Each Sacrifices What the Heart Loves Most

September 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about sacrificing what one loves most.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each sacrifices what the heart loves most,

Imitating Abraham when he

Delivered Isaac to the eternal host,

Although with heavy heart, yet faithfully.

Love does not grasp, but gives away all things,

Aware of something holy in its fire,

Destined to retain the gifts it brings,

Having first relinquished the desire,

As Allah gives one all one would require.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eachsa.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 17: Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

September 18: Each Sacrifices What the HeartLoves Most

Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

September 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about love as the proper motivation for sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even sacrifice may not be pure,

Intended for the eye and not the heart.

Do, then, out of love make sacrifice

As Abraham once offered up his son.

Love of Allah is what will endure

As fire consumes each lacerated part,

Devouring all but love, that will suffice

However long the sacrifice goes on,

As years and lives through time's cold fingers run.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/evensa.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 17: Even Sacrifice May Not Be Pure

There Are for Giving Many Rationales

September 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a philosophical number poem about what moves one to give.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are for giving many rationales

Having to do with what one might receive.

In reasons one finds just the afterthought,

Referencing what one's already bought,

The words that may uncertainties relieve.

Yet what one dances to are bacchanales.

The grace of giving ought not be an ought.

What moves us is a love that speaks in shalls,

Organ tones beneath what we believe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther36.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 16: There Are for Giving ManyRationales

One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a psychological poem about the limits of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One cannot make another happy,

Whatever one might do or say,

For happiness remains a choice

Not even love can hope to sway.

The sacrifice of time and strength

And preference and goods may be

Of help, of course, but cannot calm

The winds that roil a restless sea.

Everything one does, like dust,

Transforms the light in which all live.

But happiness is not a gift

It is within one's power to give.

One can only love, and be

A witness to the life that each

At last must live alone, for good

Or ill beyond a lover's reach.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem about happiness and giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness remains the drug of choice,

Antidote for much that ails one.

Praised be those who love both life and others,

Pleased to be, and grateful for that gift,

Yearning only for the things they have.

For happiness remains a conscious choice,

One that makes one more than simply one,

Requiring the harmony of others,

The grasping of one's giving as a gift

Yielding grace no one alone could have.

So may you both each day renew that choice,

In which each satisfies the other one,

X-ing out the urge to ward off others,

The passion to get something for each gift,

Having given all that you might have.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ74.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug ofChoice

Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty.

September 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about the beauty of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment sings of love and beauty.

If such gifts are yours, what must you give?

Dance, dance through the gardens of your duty,

And be a blessing by the way you live.

Let go your self , and all your schemes and pleasures,

And leave them with your shoes outside the door.

Do the things that bring life’s greatest treasures

Here, with your forehead on the floor,

And know for certain whom this gift is for.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every7.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love andBeauty

Thirty-Five7

September 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the redemptive grace that comes from giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five donates her time and sweat

Helping suffering others help themselves.

In every act of charity resides

Redemption for the actors on both sides

Through love, which deep, heartsick despair dispels.

Years of giving pass without regret.

For what one gives in solace one will get

In grace, as the good one does abides.

Verities can sometimes pall, and yet

Each selfless act the same sweet story tells.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/35g.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

Labor Leaves Us Little Time to Live

September 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the need for protest.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor leaves us little time to live

As we are given less than we must give,

Being but the undistinguished sea

On which may sail those who catch the wind.

Reason not with sailors, but together

Determine the direction of your weather,

And storm, if storm the wayward watchword be,

Yielding waves that little leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 11: Labor Leaves Us Little Time toLive

Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the need to find the right balance between profit and wages.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let us honor capital and labor,

As both must win for either not to lose.

Blessings are not always what we choose,

Overcoming what we think we favor.

Remember we must earn what we would spend;

Decent wages augur decent sales.

And little profit little pork entails,

Yielding yields too lean to long defend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the end of summer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor Day officially ends summer,

As those who work enjoy one final fling.

Blessed are those who bear the daily burden,

Of whom few savants speak or minstrels sing,

Returning to their harness each September.

Days of ease give way to hours certain,

A long routine that wends its way through spring,

Yielding one more year of brutal labor.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/labor2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

Let's Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the role of gangsters in American organized labor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let's not minimize the role of thugs

And gangsters in the history of labor.

Beasts devour ordinary folk.

Opposition soon gives way to shrugs,

Rendering allegiance to whomever.

Dormant zombie unions bear the yoke

Abjectly of their presidents-for-life.

Yet workers still must organize and strike.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role ofThugs

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

September 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem that sees labor as a commodity subject to the market’s laws.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the social effects of business decisions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor ought to earn a decent living

As business cannot help serve social ends,

Because the good of all of us depends

On equity in taking and in giving.

Remember that the lives of those who labor

Determine the environment of home,

As one must live at last with everyone.

Yet some forget that wages shape behavior.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the redistribution of wealth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lest you think high taxes rob the rich

And redistribute wealth down towards the poor,

Be aware: That very wealth from labor

Once flowed upwards towards those greedy hands.

