infinite regress.
Look away, just look away
Into emptiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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”

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

Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

January 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is visions of truth, or epiphanies, in honor of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6.

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

A philosophical name poem for someone who has dropped out of the race for success:

Zachary lets go a long-held longing
Amid his contemplation of the race.
Chastening a tide of heartfelt yearning,
He goes to some quite ordinary place.
As life unfolds, he dances through its shadow,
Redundant as a grain upon a meadow
Yielding to the wind across its face.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Visions of Truth
January 4: Fifty-Seven’s Not Afraid of Silence
January 5: Forty-Three Finds Happiness in Being
January 6: I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun
January 7: Lewis Is a Symphony of Pleasures
January 8: Robert Is a Light unto His Friends
January 9: Sixty-Eight Sings Silently of Light
January 10: Zachary Lets Go a Long-Held Longing

Make Not Much of What You're Missing

December 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25.

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

A philosophical Christmas poem about finding satisfaction:

Make not much of what you're missing;
Each gets gifts as they come due.
Rest assured, regarding wishing:
Riches are reserved for you.
Years of want require wanting;
Christmas gives what one receives.
Happiness ought not seem daunting,
Renting space in what one grieves.
In your heart is all you need,
Sustained by giving it away.
Though you burn and break and bleed,
Mere suffering's no place to stay.
As you are is as you will,
Sure of winds that wish you well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeno.html. For more Christmas poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/xmaschristmaspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Christmas
December 21: Christmas Is a Holiday for Friends
December 22: Christmas Is for Cowards, Too, and Thieves
December 23: Christmas Really Isn’t About Toys
December 24: Could There Be Angels Waiting in the Wings
December 25: Glad Tidings Are a Coat of Many Colors
December 26: Charity Begins Where Interest Ends
December 27: Make Not Much of What You’re Missing

Poem of the Week

April 12, 2012 #680

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

Eighty has good reason to be grateful.
If being is a gift, then he's been given
Gift enough to compensate for pain.
Happiness depends on being thankful,
The sense of grace that makes the moment heaven.
Years come and go – the longing stays the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 23, 2012 #673

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Leap Year 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the Earth catch up to us. We run
Each year a bit too fast, so we must wait,
Adjusting the dynamics to the date,
Pausing as the Earth spins round the sun.

Years do not line up with days, and so
Eventually summer would be spring.
A word serves just the thinker, not the thing.
Revolving Earth cares not what dates dates grow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 29, 2011 #653

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Rosh Hashanah.

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

Revenge is often taken in the mind.
Open wounds untreated tend to bleed.
Some who else would be both good and kind
Hate others in the thought, if not the deed.
Have mercy, then, upon yourself, and clear
Away the anger twisting you inside,
Sanctifying for the coming year
Heart and spirit, cleansed of pain and pride.
As you ask forgiveness, so forgive,
Nor need you lose your honor with your fury.
All find their just reward in how they live,
Held to account by a less partial jury.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 8, 2011 #650

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical love 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

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn't stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self's less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 1, 2011 #649

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Long may you labor at something you love,
Awakening daily to passion and pleasure,
Blessed to find joy both in work and in leisure,
Obliged to move mountains you most want to move.
Remember that work is defined by the heart,
Delightful or not as the laborer chooses.
All life is a game that one wins or one loses,
Yielding what one would with will and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

July 14, 2011 #642

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Bastille 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

Base your life on reason, only reason,
And watch your heart go crazy on the spot!
Some would vary judgment with the season,
Though some would say it is, or it is not.
In politics, one should be politic,
Lest change change what one needs to stay alive.
Logic cannot tell what makes things tick;
Each thought remains a creature of the hive.
Despite the power of reason, please take heed:
An amputated cranium tends to bleed.
Yet nations healed holistically will thrive.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 7, 2011 #641

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

The world's a notebook full of scenes and stories.
What characters must wander through your days!
Each bit of dialogue should serve you well --
Not now, perhaps, but given time to jell,
The databank will yield the perfect phrase.
Your art runs slow, even as life scurries.

Forget, then, all your youthful woes and worries!
Out of what you are will come your grace,
Unconcerned with fortune, time, or place,
Rising from your sea with much to tell.

© by Nicholas Gordon