Sing, My Loved One! Sing of All the Glory

October 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 60^th birthday poem wishing a loved one joy in life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing, my loved one! Sing of all the glory

In which for every moment you have lived!

Xylophones accompany your song,

That, played by angels, help us sing along,

Yielding harmony to grace your story.

Years have added luster to your soul,

Each, though not all what you would, a gift.

As now we wish you more – to live in joy,

Rejoicing in a love none can destroy,

Such love of life as makes one strong and 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/singmy.html . For more birhday poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Joy.

October 17: Sing, My Loved One! Sing of All theGlory

You Pray to Be Included in the Book

October 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about the disconnect between an ancient faith and the modern world.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You pray to be included in the book

Of life before your yearly doom is sealed,

Making sure no sin is left concealed,

Knowing that there'll be no second look.

In words that are sincere, with guilt unfurled,

Perhaps you pray with some uncertainty,

Poised between belief and poetry,

Unwilling now to take it literally,

Remnant of a strange and ancient world.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youpr2.html . For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 13: Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

October 14: You Cannot Get Away from Being Plural

October 15: You Pray Not for Yourself Alone but All

October 16: You Pray to Be Included in the Book

You Pray Not for Yourself Alone but All

October 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about the communal nature of personal sin.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You pray not for yourself alone but all.

One never chooses sin in isolation.

Most evil is not merely personal.

Kindness looks for common inspiration.

In every act there is community.

Perhaps one would prefer it were not so.

Placing each's guilt on all may be

Unfair, but then each righteous soul must see

Reflections of itself in every woe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 13: Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

October 14: You Cannot Get Away from Being Plural

October 15: You Pray Not for Yourself Alone butAll

You Cannot Get Away from Being Plural

October 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about the relationship between your sins and mine.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You cannot get away from being plural;

On you must rest the burden of my sin.

Moreover, your self-portrait is a mural,

Kaleidoscope of all you’ve touched within.

In what you say I find my inspiration,

Perhaps unfairly making you my guide.

Penitence presumes that expectation,

Uniting others’ sins with yours inside,

Relating my pretense to your false pride.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youca2.html . For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 13: Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

October 14: You Cannot Get Away from BeingPlural

Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

October 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about Yom Kippur as the hopeful beginning of a joyful, loving year.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Yom Kippur remains a day of morning

On which another year of joy depends.

Most make the most of life by choosing love,

Knowing what they have no knowledge of.

Immersed in means, they leave to God the ends.

Penitence must work its will by evening,

Passionate enough to make amends,

Until the last horn blows, the lovers leaving,

Resolved to grace whichever way life wends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomki2.html . For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 13: Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about prayer with uncertain faith.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You wonder whether fate is accidental,

Or whether this one day a harrowed heart

Might make some difference to a willing God,

Knowing faith is not experimental.

In fact, you know quite well that you don't know

Precisely why you're here, or why today,

Perhaps most out of loyalty, you pray,

Unwilling to let long-loved labors go,

Reciting with true grace the ancient part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate IsAccidental

Ye of Little Faith, You're Welcome Here

October 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is for those who come to pray but once a year.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ye of little faith, you're welcome here

On this day of fasting, faith, and prayer.

May we attempt together to atone,

Knowing well that we in sin are one.

If you come but once a year, at least

Please take a smidgeon with you when you leave:

Perhaps a shard of beauty, or a word

Uniting you with us until the world

Returns you next year safe to this, your home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re WelcomeHere

Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about the appropriateness of a selfish motive for repentance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Yearning is a function of atonement.

One yearns for one’s own personal salvation.

Might that give one pause for just one moment,

Knowing one’s extrinsic motivation?

Is that yearning purely for oneself,

Praying for the sake of one’s own good?

Perhaps. But in the heart there is no gulf

Unbridged between the roots of what one would.

Repentance draws from all springs, as it should.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

Proverbs on Justice and Love

October 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs on justice and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

PROVERBS ON JUSTICE AND LOVE

1. Every person, no matter how horrible, is a child of God and is therefore loved.

2. The causes of evil are pain, lust, and fear.

3. Since evil is both caused by pain and causes pain, it is self-perpetuating.

4. Thus one way to diminish evil is to answer pain with love and understanding.

5. Violence may be necessary in self-defense or in pursuit of justice, but violence in pursuit of vengeance is evil.

6. People have an innate sense of justice, just as they have of symmetry or balance. Even infants know when a punishment is just. Parents can tell from the sound of the cry.

