Poem of the Week

July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

July 15: The World Might Well Be Remedied

July 16: Proverbs on Ideology

July 17: In Heaven I Met Karl Marx

Saturday, July 16, 2016

July 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs on ideology.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

PROVERBS ON IDEOLOGY

1.     Ideology is like blinders that allow a horse to go in a single direction without distraction.
2.     It is more satisfying, logical, and effective to see life as a coherent whole. It is also reductive.
3.     Religion is more or less ideological depending on the degree of fundamentalism.
4.     A cult is an extreme instance of ideology.
5.     What makes ideology so attractive is that it simplifies life, allowing the current of feeling to flow unimpeded by eddies and counter-currents. Which is precisely what makes it so dangerous.
6.     People who adopt an ideology sometimes feel as though they have been reborn into a world in which their lives have purpose and meaning. Naturally, they then come to deny or ignore any part of truth that threatens that precious sense.
7.     A cult of personality is a common feature of ideology, which is often personified by a charismatic authority figure who takes advantage of the fact that his or her followers have abandoned skepticism.
8.     Far more evil is done by people who believe they are doing good than by people who believe they are doing evil.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ideopr.html. For more political poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.
July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime
July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True
July 13: Those Who Have Power and No Pity
July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide
July 15: The World Might Well Be Remedied
July 16: Proverbs on Ideology

Friday, July 15, 2016

The World Might Well Be Remedied

July 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about how revolutions so often lead to dictatorships.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The world might well be remedied,

The revolution won,

Eyes turned back towards paradise

And memories to stone.

Power might indeed devolve

To those who now have none,

Saints upon the barricades

Whose time has come and gone.

For in the act of overthrow

There sits a golden throne,

Empty till the tide returns

To those who rule alone.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thewo3.html. For more political poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

July 15: The World Might Well Be Remedied

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

July 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day warning about the dangers of too-wide social inequalities.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Beware of inequalities too wide

And chasms that cannot be bridged by dreams.

Societies fray first along the seams,

Then rip apart, exposing rot inside.

In chaos hopes for liberty abide;

Life in its Edenic newness gleams;

Longing is more brutal than it seems;

Ecstatic demons 'cross the wastelands glide.

Do, then, recall the day of the Bastille

As one whose burst of glory would reveal

Yearnings that would stain the turning tide.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar2.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 14: Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Those Who Have Power and No Pity

July 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about those who, seizing power in the name of democracy and freedom, use it for personal profit.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Those who have power and no pity,

Who would avenge the right by sword,

And profit from justice,

And do well by doing good;

Those who would gain by others' grief

In the name of freedom,

And allocate the Earth's abundance to themselves,

And allow the marketplace to starve children;

And those who would see such things happen and do nothing:

The mark of Cain is on them,

And on their followers,

And on their generations.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thosew.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

Monday, July 11, 2016

Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about former American communists coming to terms with their dreams of revolution.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Everything we thought was true was not true.

Everything we thought was right was wrong.

The leaders whom we idolized were madmen,

Mass murderers, whose crimes we helped along.

We were the volunteers for genocide,

The dupes who gave out leaflets for the devil,

For whom obscene dictatorships were good

And our own democracies were evil.

We were the organizers of the poor,

The builders of unions, champions of justice,

Sacrificing self only to serve

A mortal yearning for significance.

We were blind in service to our passions.

We were deaf in service to our need.

Now we must drive the truth straight through our hearts

That we might die at peace with what we did.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every2.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was NotTrue

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day warning to the present about future revolutions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Beware of the future: We are the ancien régime.

As to them their world of privilege seemed

Solid as the centuries, so we

Take ours to be the way the world should be.

In the sheltering wake of our billionaires

Looting the world, our own market shares

Leave us little room for denial. Come!

Embrace the prisoners of the Bastille! Some

Defend their privilege, but let it go!

Ancien régimes find some honor so,

Yielding up their heritage of woe.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar3.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

Identity Requires Memory

July 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about the importance of history.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Identity requires memory.

