Seasons of Sunshine, Seasons of Rain

 A Season’s Greetings poem about the turning of the seasons:

 

Seasons of sunshine, seasons of rain,

Each with its joy, each with its pain,

All come to revel, then vanish again,

Singing with voices one mirrors in vain.

 

Oak trees in leaf, oak trees stripped bare,

Now giving shade, now simply there,

Swaying as wind whistles through their green hair,

Gaunt, frozen dancers in still, frigid air.

 

Rejoice in the winter, rejoice in the spring,

Embrace the hot summer when sweet songbirds sing,

Embrace the cool autumn when warblers take wing,

Then again winter, which closes the ring.

 

Infinite pleasure, infinite woe,

Nothing above, nothing below,

Grace come a’stumbling through deep drifted snow,

Still the best gift that life can bestow.

 

© 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/.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

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 .

The Right to Live as Distinct Peoples

 Adapted from The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

 

Indigenous peoples have the collective right

To live as distinct peoples

And shall not be subjected to

Any act of genocide

Or other act of violence,

Including the forcible

Removal their children.

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

Not to be subjected to forced assimilation

Or the destruction of their culture.

 

States shall prevent

Any action that has the aim or effect

Of depriving them of their integrity

As distinct peoples,

Or of their cultural values

Or ethnic identities;

Or dispossessing them

Of their lands, territories, or resources;

Or any form of forced population transfer;

Or any form of forced assimilation or integration;

Or any form of propaganda

Designed to promote or incite

Racial or ethnic discrimination

Directed against them.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri4.html. For more poems for Indigenous Peoples Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

Remorse Is Not a Synonym for Shame

 A poem for Rosh Hashanah comparing remorse to shame:

Remorse is not a synonym for shame.

One is mainly outer; the other, inner.

So might fear of shame deter a sinner

Hidden 'neath the gilt of a good name.

 

However, remorse comes from within, a feeling

Arisen from the grave of innocence,

Still haunted by a mystic moral sense

Hemorrhaging a sorrow that is healing.

 

A fear of shame requires imagination,

Needing an imaginative eye,

As remorse needs an imaginative I

Harrowed by empathic transformation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/remors.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

The Night My Heart Stopped

 A poem about a moment of silent communication between the poet and a racoon:

The night my heart stopped
I was sleeping with my wife
In a tent at the edge of a wood.

The Earth spun and spun.
Silent, in a cold sweat,
I felt myself going under.

I crawled out of the tent,
Careful not to wake my wife,
And onto a chaise lounge.

Under the spinning stars
My heart started and stopped,
Started and stopped, started . . .

I lay where a path emerged
From the wood, and along the path
Came a large raccoon.

He walked over to me
And raised himself up
Not four feet from my eyes.

We stared at each other
With focused understanding,
Words without words,

Eyes beyond eyes,
A giving and a taking
That stilled my raucous heart.

Satisfied, he lowered
Himself to the ground
And turned toward the wood.

"Thank you, brother," I said,
"Thank you." But he was gone,
Slipped back into darkness.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theni2.html. For more poems about animals, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/animalpoems.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 .

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 .

I Cannot Tell You How Much I Have Loved You

 

A poem from a parent to an adult child about the beauty of parental love:

I cannot tell you how much I have loved you,
Nor give you an accounting of my joy,
Nor share with you the hopes with which I've held you,
Nor shadow forth the dreams I would employ.
You cannot know the pleasure that you gave me,
Nor grasp the grace in which I've spent my days,
Nor understand the standing that would save me
Whenever darkness met my morning gaze.
You've been to me a moment everlasting,
Though lasting but the moment of us all,
And given me a glimpse of what, in passing,
Must pass for what awaits beyond the wall.
Such love I wish for you as I have known,
But that must come from children of your own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/icann3.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Palpably, You Are in This Room

 A Passover poem about the presence of God at the Seder:

 Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us -- family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 Audio and Video Music: Dream of the Ancestor. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/palpab.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . 

As You Hike Through Public Land

 A poem for Arbor Day about the value of uncut trees:

As you hike through public land
Reserved for public good,
Be aware that public air
Outbids the price of wood.
Remember life is brief, is fragile,
Dangling in a breeze,
As you breathe in oxygen
You owe to uncut trees.