7. Without just rules there is anarchy or rebellion, in which everyone's survival is threatened. Thus just rules and equitable enforcement are the primary responsibilities of the State.

8. Without justice the weak are defenseless. Without mercy justice is a robot that knows not what it does.

9. Justice diminishes evil by diminishing fear. Love diminishes evil by diminishing pain and lust.

10. Failure to discipline a child who does wrong teaches weakness. Discipline in anger teaches evil. Discipline out of justice teaches order. Discipline with love teaches goodness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 8: Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out from Killing

October 9: Proverbs on Justice and Love

Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out from Killing

October 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about how each of us is the cause of hatred, war, and sin.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Peace is just a brief time out from killing.

Each pulse of hatred beats beyond the skin.

A war could not be won were we not willing.

Change without requires change within.

Each of us remains the cause of sin.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 8: Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out fromKilling

Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about hope as the necessary condition for peace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hope is the only road to peace,

A steep and winding way

That climbs up to a sunlit field

Where dawn can last all day.

And in that day-long dawn two sides

Can put aside their fear

And learn to talk and deal and trust

And dream – but only here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hopei3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

Revel in Your Righteousness

October 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about how joy in being affects the mix of good and evil in everyone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revel in your righteousness,

For you are truly good,

Wise enough to understand

What lies behind each “should.”

There's depth to your morality

And kindness to your care.

Duty joins with empathy

To will the weight you bear.

Oh, yes, you hear the suffering

That sings within your heart

Of death and pain, of cruelty

In which all must take part.

Oh, yes, within you strangle

The people whom you hate,

And sex consumes your fantasies

With lust no love can sate.

But underneath, a canticle

Of gratitude and praise

Creates a choral pedal point

To harmonize your days.

There is a joy in being

That does all goodness move,

A universal gravity

That binds all things in love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

My Home Is Here, America

October 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about America as the promised land for all races.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My home is here, America,

My Promised Land, my Yisrael.

What God gave to my ancestors,

He now gives equally to all.

My Promised Land, my Yisrael,

Is homeland to the human race.

He now gives equally to all

A holy land, a sacred place;

Is homeland to the human race,

The world's long longed-for world-to-be,

A holy land, a sacred place,

Where all alike are safe and free.

The world's long longed-for world-to-be,

What God gave to my ancestors,

Where all alike are safe and free:

My home is here, America!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about the universality of hatred and the need for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hatred has no color, creed, or race.

All hate, more or less, and thus destroy

The fragile ecosystem of the heart,

Restoring which requires faith and grace.

Each must love for any hope of joy,

Disciplining hate with well-honed art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is a New Year’s plea for peace between Muslim and Jew.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ismail and Yitzhak are half-brothers,

Raised by different, sometimes hostile mothers,

But joined in ancestry by one great man –

Their father, Ibrahim, or Abraham.

So close they are, and yet so far apart!

Their enmity a defect of the heart.

For families ought to love, and not to fight.

But each, aggrieved, is sure that he is right.

Their New Years are this year almost in sync,

Which is more meaningful than you might think.

For though in both the hatred might run deep,

None would willing sow what they might reap.

And so this accident of New Year dates,

If seized by them to harmonize their fates,

Clarifies the compromise that sits

So clearly on the table of their wits,

And realigns the borders of their fear

To resurrect the hopes that both hold dear.

Oh, what a life for both might then ensue!

The dreams of plenty coming into view!

As brothers their old brotherhood renew

In one new year for Muslim and for Jew!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

Why Is It that a Child Makes Life Worthwhile

October 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about why children make life worthwhile.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Why is it that a child makes life worthwhile?

Why is hope with each new birth new born?

What deep remembrance, shadowed in a smile,

Brings back the dream whose measured loss we mourn?

Why do we think that life that is to be

Has greater aptitude for being more,

As if we rose not from the self-same sea

To crash in turn against the self-same shore?

Why do we wrap the best of us in song,

The Eden that we left but never lost,

And try to pass that purer self along,

Not counting risk or reckoning the cost?

