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 .

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

 

A Labor Day poem about the evil of treating labor like any other commodity:

 

Labor's a commodity, like fish,

As children are fast-frozen and filleted,

Beating down the price. Fortunes are made

On selling to us all so cheap a dish.

Remember how the world is being run,

Determined by the market's iron laws

As slaves and children jingle in its jaws.

Yet is there nothing, nothing to be done?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

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

Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

February 21, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political number poem about a political activist who sees the evil of merely accepting everyday oppression:

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in exposing
Instruments of everyday oppression,
Fantasies of normalcy sustaining
The brutal oligarchy of possession.
Yet what she does is more than mere expression.

Nor does she care what fat she might be frying
In bold pursuit of media attention,
Nemesis of all who show discretion
Even as they see so many dying.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/59b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table
February 21: Fifty-Nine Takes Pleasure in Exposing

Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

February 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political and philosophical number poem about a political activist who delights in life:

Fifty-eight comes often to the table,
Intent on the conundrums of the day.
For her the chance that there she might be able
To shape the world for good in some small way
Yields pleasure that no hunger can allay.

Even as she yearns for peace and justice,
In her the simple moment brings delight,
Gift of being, palpable and lustrous,
However strewn upon the field of night,
The reason and the rage for doing right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/58b.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith
February 19: George Does Not Admit to Telling Lies
February 20: Fifty-Eight Comes Often to the Table

Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith

February 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political name poem about someone who was blinded by a political ideology and now regrets it:

Andrew was a soldier of the faith:
No one was more loyal or more true.
Despite the hard, rich texture of illusion,
Reality insisted on confusion,
Eviscerating much that Andrew knew.
What remains stalks him like a wraith.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power
February 18: Andrew Was a Soldier of the Faith

Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political poem for Presidents Day about the virtues of the separation of powers:

Praised be those who would distribute power,
Reconciled to bickering and waste,
Enduring, even in the darkest hour,
Such hacks as pander to the popular taste.
In such a system, life can be frustrating,
Demanding patient tolerance to rule.
Everyone has blessings worth berating,
Nor need one much at stake to be a fool.
The president is forced to be a leader
Since all are free to follow or oppose;
'Mid maelstroms, both captain and conceder,
Deftly tacking when a headwind blows.
All know divided power leads to strife,
Yet few would yield to one vain will their life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/praise4.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead
February 17: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year is celebrated on February 15.

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

A political poem for Presidents Day on the motivations and dangers of pursuing political power:

What might make a person want to lead,
To bear the brutal burden of a state?
Power is for some a noble need
That only shaping history can sate.
One wishes to do good, but on what scale?
The wounded world lies heavy on one's heart.
One's gaudiest ambitions tend to pale
Upon the stage on which one plays one's part.
So there are just a few who would ascend
To where one's choices change the way things are,
And over many years to one's will bend
The iron bolts that one's bright visions bar.
And yet such power corrupts, unless one sees
The need to search one's soul upon on one's knees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/whatmi.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics.
February 15: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?
February 16: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

January 24, 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 political epitaph for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday comparing political movements to ceaseless waves:

Movements are like waves upon the shore
As they break across the yielding sand,
Rushing ravenously up, and then withdraw,
Though not before remodeling the land.
If change awaits high tide, so let it be.
Nor will waves cease to break when tides are low.
Let us fight for justice ceaselessly,
Uplifted by the seaward undertow.
There is no disappointment in my song,
However much injustice still remains.
Each generation needs to come on strong,
Reckoning the incremental gains.
Know that I am proud of what we've won
In spite of all the lives and labor lost.
No cause well worth one's love is ever done.
Good is good regardless of the cost.
Justice is a wave that breaks, and then
Returns, returns, again, again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/moveme.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
January 23: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land
January 24: Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

Make of Me a Hero

January 18, 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 political name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday comparing his days as an icon to his days as an activist:

Make of me a hero, but I was
A failure in what mattered most to me.
Remember well the ill that sainthood does,
Taking holiness for victory.
I think we are as far away as ever,
Not from equal laws but equal lives.
Little has been done to make life better,
Unless you like the shift to guns from knives.
The icon of my face is now a mask
Hiding the destruction of the poor.
Each day is worse for millions than the last.
Raging unregarded is a war.
Know, then, though our president might be black,
I would march again, could I come back,
No icon, but a loving, peaceful scourge,
Gathering strength where race and class converge.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeo2.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

Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option

January 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A political number poem for someone who uses song to follow the family tradition of political activism:

Silence never was a long-term option,
Even in the years not fit for song.
Vested in your heart a legacy
Endures of a humane morality,
Not bound to faith or tribe, but to a long
Tradition of family in the ranks of reason,
Years and generations deep and strong.

Then sing, sing of love and peace with passion,
With all the beauty, wisdom, clarity
One voice can yield to the winds of right and wrong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/silen3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option

Poem of the Week

April 19, 2012 #681

Dear Subscriber:

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

Each must save the Earth in multiple ways.
A vote can cut more carbon than a bulb.
Rules, like acid rain, can span the globe,
Taking aim at those whom blight won't faze.
Hard as many try, it will not do.
Development devours their mite and more.
An equal sacrifice requires a law.
Yet laws are passed by those obliged to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

January 5, 2012 #666

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Epiphany.

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

Each of us might follow a bright star,
Perhaps to a redemptive revelation,
Intending, then, to change the way things are,
Passionate to socialize salvation.
However, please beware of what you do:
Ambition, even selfless, can turn sour.
No truth fits all, though burning inside you,
Yearning less for paradise than power.

© 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

October 28, 2010 #605
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Election Day (USA)..
 
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
 
Politics brings out the worst in us.
One is more vile the more there is at stake.
Leveraging a little animus,
It turns mere opposition into hate.
The lava bubbling underneath each heart,
Inhibited by guilt or love or fear,
Comes bursting forth, by scribes with subtle art
Stoked vigorously as new elections near.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 14, 2010 #603
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a political 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 triumph of the victor means
The losses have begun.
To be well-nigh invincible
Is to be on the run.
 
Power is a current that
Goes swiftly out to sea.
One's will is wind on grass; one's only
Hope is to be free.
 
Safety lies in wisdom more than
Strength since strength must die,
While wisdom rides the waves beneath which
Sunken victors lie.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 2, 2010 #597
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Labor Day 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
 
Let there be a right to earn a living!
All who wish to work should have the chance.
Bad times come and go with circumstance:
Ought we then be hiring or just giving?
Rest assured, there's always much to do:
Demand's determined more by funds than need.
All we give away is wealth we bleed,
Yet work for wages would that wealth renew.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 1, 2010 #588
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is an Independence Day (USA) 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
 
Is this the beginning of the end?
Now is when we start to fall?
Debtors to both foe and friend,
Eventually obliged to all?
Perhaps we can pull out of this,
Electing leaders who will lead,
Not stuck in this paralysis,
Dreading most what we most need.
Each must give that all might gain,
Nor ought we shun the sacrifice.
Could we but bear the healing pain
Equally, we'd pay the price.
Dependence on another's will
Assumes that we their coffers fill,
Yielding ever to their advice.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 18, 2010 #569

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for George Washington's birthday.

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

Great ends demand great sacrifice,
Else the dream becomes a debt.
Open hearts will pay the price,
Redeeming loss without regret.
Great leaders also make demands,
Else the mandate turns to dust.
Willing minds find willing hands,
As courage shared engenders trust.
So a nation moves ahead,
Having found its avatar,
In hard times hungry to be led,
Navigating by its star.
Great followers must take great care
To choose a leader who will be
Out of love and duty there,
Not shy, but still reluctantly.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 8, 2009 #540

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a political poem. I'm sending it a day earlier than usual because I'm leaving on vacation from July 8 – July 27. The next poem of the week will be sent out on Thursday, July 30.

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

Utopians are unrepentant monsters.
The perfect is the perfect rationale.
O send us serial killers, rapists, gangsters,
Preferably to “should” becoming “shall”!
In those who seek to make their visions real,
A rage becomes the furnace of their zeal;
Nor can they love, who would impose their will,
Sure enough of paradise to kill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

July 1, 2009 #539

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Independence Day (USA). I'm sending it out a day earlier than usual because I'm taking a long weekend. The next poem of the week will also be sent out on a Wednesday rather than a Thursday because I'll be leaving on vacation from July 8 – July 27.

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

I wish there were a Washington
For every failed state,
A Jefferson or Madison
To guide them through the gate.

I wish there were a Lincoln
For those now ripped apart,
A Roosevelt or Kennedy
For those that have no heart.

I wish each had the fortune
With which we have been blessed,
And found in their own founders
Fit heroes for the quest.

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,
But such things none can will.
One can only plant the seeds
And shape the soil well.

© by Nicholas Gordon