© 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/asyouh.html. For more Arbor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html . 

Estimated Wait Time Is Forever

 

A poem for Eid al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan, about faith as a journey rather than a visitation.

Estimated wait time is forever.
In faith, The Moment neither comes nor goes.
Does one dress one's thoughts in what seems clever,
Allowing for a frequent change of clothes?
Let love translate for your timeless soul.
Faith's a journey, not a visitation.
If one would risk a purpose and a role,
Then one should live by love's interpretation,
Rendering each partial person whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Wander. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

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

Given the Fragility of Life

May 23, 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 get-well-soon poem for someone who has recently come through surgery:

Given the fragility of life,
Each of us remains a miracle,
Though new emerged from some bright sea of pain.
When every second feels just like a knife
Entering the soft flesh of the will,
Life whispers soon we will be well again.
Linger, then, along the edge of shade;
Soon enough you will be in the sun,
Open-armed, erect, and unafraid.
Old wounds remind us of fierce battles won,
Nor will our patient faith not be repaid.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/givent.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
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More
May 22: O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden
May 23: Given the Fragility of Life

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. This will be the last Poem of the Day email.

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

O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

May 22, 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 religious poem about someone who prays for the strength to be a burden on loved ones:

O Lord, help me be a burden!
My mother and my sister do their duty,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
Help me, please, endure until my time.

My mother and my sister do their duty,
Loving me as righteousness demands.
Help me, please, endure until my time,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.

Loving me as righteousness demands,
They teach me how to lean upon your love,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!

They teach me how to lean upon your love,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!
O Lord, help me be a burden!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/olord.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
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More
May 22: O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

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

I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More

May 21, 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 friendship poem for someone who is suffering from a serious illness far away:

I pray for you and wish I could do more,
But more I cannot do from far away.
Like leaves before the wind we cannot stay,
Ripped dancing, dancing to the forest floor.
I wish I could your ailing health restore
And bring you to the strength of yesterday,
But all we mortal souls can do is pray
That God might alter what we have in store.
The beauty in our fragile life is love,
The only thing that makes the moment matter,
The golden thread that binds us all in light.
I wish, I wish I could your pain remove,
But like a wall the truth my will must shatter,
And so I send my prayers into the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iprayf.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
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More

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

After the Virus

May 20, 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 whether they might remember the lessons the experience of COVID taught them once the pandemic is over:

After the virus, when we don't wear masks,
Not socially distant, no longer afraid,
When zooming's less frequent, and nobody asks
Were we too close to our friends while we played?

After the virus, when we have a fever,
And we are just sick, in no danger at all,
When we go to movies whenever we like
And go out to a park or a mall:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
How much we need others,
How much we all share?

Will we remember,
O will we remember
That we breed the same germs
And breathe the same air?

After the virus, when we're free to wander
Wherever we like, without so many rules,
When we no longer need to protect one another,
And it's summer vacation that closes our schools:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
The heroes who saved us,
Who kept us alive?

And will we remember,
O will we remember
To live out our lives
With their courage our guide?
With their love as our guide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/after4.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
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus

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

ZZZoom

May 19, 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 poem for children about zooming for play and school during the COVID pandemic:

After we come home from school,
Here is how we play!
Until this virus goes away,
Here is how we play!

We'll play games and have some fun
While all of us are safe at home,
Zooming! Zooming! Everyone
On a laptop or a phone.

We're learning in a different way.
Zoom is our school.
Until this virus goes away,
This is our new rule:

Playing, learning, having fun
While all of us are safe at home,
Zooming! Zooming! Everyone!
This is how we learn and play:
Z-Z-Z-Zoom!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/zzzoom.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
May 19: Zzzoom

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 would will 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

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

Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island

May 17, 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 poem about the ethical implications of a pandemic:

Perhaps you think that, yes, you are an island,
As are your family, tribe, religion, nation.
No doubt you've rarely thought a child in Greenland
Deserved equivalent consideration.
Everyone, of course, can host a virus,
Maybe be the site of a mutation,
Illustrating well that all are us,
Cause for casuistic contemplation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perh11.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

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