Poem of the Week

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 15: Let There Be One Race – The Human Race

March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland

March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

So I'm the Patron Saint of Ireland

March 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is from St. Patrick to those possessed of racial hatred about the need for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So I’m the patron saint of Ireland!

Then let me be for it a sign of peace.

Perhaps few know that I was born in England

And always thought of England as my home.

There was no England then, of course, nor Ireland.

Regardless, here’s an irony that should

Inhabit those possessed by racial hatred:

Come to love even those who wrong you,

Knowing I was an English slave in Ireland.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/soimth.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 15: Let There Be One Race – The Human Race

March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Let There Be One Race -- The Human Race

March 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem celebrates one humanity with a variety of religions and identities.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let there be one race – the human race,

And let the whole Earth be one common space.

Let all who live together in this place

Pursue in peace their chosen path to grace.

Let every culture celebrate its past

So that its precious way of life might last,

And that its legacy across the vast

Dark future fields like hand-sown seeds be cast.

Let truth be woven like a tapestry,

And let each slender thread well rendered be

By those whose passionate hearts and minds are free

To look and then make sense of what they see.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/letth6.html. For more poems about nationality and race, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 15: Let There Be One Race – The Human Race

Monday, March 13, 2017

Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a poem for the Jewish holiday of Purim about preserving identity through ritual.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who remember to remember!

Unless they do, what we do is in vain.

Ritual reserves a time to render

In myth and play a world that else would wane,

Memories now passed along the chain.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais5.html. For more Purim poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/holidaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Going Home to a Place You've Never Been

March 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem about returning to the country your grandparents left three generations ago.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Going home to a place you’ve never been,

To long-loved landscapes that you’ve never seen,

To where your soul was sculpted by a wind

Your parents’ parents left still young behind.

How long do such ancestral memories last?

When, if ever, can the past be past?

You do not know, but only know right now

This place has gripped your heart like home somehow.

Your plane descends above green hills where once

Your people for millennia learned to dance

The dance you learned third hand, yet dancing still,

You land, weeping hard against your will.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/goingh.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

Happy Second Anniversary3

March 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 2^nd anniversary poem about the movement from passion to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy second anniversary!

Adjustments have been made, and time moves on.

Pleasure is routine, compulsory;

Paradise is just another dawn.

Yet there is yet a bloom upon the rose

So long as there is charity and will.

Even as the passion comes and goes,

Caring is the best seducer still.

Of time and love there is much to be learned;

No happiness can last unless it's earned,

Depending on your need, desire, and skill.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ36.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 11: Memories This Day Come Singing, Singing

March 12: Happy Second Anniversary

Friday, March 10, 2017

Memories This Day Come Singing, Singing

March 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name and anniversary poem about memories and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memories this day come singing, singing,

Each a voice in an angelic choir,

Returning with new grace and glory, bringing

Canticles of love and chaste desire.

Even those of sorrow, tinged with tears,

Devoted to a poignant minor key,

Emerge redeemed and softened by the years,

Singing with the rest harmoniously.

Reveries are music two can share.

Over years of love their melodies

Become one sweet and satisfying air,

Embracing all life’s complex harmonies.

Rich, full memories that tuneful prove

This day shall join in one praise song of love.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/memor4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 11: Memories This Day Come Singing,Singing

Thursday, March 9, 2017

There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

March 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem in which a marriage is seen from above.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is a mountain somewhere near

The harbor of our love

Where I can go sometimes to view

Our marriage from above.

I see the vastness of the sea

Outside our sheltered bay,

With boats like toys upon the flat

Bare corrugated gray.

I see the shadows of the clouds,

An archipelago

That neither wind nor current breaks,

Nor charts of sea depths show.

I see the green of nearby hills,

The gardens on our land,

The cultivated wildness

Of nature shaped by hand.

I see the waves sweep up against

The rocks upon our shore,

The white spume leaping, oh, so slow;

The heart awaiting more.