No less than people, nations must recall

Days past, lest they wander witlessly,

Erased each moment, guided by the wind,

Pushed by lusts no wisdom can forestall.

Events are facts that one cannot rescind,

Nor can forgetting consequence forego.

Despite one's wish, the past is not behind:

Even now, it works its wayward will.

Nor can we understand what we don’t know.

Contain your cavils, then, and snide thoughts still,

Even as we celebrate our story,

Described with all the clarity and skill

A scholar can sustain in heart and mind,

Yielding what for now is history.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/identi.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: To the Founding Fathers

July 7: July 4^th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 8: In What We’ve Done We Take the Greatest Shame

July 9: Innocence Is like an Open Door

July 10: Identity Requires Memory

Friday, July 8, 2016

Innocence Is like an Open Door

July 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about the dangers of and the need for innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/innoce.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: To the Founding Fathers

July 7: July 4^th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 8: In What We’ve Done We Take the Greatest Shame

July 9: Innocence Is like an Open Door

Thursday, July 7, 2016

In What We've Done We Take the Greatest Shame

July 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about Americans coming to terms with the evil they have done while fighting terror.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In what we've done we take the greatest shame.

Nothing that was done to us excuses it.

Despite the evil of our enemies,

Evil never justifies more evil,

Perhaps because it never leads to good.

Each tortured prisoner pollutes our name.

None has unchecked power but abuses it.

Defying friends, ignoring verities,

Embracing our illusions without scruple,

Now we must repent, as well we should.

Conquerors must always take the blame.

Each rules ruthlessly its state or loses it.

Demons overran our conquerees

As we washed our hands of our debacle,

Yielding to what washed our dreams in blood.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/inwhat.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

July 7: July 4^th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 8: In What We’ve Done We Take the GreatestShame

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

July 4th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about how we celebrate the holiday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

July 4th is a day for barbeques

Underneath an unforgiving sun;

Later, fireworks, perhaps the news,

Yawns, some love, and then the day is done.

For most it is a day for celebration

Of something so familiar that its grace,

Unnoticed as a routine revelation,

Remains interred in its accustomed place.

This neglect of what sustains one’s life

Has its twin in the love of man and wife.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/julyfo.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

July 7: July 4th Is a Day forBarbeques

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Just Words Declared Our Freedom Long Ago

July 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about the hypocrisy of our pretensions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just words declared our freedom long ago,

Untouched by time, sincerity, or will,

Little meant, much mouthed, a well-wrought show

Yearning to be put in practice still.

There was no truth in them, not even then,

Harbingers of hope long since betrayed,

Ever the disguise of gentlemen,

Fashion for a yearly masquerade.

O judge them harshly, for they are but lies,

Unworthy of the dream that gave them birth!

Regard not their pretensions, but their ties

To those who would be lords upon the earth,

Hard souls who hide their greed in freedom's cries.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/justwo.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

Monday, July 4, 2016

To the Founding Fathers

July 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem paying homage to the Founding Fathers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Your light still lingers in our distant morning,

A star that we perceive across the void.

We chart our passage by your words, still burning

Long after your bright core has been destroyed.

No longer do we speak of "natural" rights,

Nor can we think that Reason guides our will.

We've been through far too many gruesome nights

To hope we have reduced our lust to kill.

Yet hope remains the engine of our fire,

Hope that someday all of us will be

Happy in the least that we require:

Well-fed, well-housed, safe, secure, and free.

This dream we still pursue. Though darkness come,

Your wisdom, hope, and courage through us run.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 5: To the Founding Fathers

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Just Remember: Freedom's Not a Given

July 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about the nature of freedom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just remember: Freedom’s not a given.

Understand that it could disappear,

Lost to insecurity and fear,

Yielding to some messianic vision.

Freedom is not simply what it seems:

One might be free to pray but not to eat;

Unrestricted where one might compete,

Restricted where one’s class defines one’s dreams.

To survive, freedom must be more

Habitation than just open door.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/justre.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

You Finally Found Each Other

July 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem about the signs of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You finally found each other after

Searching hard for love.

In this uncertain world you've come

To one you're certain of.