I do not know, but know that from my womb

Has come a life whose life makes my life bloom.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 30: Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Come to You

October 1: A Child Is the Greatest Gift

October 2: Why Is It that a Child Makes LifeWorthwhile

A Child Is the Greatest Gift

October 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem thanks friends for gifts on the birth of a child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A child is the greatest gift

That our lives can bestow.

It brings the most exquisite joy

That we will ever know.

Some days deliver happiness,

Far more than we can touch.

We need the help of all our friends

To comprehend how much.

And so we thank you for the gifts,

Both those you brought and are,

That celebrate this rich, full life

And its rising star!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 30: Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Come to You

October 1: A Child Is the Greatest Gift

Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Come to You

September 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem announces a pregnancy or birth to grandparents.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Glad tidings of great joy are come to you,

Eternal in their deep and lasting pleasure.

Nor can we not give adoration due,

Embracing so embraceable a treasure.

Rejoice, then, in the child of your child,

A gift come from a gift come from your love.

The sun once more upon our lives has smiled,

Inviting us to move as we are moved.

Our faith in faith is by our faith redeemed,

Nor will the time be different than we dreamed,

So passing sweet will this new angel prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 30: Glad Tidings of Great Joy Are Cometo You

Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

September 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem welcomes a child into the world.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Welcome to this wide-eyed world,

This loving, gentle wonderland,

Where fluffy lambs lie near at hand,

Their ears in tiny fingers curled;

Where one comes well equipped with toes

And fingers one can use to clutch

And rub and scratch and feel and touch

One’s soft cheek, one’s crusty nose.

What magic in the moment!

What delight in joy!

Life dances through the morning

Of a little boy.

What ebb and flow of feeling

Beneath an inner moon!

A symphony of senses,

A rich, rhapsodic tune!

Welcome to this wide-eyed world,

Where everything is dark and light,

Where faces smile day and night

And beam as one’s own smile unfurls;

Where love begins its ancient song

As one is kissed, caressed, and held,

Each pain allayed, each hunger quelled,

The love bonds woven thick and strong,

The love bonds thick and strong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/welco4.html. For more poems about pregnancy and childbirth, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/birthpregnancypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 29: Welcome to This Wide-Eyed World

I Have Some Information for Your Files

September 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem announces a pregnancy through its acrostic.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I have some information for your files,

A tidbit that might underline your day,

Most suited to the gentlest of smiles:

Please mark before you file it away.

Regarding information: some may render

Every passion previous absurd,

Giving your experience a splendor

New risen with the wonder of a word.

All you've ever known or has occurred

Now will be transfigured instantly:

To process, read the left side vertically.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 28: I Have Some Information for YourFiles

Hallelujah! I'm Pregnant! Praise the Lord

September 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem thanks God for a pregnancy.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hallelujah! I'm pregnant! Praise the Lord!

For the Lord has quickened my womb! With my husband,

Of course, and Dr. Heller, who quickened the sperm.

Which makes it no less a miracle.

For the Lord has quickened my womb! With my husband

I thank Him and science both, and bless them.

Which makes it no less a miracle

Of the Lord, Who works through the works of our hands.

I thank Him and science both, and bless them.

With science I have but a passing acquaintance.

Of the Lord Who works through the works of our hands,

Of the Lord I sing all the words in my heart!

With science I have but a passing acquaintance,

Of course, and Dr. Heller, who quickened the sperm.

Of the Lord I sing all the words in my heart:

Hallelujah! I'm pregnant! Praise the Lord!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

September 27: Hallelujah! I’m Pregnant! Praise the Lord

A Universe, a Little Boy

September 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about waiting for a baby boy to be born.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A universe, a little boy,

A bear pretending it’s a toy,

A rattle ready to bring joy,

All soon, yes, soon will meet.

Some tiny clothes, an empty room,

A wind-up lamb, a tinkling tune,

A soul that will be ready soon,

Yes, yes, they all will meet.

And when they meet, what wonder!

What worlds within that grasp!

What will those eyes discover

When they can see at last?

A waiting crib, a family

With dreams enough of what will be,

A gift whose grace none can foresee,

Soon, soon they all will meet,

Yes, soon they all will meet.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth.

September 26: A Universe, a Little Boy

There Is No Treasure Greater than Your Love

September 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and love poem about love as the water that makes life bloom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no treasure greater than your love,

However rich or bountiful your life.