Redistribution goes both ways, and which

Direction gets more flow is not unsure.

All the winds are in the wealthy’s favor,

Yielding only to fierce-fought demands.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lesty2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob theRich

How Can I Fall in Love with Only Words

September 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about love in the early days of the Internet.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I fall in love with only words?

Words and pictures, grainy and compressed?

A jaypeg love is truly for the birds.

You'd have to wonder whether I'm repressed.

But love it is, through all the bits and bytes,

For someone who's like no one else I've met:

Tender, charming, bright, queen of my nights,

All I've ever dreamed of, on the Net.

And though she's living in a distant place,

I love her as I've loved no one before.

Will I ever get to touch her face,

Hold her in my arms and, perhaps, more?

Ay, me! No matter what, I'm still in love.

Through modems must our e-mailed passions move!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howc14.html. For more humorous poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/funnypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

September 4: How Do I Fall in Love with OnlyWords

What a Puzzle Nick's Poems Are

September 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about the difficulty of comprehending my poetry.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What a puzzle Nick's poems are!

I cannot grasp what he is after.

Marx is easier by far!

Why write, if one is out to bar

All comprehension? Does he hafta?

Marx is easier by far.

If only some new thought would jar

Bourgeois perception, as in Kafka!

But Nick's poems empty puzzles are.

I think I would put him on par

With Cage or Pollack: Which is dafter?

Marx is easier by far.

Under what sectarian star

Was he begat? What gnomic laughter

Twists those poems which puzzles are?

Ah me! I'll never know. A for-

Eign joke, a filial disaster!

God! Such puzzles Nick's poems are!

Marx is easier--by far!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

I'm Safe and Sound

September 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about wearing a latex sheathe.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'm safe and sound

Within my sheathe

My latex sheathe

That guards against

Both life and death

A latex wall

Between us – us?

There is no us

Just you and me

Or lots of you's

And just one me

But if it breaks

I know I'm screwed

I might get sick

Or be a dad

Either of which

Would be a bummer

But love needs trust

And I trust it

My latex sheathe

My rubber wall

To keep me safe

From life and death

Behind which I

Can be in you

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

On Passing Air

September 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about flatulence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

On passing air

One turns around

To see if any

Heard the sound;

Then moves away

To vacate where

Another might

Inhale the air;

And then, relieved

In gut and soul,

Becomes again

A wholesome whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

August 31, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem from an eleven-year-old boy in Heaven to a friend who is still on Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holidays are holy here in heaven.

(Ordinary days are awful, too.)

Love is mandatory day and night.

If you get mad, you're not allowed to fight.

Desperate deeds are difficult to do!

As you know, I'll always be eleven.

Years pass, and there's still no sign of you.

So please come soon, 'cause we're still buddies. Right?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

Dr. Melendez's Head Is Now Quite Full

August 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous name poem for someone who has just earned a doctorate.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dr. Melendez's head is now quite full,

Replete with the most recent rabid ravings.

Most of what he's learned, of course, is bull,

Elicited to strip him of his savings.

Learned thoughts, like clothes, must follow fashion,

Ending up, again like clothes, as trash.

Nor is it easy not to want to cash in,

Defending with one's platitudes one's stash.

Even so, one can success deserve,

Zealous not to conquer, but to serve.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem comparing receptionists to football (American football) players.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A receptionist is a person (please note!),

Usually female, whose job is to receive.

Like her male cousin, the wide receiver,

She receives frequent passes from her own team

And abusive hits from visitors playing the field.

At times she is asked to do an end run

Around some office rival,

Or to execute a play

That is clearly out of bounds.

Should she complain,

She might find herself

Standing on the unemployment lines

Or sitting on the beach.

At times she is sorely tempted

To call a strike.

(But that's another sport!)

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (PleaseNote!)

You're the Person That I Most Admire

August 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to a teacher.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You're the person that I most admire,

The person that I most would like to be.

Your friendship, like a torch, has lit a fire

Deep within the cave where I am me.

Because of you, I want to be a teacher,

Touching someone's life as you've touched mine.

And when I'm you I'll know just how to reach her,

Giving her the faith that she can shine.

Though you now must leave, and we must part,

A little piece of you remains behind,

Held with gratitude within my heart,

A portrait of a lady good and kind.

You will be part of everything I do;

When I need strength, I'll look inside for you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youret.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 27: Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

August 28: You’re the Person That I Most Admire

Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

August 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to a parent for help in getting through a divorce.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Though life has saddened your blue eyes

And pain has nestled near your heart,

You've given me your happiness

As my poor life has come apart.

I never thought that I could watch

My child suffer helplessly,

But you have two that you must watch:

My daughter Tiffani and me.

It's bad enough that this divorce

Has ripped out all my happy years.

But what has my poor daughter done

To inundate her life with tears?

I try to have the strength and faith

To hope, to love, and to forgive.

And then I watch my daughter weep

And wonder why we all must live.

I cannot think what I would do

If I could not this torment share.

I did not ask, but still you came.

