Showing posts with label poems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poems. Show all posts

Monday, October 26, 2026

Halloween's a Sudden BOO!

 



A poem for Halloween:

 

Halloween's a sudden BOO!!
And just as quick a scream:
Laughing in the scary dark,
Loving friendly fright.
On Halloween, ghosts are true;
Werewolves leap from dreams.
Every spirit in the park,
Each zombie, T-Rex, witch, or shark,
Needs to squeal all night!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: It’s Coming. By Josh Kirsch/Media Rights Productions. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hallo2.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .




Monday, October 19, 2026

Forty-Nine's an Activist

 



A political number poem for Election Day:

 

Forty-nine's an activist;
Of course, as well, an optimist.
Remember: speaking out's a risk
That makes no sense for a pessimist,
Yet does when will and hope persist.

Nor can a pessimist believe
In what shared courage dare achieve,
Needing all to each relieve,
Each a stitch in what all weave.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bike Sharing to Paradise. By Dan Bodan. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/49e.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html . For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .




Monday, October 12, 2026

The Right to Maintain Their Culture

 A poem for Indigenous People’s Day, adapted from Articles 11 – 12.1 of The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, about the right of indigenous peoples to maintain their culture:

 

THE RIGHT TO MAINTAIN THEIR CULTURE

 

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

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

To practice and revitalize

Their cultural traditions and cultures.

This includes the right

To maintain, protect, and develop

The past, present, and future manifestations

Of their cultures, such as

Archaeological and historical sites,

Artefacts, designs, ceremonies,

Technologies, and visual and performing

Arts and literature.

 

States shall provide redress

With respect to cultural, intellectual,

Religious, and spiritual property

Taken without their free, prior,

And informed consent,

Or in violation of their laws,

Traditions, or customs.

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

To practice, develop, and teach

Their spiritual and religious traditions;

The right to maintain, protect

And have access in privacy

To their religious and cultural sites;

The right to the use and control

Of their ceremonial objects;

And the right to the repatriation

Of their human remains.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri5.html. For more poems for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

Sunday, October 4, 2026

Shall We Be More Than Strangers to One Another

 


A psychological number poem about the inescapable fact of otherness, even within enduring love:

 

Shall we be more than strangers to one another?

Even when we love, we are alone,

Vast inner universes, brief forevers,

Eternities within a temporal home.

Nor can such inner vastnesses be joined,

Trillions of feelings, thoughts, dreams, memories,

Years of inner life. The lilt of loins

Forgets, perhaps, the truth of privacy.

Otherness is a necessity,

Union that falls short of unity,

Reaching for a truth, truth can’t purloin.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bittersweet. By SYBS. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

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




Sunday, September 27, 2026

Sing of Love, That Universal Yearning

 


A number poem about love:

 

Sing of love, that universal yearning,

Evolved to motivate the act of being,

Vivid joy, fulfillment, ecstasy,

Enduring purpose, peace, satiety,

Needed to provide an explanation

That supports the pros of procreation,

Yearning for what it attains by yielding.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/sing25.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .




Sunday, September 20, 2026

Meaning Has No Meaning Without Love

 


A wedding poem with advice on how to make married love last:

 

Meaning has no meaning without love.

It might make sense yet still mean nothing at all.

The love of who you are and what you do

Craves the higher love of one another,

Has no kin but love beyond oneself.

Enduring love must sometimes be endured.

Lest you think it's easy, well, it's not.

Little given, little gained, and yet

An equals sign has no place in a marriage,

Nor should calculation seal the heart.

Do, then, love as though life were a dance,

Living with neither guile nor reservation,

Increasingly at ease with every step,

Sharing with an unimaginable joy
A life of passion, clarity, and grace.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: I’ll Remember You. By Jeremy Blake. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani4.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .




Monday, September 14, 2026

You Cannot Be the Person You Might Wish

 A poem about the experience of atonement on Yom Kippur:

 

You cannot be the person you might wish,
Opening the door to who you are.
Morning comes alike to fowl and fish,
Kindled by a mystery from afar.
In you there is a music all your own
Pouring through the sluices of your heart,
Passionate with love as you atone
Unmoored from self by ritual and art,
Restored to some bright whole not yours alone.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yourca3.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Monday, September 7, 2026

Labor Is a Job or a Vocation

 


A poem for Labor Day about two ways of looking at one’s labor:

 

Labor is a job or a vocation:

As in all of life, it’s what one would.

Blessed are those who choose their situation,

Owning through their lives their livelihood.

Regardless of the job, despite conditions,

Do it well, with all your mind and heart.

All of us play life as though musicians,

Yielding well or ill our chosen part.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bansure Raga. By Doug Maxwell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labor5.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .




Monday, August 31, 2026

Just Remember Well How Much I Loved You

 


A name poem from a deceased German pointer to his grieving master:

 

Just remember well how much I loved you,
As I knew, oh how well, that you loved me.
Grief, like any sunset, is quite lovely,
Given that its glory comes from love.
Even as your mourning turns to morning,
Remember what your pain said of our joy.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

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





Monday, August 24, 2026

Watching My Son Conduct the Nutcracker

 


A father’s beautiful memory of his son:

 

Watching my son conduct The Nutcracker,
I danced across the memories of my heart,
Feeling once again the joy and wonder
Of witnessing his first ascent to art.
He was a child then, decades ago,
Sawing away in the second violins,
Beethoven's Fifth, that rising tremolo
Leading to a blast of brass and winds.
As the music flew into the sun,
Bursting into waves of molten gold,
My tightly held composure came undone,
And life itself became too much to hold.
Now my son's the maestro, yet the grace
I felt then is touched by neither time nor place.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon



 

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

 

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

Sunday, August 16, 2026

May Your Marriage Be as Blessed as Ours

 


A wedding blessing from parents to children:

 

May your marriage be as blessed as ours,
As full of love, as joyful, rich, and sweet,
Lifelong soulmates, friends, erotic partners,
Each for each, the angels that watch keep.