It is the spring that wells up in your garden,

Replenishing the mother and the wife;

The joy that makes a pleasure of your burden,

Yielding happiness that time will prove.

Nor is love proof against travail and strife.

Instead, it is but tears with yearning laden,

Nile through the desert, green and brazen,

Edged with life, where all things near might bloom.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/isno3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 24: Truth Is Rarely an Expression of Love

September 25: There Is No Treasure Greater thanYour Love

Truth Is Rarely an Expression of Love

September 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and love poem about truth in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Truth is rarely an expression of love:

Honesty most often precedes pain.

In hope there is the fragrance of illusion;

Romance requires the charm of light confusion;

The best lovers are criminally insane.

Yet lies, eventually, will suck out passion.

One must be truthful if one hopes to love:

Not cruelly, but enough to ease delusion.

Each love must be broken, then built back again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 24: Truth Is Rarely an Expression ofLove

What Is the Sign of Love That Tells Me When

September 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a teenage love poem asking how one might know one is in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What is the sign of love that tells me when

A friendship and a crush are something more?

How can I know what life may have in store

When all the clues must lie beyond my ken?

How much happiness is love? And then

How much and long must it endure before

I recognize that strange and distant shore

Beyond which I won't have to ask again?

I do not know, but trust that when I do

The answer will surround me like old fields

On which the things I hunger for will grow.

For now I share the mystery with you,

Waiting for what young affection yields,

And for the time when both of us will know.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/whati2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

September 23: What Is the Sign of Love ThatTells Me When

Passion May Remain a Gift

September 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about how love must come from mutual giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion may remain a gift,

But love is not for free.

To love and be loved two must give,

Or love is not to be.

Love is a decision made

Not once, but every day.

Two must move to set aside

The mountains in the way.

Two must act to take apart

The walls of me and you,

Just as in the act of love

One's joy brings joy to two.

Just as love's pure ecstasy

Makes others' joys our own,

Just so will love in daily life

Make sweet green fields of stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

September 22: Passion May Remain a Gift

Love Is Never Easy

September 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about how love can transform life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love is never easy, but

It turns life into song.

There is no bit of circumstance

That love cannot transform.

There is no weary moment

Of anger or despair

That love cannot convert to grace

And render whole and fair.

How passionate the paradise

That comes from knowing well

That someone in your happiness

Finds pleasure for himself.

How sweet the gift of giving to

Someone who gives to you,

A selflessness that gives to self

More self than self is due.

With all the searing madness of

The world from day to day,

And all the dreary sadness that

No joy can take away,

There is one truth more beautiful

Than anyone can bear:

That two can trust that when they turn

They'll find the other there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovei2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20: Gifts Are  Not Always Free

September 21: Love Is Never Easy

Gifts Are Not Always Free

September 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name and love poem about distinguishing between love as a gift and love as a burden.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Gifts are not always free.

A giver wants to know: Are you enjoying my gift?

Burdens can be sources of intense pleasure.

Recently, unable to distinguish between burdens and gifts,

Indian elephants dragged seventeen tons of teak logs over the Himalayas.

Each of us has made his or her own version of this mistake.

Love is a gift.

Burdens betray themselves by the rattle of their needs.

Each of us wants to know: Am I a burden or a gift?

Very few understand that to be a gift one must receive more than one gives,

Even while burdens come decked out in ribbons and bows.

Refusing a gift brings regret, not guilt.

Lingering doubts may be referred to a mirror.

Yesterday the elephants returned: happy, sweaty, and a good deal wiser.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True

September 20; Gifts Are Not Always Free

Dreams Do Come True

September 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about what to do when love longed dreamed of becomes a reality.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dreams do come true, but only when

They make it through despair,

Limping into everyday

Transformed beyond repair.

No dream would be a dream if it

Could pass for something real,

Nor would we sail for paradise

Would it its shoals conceal.

So it is with love: the dream

Long longed for, now possessed,

Must be a dream no longer, but

An emperor undressed.

Stark naked it must come to us

In unaccustomed shame,

And we must take it in our arms

And love it all the same.

And we must love love as it is

That dreams might still come true,

Mangled into miracles

To make our lives anew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love.

September 19: Dreams Do Come True