And all the peace of happiness

And passion sharp for life

Come slanting bright across the sky

Because you are my wife.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

March 10: There Is a Mountain Somewhere Near

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

The Luck in Love Lies Mainly at the Start

March 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 13^th anniversary poem about luck in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The luck in love lies mainly at the start,

Having to do with meeting and attraction.

Indeed, the passion that undoes the heart

Remains, at heart, a chemical reaction.

Thereafter, love is on its own, and must

Each hour, each day, each year renew its glory.

Ellipsis may be suitable for lust;

No love lasts long without a proper story.

The luck in love for us lies far behind:

Here love is knowing, wise, and far from blind.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Thirteen Is a Very Lucky Number

March 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 13^th anniversary poem about all the reasons thirteen is not an unlucky number.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirteen is a very lucky number,

Having been for years misunderstood.

If thirteen males attended The Last Supper,

Remember, God used Judas for our good.

Though thirteen moons a year might seem too many,

Each extra should be thought of as a gift,

Enhancing nights that else would not have any

Naked lamp to light love’s languid drift.

Yet twelve evokes a masculine perfection,

Embodying a circuit of the sun.

A lunar year, more feminine, needs correction,

Restored by adding beauty, passion, fun.

So may you find this year a lucky one!

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/13isav.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Monday, March 6, 2017

Strong Relationships Require Strength

March 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 7^th anniversary poem about love and will.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Strong relationships require strength.

Each must be the one who makes things work.

Vested in a love, one ought to love,

Embracing what one else would be enduring.

No love survives a marriage but by will.

Years of love accumulate, at length

Evolving into fate. The frantic search

Abates, one finds one’s yes, and it will prove

Resilient. One is settled in one’s mooring,

Singing, yearning, dreaming, dancing still.

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Freedom Is the Power to Will One's Fate

March 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 48^th anniversary poem about free will and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Freedom is the power to will one’s fate.

One chooses like a leaf blown by the wind,

Reversing, flailing, billowing, settling down

There, precisely where one chose to be.

Yet choice is just the ripple of one’s turning.

Embrace with joy that choice made long ago,

In love still, though so differently than then,

Gift of who you were to who you are,

Having willed the grace that now surrounds you,

The world you can’t imagine now not being.

You choose again, again, what you have chosen,

Each year, each day, again the choice to love,

A choice that wills the wonder of what is,

Resonant with happy tears, with laughter,

So beautiful you cannot look for long.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/freed3.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

Where Do We Go

March 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the mystery of the birth and death of consciousness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Where do we go when we go to a place

That simply is no place at all?

When we step out of time to become nothing more

Than a memory few can recall?

How can we be when we no longer are?

Or, earlier, not yet have been?

A bit of eternity sits in our souls

Though we live in the house of the wind.

Consciousness comes like a stranger to call,

Both us and yet something quite more.

Where it may come from and where it may go

Is a wonder behind a locked door.

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

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

March 3: She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain

March 4: This Truth Is like a Sea That Has No Shore

March 5: Where Do We Go

Friday, March 3, 2017

This Truth Is like a Sea That Has No Shore

March 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the agony of mourning a loved one killed by a drunk driver.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

This truth is like a sea that has no shore,

Chaos infinite in heart and mind:

That you should once have been, and are no more.

To me you are as lovely as before:

Your voice still sings of life, your eyes still shine.

This truth is like a sea that has no shore,

An agony no reason can endure,

A knot of pain no passion can unbind:

That you should once have been, and are no more.

You died because some drunken bastard bore

Across the barrier of one thin line.

This truth is like a sea that has no shore:

That I cannot your battered face restore;

That all my love for you cannot turn time;

That you should once have been, and are no more.

We are all on a death march, numb and raw,

Driven on as loved ones fall behind.

This truth is like a sea that has no shore:

That you should once have been, and are no more.

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

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

March 3: She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain

March 4: This Truth Is like a Sea That Has No Shore

Thursday, March 2, 2017

She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain

March 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the beauty of accompanying someone to the brink of death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

She died soon after many years of pain,

A remnant of the person she once was.