I needed you, and you were there.

Sometimes I fear I should have tried

To keep you from this dreadful night.

Yet I would die without your love;

Its beauty is my only light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thoug2.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 27: Though Life Has Saddened Your Blue Eyes

Thank You for the Gift of Life

August 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to God.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the gift of life,

For letting me be me,

For all that I can know by words

And all that I can see,

For all the music I can hear

And all the songs I sing,

For all the joy that comes to me

And all the joy I bring,

For all the food that I can taste

And all the sweet scents smell,

For all the loved ones I can touch,

Who love and wish me well,

For all the beauty of the world,

Ever fresh and new,

I don't know whom else I can thank,

And so I'm thanking you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than14.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 26: Thank You for the Gift of Life

How Can I Sing My Gratitude

August 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you name poem for friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I sing my gratitude,

Explain my silent sea,

Approximate in words the gift

That you have been to me?

How can I show my love to you,

Elucidate that golden drift,

Rolling wild and free?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howcan.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve Shown Our Child

August 25: How Can I Sing My Gratitude

Thank You for the Love You've Shown Our Child

August 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem to a former lover for loving their child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the love you've shown our child,

However little we two might have shared.

A baby has the right to be adored,

No matter whether we are well prepared,

Knowing early whether we have smiled.

You're neither walking off nor running scared,

Opening your heart to be beguiled,

Understanding the immense reward.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than38.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 24: Thank You for the Love You’ve ShownOur Child

Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

August 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem for a contribution in a deceased person’s name.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for your recent contribution.

Hearts find words that best their love convey.

All tears, like rain, must flow into the sea,

Nor do they ever lose their destined way.

Know that your kind gift brings consolation.

Yet it also sponsors a solution,

Offering the haunted hope that we

Upon some shore shall see a brighter day.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/than42.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You All Your Life

August 23: Thank You for Your Recent Contribution

To Lose Someone Who's Loved You All Your Life

August 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is saying thank you.

Today’s poem is a thank-you poem for help after a loved one’s death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To lose someone who's loved you all your life,

Having held you long against the darkness,

And felt the press of friends upon your sadness,

Need cutting through your torment like a knife . . .

Kindness is a sign of inner plenty:

Yours does much to mitigate my pain.

Of grief comes neither clarity nor gain

Unless friends fill its passion with their beauty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/tolose.html. For more thank-you poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You.

August 22: To Lose Someone Who’s Loved You AllYour Life

I Must Accept but Can't What Cannot Be

August 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about pain being a way of holding on to a former love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

I see you and my heart dissolves in pain.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

What happened to our love's a mystery.

I rummage through our empty past in vain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be:

That someone else now shares your off-hand "we,"

Now feels your tender tongue all feeling drain . . .

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

I cannot lay aside my agony:

Again, again I play the same refrain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

And yet I know this tortured ecstasy

Is just my way of holding you again.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me,

And still I cannot bear to set you free,

That of our love some remnant might remain.

I must accept but can't what cannot be.

You are not dead, but you are dead to me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 15: Hold Me to Your Willing Heart

August 16: How Did I Lose Your Baby Blue Eyes

August 17: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say I Love You

August 18: I Do Not Mean to Put Our Love on Hold

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 20: I Guess You Just Don’t Know How Much It Hurts

August 21: I Must Accept but Can’t What CannotBe

I Guess You Just Don't Know How Much It Hurts

August 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is to a former lover about the selfishness of pretending to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I guess you just don't know how much it hurts.

I cannot think you know and just don't care.

Destiny provides one's just deserts

By shaping one’s life just as would be fair.

Just as a child learns to its delight

That lying sets one fabulously free,

So you say "love" to get the rapture right,

Getting so the most you can from me.

And then, of course, you tire of your pleasure,

As those who seek but pleasure often do,

And sacrifice by far the greater treasure

Upon the altar where you worship you.

Justice would demand you be the fool,

But you are far more ignorant than cruel.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 15: Hold Me to Your Willing Heart

August 16: How Did I Lose Your Baby Blue Eyes

August 17: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say I Love You

August 18: I Do Not Mean to Put Our Love on Hold

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 20: I Guess You Just Don’t Know How Much It Hurts

I Feel as Though My Heart Lay Bleeding

August 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is breaking up a love affair.

Today’s poem is about how it feels to break up.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I feel as though my heart lay bleeding

On a countertop.

The pain is like a flooded scream

That cannot, will not stop.

I cannot live, I cannot breathe;

Pain is all I do.

I cannot think how I can be

Long living without you.

Ah, God! I want you back so bad

That I would gladly die

To hold you in my arms again

And not care how or why;

To hold you in my arms again

And tell you of my love,

And then go gladly back to dust

Should I your heart not move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ifeel2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Breaking Up a Love Affair.

August 15: Hold Me to Your Willing Heart

August 16: How Did I Lose Your Baby Blue Eyes

August 17: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say I Love You

August 18: I Do Not Mean to Put Our Love on Hold

August 19: I Feel as Though My Heart LayBleeding