How can you know the someone whom

You'll cherish throughout life?

What indices identify

A husband or a wife?

Sometimes there's a gravity:

Sudden, fierce, obsessed;

As if you're falling towards some star,

By its strong pull possessed.

Or sometimes there's a childhood sense

Of unselfconscious grace

Sustained within the safety zone

Of mutual embrace.

Sometimes there's the terror of

The searing pain of grief,

As if the loss of love were death:

Sheer scream without relief.

Or there's a sense of loveliness

Too precious to be lost:

A gift of all that makes life good,

Beyond constraint or cost.

Whatever signs you read, they all

Point in the same direction:

The self that lies beyond the self

In love and shared affection.

True love lies far beyond the will,

Yet you must choose to love:

Each day to put aside the self

And with the angels move.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youfin.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

July 2: Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This?

July 3: You Finally Found Each Other

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This

July 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem about the mysterious forces that move a couple to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Regarding marriage: Whose idea was this?

Isn't each poor shimmering star alone?

Can a nimble munchkin alter at the altar

His/her belief that his/her soul is his/her own?

Is a former frog to die in bit and halter,

Ever disenchanted with a kiss?

A star spins slowly through a field of bliss,

No motion save what does all motion alter,

Dependent on the love of every stone.

Just so are we the music of a psalter

Unknowing, moved by melodies we miss.

Didn't the maid move blindly towards that kiss?

Yet happily they wed, as is well known.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/remarr.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

July 2: Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This

Friday, July 1, 2016

A Wedding Is a Party

July 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem from a child’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A wedding is a party with,

Of course, a wedding cake.

But sometimes by the time it comes,

It's hard to stay awake.

People need to talk a lot,

And laugh and joke and kiss,

And cry - why do they cry? - and mention

God and love and bliss.

Two people have decided that

They'll share one house for life,

And call themselves, instead of friends,

A husband and a wife.

And so we have to get dressed up,

And eat a lot, and wait

For hours till they finally serve

The great big wedding cake.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/awedd2.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Hold My Hand and I'm Yours

June 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem from one lover to the other.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hold my hand and I'm yours,

And your heart will stay close to mine,

For I know the sun must rise with the dawn,

And at night the stars must shine.

And the wind must wander the ocean

And sing with the waves of the sea;

Just so, I know, I'll be by your side,

And you will be wedded to me.

And you will be wedded to me, my love,

And I will be wedded to you;

For I know the tide must turn with the moon,

And the spring must return ever new.

And the sky must weep that the hillsides

May laugh in the green of their joy;

And the leaves must turn red, brown, and gold

That the earth might their riches employ.

And love like a mad, swollen hunger,

And love like an unending song,

And love like the silent pull of the Earth

Shall be with us all our lives long, my love,

Shall be with us all our lives long.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/holdmy.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

Change and Love Are Contrapuntal Voices

June 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem for two musicians.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Change and love are contrapuntal voices

Held together by one harmony.

Remember that, though wed, one still makes choices

In which the will must shape love’s melody.

Sing, then, of that interminable duet,

The interplay of permanence and change,

Of which a marriage is the best score yet,

Performed by those whose lives love has arranged.

How might two people keep their lifelong vows,

Each changing, changing through the passing years?

Remember, then, the beauty that allows

A song to make a timeless joy of tears.

One creates through love a dwelling place

In which one lives with dignity and grace,

Founded on an act of will that would

Embrace for life what makes life sane and good.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/chang3.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

Monday, June 27, 2016

All Agree that Love's a Good Investment

June 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem for a financial consultant.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All agree that love’s a good investment

That over time will yield a rich return.

However, it is not insured. Contentment

Is never guaranteed, as one will learn.

So look for long-term growth and lifelong gain,

Happy to ride out the ups and downs.

A love that lasts is one that two sustain.

Years pass, love grows, the grace of life astounds.

Amazingly, with love the more one spends,

Like little else in life, the more one has,

Investing one’s self more than one intends,

Yielding earnings unexpected, as

A well-wrought bond brings love that never ends.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/allagr.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Wedding Vows3

June 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a set of wedding vows.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

BRIDE OR GROOM

Strange how just one moment can

Determine a whole life,

One choice create a family,

One rite a man and wife.