May your home be blessed with friends and family,
With music, laughter, pleasure, passion, life,
With learning, knowing, caring what comes after,
Together, one, as husband and as wife.

May you ever be sustained by beauty
In what you see and feel, create and do,
In who you are, what you enjoy and value,
And in the dreams that we pass on to you.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Emotional Love Theme. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mayyo5.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .



Monday, August 10, 2026

There Are Things I Can No Longer Do

 


A poem in which an aging parent passes on some family responsibilities to the next generation:

 

There are things I can no longer do
Once essential to my sense of me.
It seems so strange to pass them on to you,

Strange and very beautiful, as you
Take on the burdens of the family,
Doing what I can no longer do,

Things I cannot, even should not do,
And understand why you can't leave to me.
I want to say how proud I am of you,

How grateful we can all rely on you
To take my place as head of family,
Taking care of what I used to do,

Switching roles, which I've found hard to do,
And to accept what's happening to me.
More and more I must depend on you

To do the things I can no longer do,
As less and less I can depend on me.
How strange! What I routinely used to do,
I must, with much regret, pass on to you.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bittersweet. By SYBS. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther52.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html . For more villanelles, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/villanelles.html .



Monday, August 3, 2026

War May Not Be the Answer

 


A political poem about slogans:

 

War may not be the answer,
But what is the unanswered question?
Peace? Safety? Justice?
Or, perhaps, simply survival?

For what was the answer to Hitler?
Did Munich buy "Peace for our time"?
And how might peace pacify Putin?
Contrast Ho Minh with Kim Sung.

The desire for peace can be used
To serve the interests of war.
Peace demonstrations and missiles
Can equally weaken defenses.

Statements one cannot prove false
Prove to be excellent slogans,
Bearing the burden of bonding,
Stirring the passions of hope.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allemande. By Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

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



Monday, July 27, 2026

Thirty-Seven Enjoys His Bright Midsummer

 


A number poem about someone devoted to persuading people to think logically:

Thirty-seven enjoys his bright midsummer,
Halfway in between his spring and fall.
In every faculty he’s at full strength,
Reasoning adroitly and at length
To challenge the beliefs of almost all.
Yet myths are hard to wake from such deep slumber.

Sing of the love that underlies such labor,
Every thought, fact, instance he can scrawl
Vested in what should be evident,
Enduring source of content and content.
Nor can he resist its siren call.

 © by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A New Beginning. By Esther Abrami. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/37i.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

Monday, July 20, 2026

Riffs Are Invocations

 


An epitaph for a jazz scholar:

 

Riffs are invocations,
Odes direct to soul,
Brief improvisations,
Each a perfect whole.
Rhythms subtly shift
The syncopated rhymes,
Grace the complex gift
Of this, my own sweet times.
Let me be their chronicler,
Days of seers and signs.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Runnin Partner. By Aaron Lieberman. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/riffsa.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .




Monday, July 13, 2026

Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

 


A political poem for Bastille Day warning of the dangers of revolutionary chaos:

 

Before the terror comes the tyranny.
A bloodstained flower has roots in bloodstained soil.
Some would steal the fruit of others' toil,
Then claim it as a right of property.
In revolutions, though, if chaos reigns,
Legitimacy is lost, and many will
Look back with less distaste at former ill,
Eager more for order than for gains.
Days of terror yield dictators new,
As the many yield power to the few,
Yearning for the clarity of chains.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .




Monday, July 6, 2026

Eventually, You Settle into Love

 


An 18th anniversary poem:

 

Eventually, you settle into love.
It deepens, fed by subterranean streams.
Given time, it becomes a habitat,
Home, refuge, portion, comfort, fortune.
Treasure it -- you'll know no greater beauty.
Embrace it -- it requires your affection.
Enjoy it -- it thrives on your delight.
Nor will its well within your hearts run dry.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Kiss for Amanda. By DJ Williams. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/event6.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .








Monday, June 29, 2026

Innocence Is like an Open Door

 


A poem for Independence Day (USA):

 

Innocence is like an open door:
Not safe, but requisite to being free.
Darlings of our rhetoric, we wonder,
Evil as the rest but for our words.
Perhaps we know what horrors are in store,
Even as we dream of what might be,
Needing, as we preach and teach and plunder,
Defenses that would Xanadu preserve.
Even so, the freedom we are for
Now stands for all a common legacy,
Called forth by masters tearing worlds asunder,
Embraced by slaves consumed with righteous hunger,
Destined to dispute those whom it serves.
All innocents must keep their hopes at sea,
Yearning for an ever-distant shore.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Just Stay. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/innoce.html. For more poems for Independence Day (USA), go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

Monday, June 22, 2026

Abby Is a Queen Without a Country

 


A name poem for Abby, who has the personality, but not the power, of royalty.

 

Abby is a queen without a country,

Blessed and cursed by destiny to be

Bereft of title, subjects, power, bounty,

Yet reigning in each word like royalty.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: 7th Floor Tango. By Silent Partner. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

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



Monday, June 15, 2026

Fortune Is the Child of the Will

 


A philosophical Father’s Day poem for a divorced and distant father about the relationship between choice and chance:

 

Fortune is the child of the will,

As what one chooses spins the wayward wheel.

The choice determines where the chance will fall,

Hurtling, bouncing like that fickle ball,

Eluding what result would most appeal.

Remember to embrace both good and ill,

Since both are gifts, are one, are you, are real.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fort14.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html . For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems .