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

Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me

May 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious love poem from God to a non-believer:

Little do you know how much you love me,
For there can be no faith without desire.
Little does your pleasure feel the fire
That burns beneath your cool avoidance of me.
You know no ease or ecstasy above me,
No balm so rich in all that you require,
No breast so full on which you may expire,
Satisfied that in your joy you've moved me.
My love for you is such that I will wait
Until in pain or passion you turn towards me,
Full of need that needs my knowing art.
My yearning for your love will not abate,
Though not one single word or thought rewards me,
And I must dwell unnoticed in your heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/little.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul
May 13: Eid Is Bittersweet
May 14: Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me

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

Although Consumed by Fury, You Still Loved Us

May 8, 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 to a deceased mother from her abused child:

Although consumed by fury, you still loved us.
At least that is the knowledge of my heart.
Screaming like a child, you would beat us
Until you snapped, and then the tears would start.
"You know I love you," you would cry, demanding
More of us through tears than with your fist.
And we, through tears, would nod our understanding,
Too bullied in our pain to dare resist.
Yet now that you've been dead for many years,
And I have wandered through my own vast hell,
I see the desperate anguish in your tears
And hope at last that I can love you well.
For only in my love can your love be
The love that once, I think, you had for me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/altho4.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
May 5: Mothers Are as Mothers Do
May 6: Miracles Wear Ordinary Clothes
May 7: Godmothers Aren’t Fairies in a Tale
May 8: Although Consumed by Fury, You Still Loved Us

One Wishes the Earth Were Not So Decimated

April 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22.

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

An Earth Day poem about the environmental damage of overpopulation:

One wishes Earth were not so decimated:
Viscera ripped open, entrails exposed,
Eden stripped bare, over-cultivated,
Returning cash crops as demand explodes.
Poor Earth! Raped and forced to bear the children,
Of whom but few can find milk at her breasts.
Poor children! Forced to wrestle with their brethren,
Undernourished brood of the unblessed.
Let Earth be, O humans! Let her be!
All of you, reduce your numbers now!
The Earth's goods could be shared more equally
If there were wealth enough to go around.
One wishes there were fewer to care more,
Needing less, that time might Earth restore.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/onewi.html. For more poems for Earth Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/earthdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Earth Day.
April 19: One Wishes Earth Were Not So Decimated

We've Been Dating Now More than a Year

April 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem asking for more than the other is willing to give:

We've been dating now more than a year,
And I'd like to date you many more;
But there are things that I've been waiting for,
And why you still avoid them isn't clear.
What is it in our intimacy you fear?
What hurdles of the mind, what inner law
Shuts the gates of pleasure just before
Our love can gallop off in full career?
Is it some alignment of our stars
That twists your taste just as we near the line?
Some gremlin that turns ecstasy to ice?
Or is it some tough principle that bars
Affection from erasing yours and mine,
Joining us in one bright paradise?

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weveb2.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place
April 9: This Will Not Work if You Don’t Want to Try
April 10: We’ve Been Dating Now More than a Year

This Will Not Work if You Don't Want to Try

April 9, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem to a spouse in the midst of marital difficulty:

This will not work if you don't want to try.
There is no way to love except to choose.
You cannot go through people as through shoes:
With each love lost a bit of you must die.
We are all yours, the three of us, and I
Still love you though I know that I may lose.
My love is there to answer or refuse;
I wait upon your definite reply.
Do not say yes for any sake but yours,
Nor sacrifice your happiness for duty,
Nor swim against the current of your will.
But you will find abundance on these shores,
And in your love a more abiding beauty
Than any that might barren hunger still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Troubled Loves.
April 5: Although We’re No Longer Together, I Still Love You
April 6: Love So Often Must Depend on Timing
April 7: There Has to Be a Way Across These Mountains
April 8: There Is a Dark and Gloomy Place
April 9: This Will Not Work if You Don’t Want to Try

Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

March 28, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Passover, which this year begins on the evening of March 27.

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

A Passover poem about the Seder Haggadah as a panoply of rituals and prayers from millennia of Jewish history:

Passover Seders are like the night sky:
A moment of moments long past and just gone;
Starlight years old next to planets nearby
Shining as though joined in one joyous song.
Over our heads is a book of the ages
Vividly chanting the stories of old,
Even as under our fingers are pages
Resplendent with light come from cauldrons now cold.
So may we gaze at the past in the present,
Each prayer a jewel in a darkness undone,
Destined to light on our eyes in a moment
Embracing all slaves out from Egypt as one.
Rejoice, then, in this living graveyard of light,
Singing the words, that they last one more night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passo3.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Passover.
March 22: Praised Be Those Who Don’t Believe the Tale
March 23: Time After Time They Come to Destroy Us
March 24: Please Be Assured that What You Read Is True
March 25: Perhaps Your Only Ritual Is the Seder
March 26: Perhaps This Is No Time for Telling Tales
March 27: People Are a People by Design
March 28: Passover Seders Are like the Night Sky

Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 21, 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 St. Patrick’s Day poem about the inevitable passing of the Ireland of old:

Sing of Ireland, that salad bowl!
The greens are tossed with bits of yellow and brown.
Perhaps the tossing might make some folks frown,
Although the taste be tangy to the soul.
There is no past for which the bells don't toll,
Regardless how its ways are handed down.
In time its heroes, once of great renown,
Come faded to the fun house of the whole.
Know, then, that the Ireland of old
'Ere long will be what none alive remember,
Save for remnants treasured by a few.
Deep within the heartache that takes hold,
An ancient ecstasy becomes an ember,
Yielding over years to Irelands new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singo5.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
March 20: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls
March 21: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

March 17, 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 St. Patrick’s Day poem about the changing ethnic composition of Ireland:

So let it go, that mythic Ireland!
Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!
Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --
All of it -- but that was long ago.
The time when states were nations is now ending.
Races know no borders; people move
In search of life, their clothes and colors blending
Cultures that must now their presence prove.
Know, then, that not politics, but art,
'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,
Sustains a people's history and heart,
Dependent more on ritual than place.
As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,
Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 15, 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 poem for Presidents Day on how to spell the holiday’s name:

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?
Regarding spelling, what's the difference?
Even apostrophes must have their say,
Subtly shading each rendition's sense.
In the first, Washington alone
Deserves the day, the only president
Every state has honored on its own.
Nor does the change of name change what is meant.*
The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,
Should share the honor, combining holidays
'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,
Depending on which state such honor pays.
All presidents, too, the second could convey,
Yet the third one must be read that way.

*Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays used to be celebrated separately, though not all states recognized Lincoln's Birthday as a holiday.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love

February 10, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem from a group to a stranger who is alone:

Be with us in the circle of our love,
Even if by chance you are alone.
Our greetings will, we hope, propitious prove,
Uniting our good wishes with your own.
Remember there are those who think of you,
Vested in the will to be a friend.
As distant hills give depth to what we view,
Let these distant words new vistas send.
Each life is lived behind a sheltering veil,
Not lifted but for love. Yet when we will,
There is a wind that shifts the curtain frail,
Invading with kind thoughts the spirit still.
Now may we all enjoy this special time,
Each to each a new-found Valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
February 8: Hunger Is an Organ Tone
February 9: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
February 10: Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love

Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

February 3, 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 wisdom of choosing love over lust:

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

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

There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

January 15, 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 poem to a deceased loved one about not wanting to let go:

There is no threnody for utter darkness,
Nor dirge for nothingness, nor song for silence.
I sing to you in all your piercing presence.
You are not gone, but haunting in your nearness.
My pain is unrelenting in its starkness,
Unmerciful. Your ever-present absence
Becomes the heart of me, my grieving essence,
As I hold you in the shadow of your stillness.
Ah, my darling! I'll not let you go
Though years pass through the chamber of my sorrow
And memory alight upon my will.
Sweet winds may through my open windows blow,
Yet I will sing to you upon the morrow
And dance with you across the sunlit sill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/there7.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.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
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

I Know I Cannot Satisfy the Sun

January 6, 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 poem about the realization that the gifts of life come from beyond the self:

I know I cannot satisfy the sun
Nor earn the pleasures of a quiet day;
Spring is not a prize that I have won,
Nor am I here because I've had my say.
My thoughts are not the product of my wits,
Nor are my myths the product of my dreams;
I am a confluence of moments -- bits
Of longing borne by cold and laughing streams.
Love also is a gift beyond deserving:
Large-eyed, nocturnal, armed with delicate paws;
Nudging shameless for affection, serving
Equally my need and its own laws.
Miraculously delivered, drunk with light,
I stagger towards the long-expected night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iknow8.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

Poem of the Week

February 2, 2012 #670

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a 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

Some would look for love when love is nigh,
Or fill their fantasies with love unreal,
Afraid to love, and thus afraid to feel,
Afraid to be entangled in a lie.
For love is a commitment that might tie
One to a choice one would, perhaps, repeal,
Leading to regrets one would conceal,
Since any time, it's true, one's love could die.
Simpler just to dream instead of be,
Since being is so hard, and dreaming easy,
Allowing one one's choices without choosing.
One cannot choose to love and still be free,
A gift of self that tends to make one queasy,
Not knowing what, by keeping, one is losing.

© 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

June 2, 2011 #636

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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

A vow is both a promise and a sign
That I am sure enough that this is true
To say it publicly, not just to you,
But to all of those whose lives we here combine.
And so I vow to love you all my life,
To give you joy, for that is joy to me,
To be for you what I would have you be:
Each a home for each as man and wife.
I vow to give myself to that one self
Engendered by our mystical embrace,
And to nurture it through years of love and will.
For only thus we cross the inner gulf
That lies between our consciousness and grace,
Blessed by love, that makes good of all ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

March 17, 2011 #625

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for St. Patrick's 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

Sing of the home that you have never seen,
The place your ancestors once called their own!
Play the music of that island green,
And dance the dances dear to those long gone!
Time again to fill their dancing shoes,
Reawakening the ghosts within,
In touch with some incendiary muse,
Channeling the beauty that had been.
Knowledge is not merely of the mind:
'Tis of the arms and legs, the throat, the heart.
Sing, that you not lose your soul to time!
Dance, that you might nurture it through art!
As all your passions quickly become past,
Yet you may give life to things that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

February 17, 2011 #621

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Presidents' 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

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?
Regarding spelling, what's the difference?
Even apostrophes must have their say,
Subtly shading each rendition's sense.
In the first, Washington alone
Deserves the day, the only president
Every state has honored on its own.
Nor does the change of date change what is meant.
The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,
Should share the honor, combining holidays
'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,
Depending on which state such honor pays.
All presidents, too, the second could convey,
Yet the third one must be read that way.

© by Nicholas Gordon