GROOM OR BRIDE

Strange how just these few, brief words

I say today to you

Bind one soul to another,

Make one life out of two.

BRIDE OR GROOM

But so do we take charge of time

And make it all our own,

Joining years together in

A marriage and a home.

GROOM OR BRIDE

And so do we take charge of life

By choosing love each day,

For passions come and passions go,

But love is here to stay.

BRIDE AND GROOM TOGETHER

Marriage vows are promises

We make both to each other

And to ourselves, that we might share

A fragment of forever;

A bit of Eden’s innocence

Behind a wall of will,

For though the wide world turn to dust,

I will love you still.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/wedvo3.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

There Are No Words to Match My Gratitude

June 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem that says thank you to a teacher.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are no words to match my gratitude,

However much like Shakespeare I might write.

Above all else, you've shaped my attitude,

Nurturing me with discipline and light.

Knowledge is the least of what you taught,

Yet that least at least prepared my head.

Out of your heart I've learned the things I ought,

Underscoring words you never said.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/therea.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 24: I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother’s Place

June 25: I Want to Make It to My Graduation

June 26: There Are No Words to Match My Gratitude

Friday, June 24, 2016

I Want to Make It to My Graduation

June 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem from someone who might not live long enough to graduate.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I want to make it to my graduation

Even though I haven't long to live.

I want that one last hard-earned celebration

To give me all the joy that it can give.

I want your pride around me like a song,

To walk within its passion and its beauty,

To feel its pleasure in me sweet and strong,

To be possessed of all of those who love me.

And then I want the lazy afterglow,

The long, slow chatter of the waning day,

The easy confidence of those who know

That something precious has been put away.

Death's a dawn in that its golden light

Reveals the loveliness long hid by night.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwant5.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 24: I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother’s Place

June 25: I Want to Make It to My Graduation

I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother's Place

June 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem from a stepmother.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I do not wish to take your mother's place,

And yet my pride and pleasure are no less.

You may not be the daughter of my flesh,

But you are still the daughter of my heart.

I know my very presence in your life

Can't help but to remind you of the pain

And anger of your parents' separation.

And yet my only purpose here is love.

Stepmothers and stepdaughters are a pair

Created both by joy and by disaster.

We did not choose each other, but were chosen

By love and by the anguish of love's end.

But we can choose to love each other well,

Accepting fortune's gift with unfeigned grace.

Know as you step forth this graduation:

You have my love as long as I have life.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/idono5.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 24: I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother’sPlace

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Graduation Isn't Gradual

June 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about the shock of graduation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation isn't gradual.

In fact it's quite abrupt, a sudden shock.

It's more like rushing towards a waterfall:

One moment we're afloat, and then we're not.

Sure, we see it coming up ahead,

The water roaring into the abyss.

We make a joke and look away instead,

Unable to acknowledge what this is.

And then the moment's past, and we're the same.

Everyone is smiling, sunny bright.

Someone kisses us and calls our name,

And then we think, well, everything's all right.

But life is like that: things get smashed inside,

And we don't even know it. Foolishly,

We think we're in it only for the ride,

Yet mourn for all that can no longer be.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grad6.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Graduation Is a Time2

June 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a humorous graduation poem about going just a bit insane.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation is a time

When our thoughts turn naturally

To vandalism, sex, and crime,

Now that we at last are free.

Our teachers think we're well prepared

To make decisions on our own;

But now, perhaps, they're running scared

As they listen to this poem.

Don't worry, folks, we aren't crazy,

Though sometimes we look that way;

Just annoyed, bored, and lazy

As we make it through the day.

So just like birds out of a cage

Or slaves set free from toil and pain,

We aim to try to act our age

And be for now a bit insane.

For life too soon will close its doors,

And then as we grow old in years

We'll teach our own kids to be bores,

But hopefully they'll stuff their ears

And do as we did, not as we do,

Facing life a tad askew.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grad5.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.