Yet in the days of peace before her death

We shared a pleasure brief but undismayed.

How strange is time! The precious days so slow

Passed like a sunset seeming without end,

Agonizing in its aching beauty,

Distillate of joy before the darkness.

She was the single parent of three sons,

Leaving them just past the door to manhood,

Herself not old, still ripe with postponed passion,

Never now to know again its treasure.

But love was like a dancer in those days,

Filling every moment with its grace,

An evanescent feeling, yes, but present

As sunlight on a green and open field;

A love that felt just like the pith of being,

Naked and alone, but unashamed,

Knowing with the certainty of sorrow

That life is no more rich than at its end.

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

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

March 3: She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Life Is Beautiful, My Child

March 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is to a child about how the dead live on.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Life is beautiful, my child,

Though many things go wrong,

And you may hear much sadness in

Its strange and lovely song.

Though friends and loved ones die, my child,

They're never really gone.

Nor more nor less than yesterday,

In you they will live on.

They will live on in you, my child,

As everything you see,

Though it must vanish, will remain

Alive in memory.

Alive in what you think and feel

And dream and say and do,

For all who ever were still are

Upon this earth in you.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lifei2.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The Only Hope Is that There Is No Hope

March 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem argues for the benefits of not believing in a life after death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The only hope is that there is no hope,

For then one's vision can adjust to darkness.

Life after death might help a body cope,

But one should savor life in all its starkness.

With Heaven gone, the heavens, free to speak,

Tell us of a universe uncaring,

Vast and violent, with storms that wreak

Havoc on what worlds might be life bearing.

How sweet just to admit that death's the end!

Of course, of course we've known it all along!

Despite millennia of myths, we tend

To doubt when the insistence seems too strong.

This we know: We perish and are gone.

Beneath the moment's fertile soil is stone.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/theon2.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

I Wish that I Could Bring You to the Lord

February 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is to a dying friend, wishing that he or she could believe in God.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I wish that I could bring you to the Lord

Before you die, for I have faith that you

And I could be together if you knew

The truth that shines like laughter in His word.

I wish I had the hope that I could be

The instrument through which you'd understand

The love that waits upon your silent hand

To rush into your anguish like a sea.

I wish that you could feel the joy that I

Am filled with now I'm open to His love,

The miracles that daily in me move

So deep there is no need to question why.

I wish, I wish, I wish I could do more

To reach into the raptures of your heart.

But I can only do my humble part

While you and He meet naked at your door.

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

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

Monday, February 27, 2017

One Night I Saw Aaron

February 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the sudden death of a friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One night I saw Aaron,

The next he was dead.

Now I can't remember

The last thing he said.

There is no reason,

No reason at all,

Why this one last thing

I need to recall.

The last night I saw him,

He, Mark, and I,

I had no idea

He was going to die.

It was just the usual

Basketball game,

Joking and cheering,

All just the same.

The Earth should have screamed,

Some song should have played,

Some mark should have told us,

All gross and decayed.

But the game simply ended

And we left the gym.

And that was the last

I'll see of him.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/1night.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Murderous Middle Class

February 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about the role of the middle class in injustice and oppression.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The murderous middle class has no

Hard evidence of harm.

Each paddles round the cubicle,

Maintained by what goes on.

Unburdened by communion with

Romantic harmonies

Discerned by a too-willing heart,

Each dreams of grace and ease.

Reason serves the scavengers, while

Only nightmares tell,

Unspeakable, the evils wrought

So they might thrive in hell.

Middle classes mind the store,

Indentured to the wind,

Demanding nothing but their due,

Decent, honest, kind.

Little do they contemplate,

Entrapped in loss and gain,

Canticles of misery

Lamenting lifelong pain.

As they consume, they wonder why

So many others have to die,

Strangled in their name.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

February 25: Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

February 26: The Murderous Middle Class

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

February 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about taking positions on political questions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Position was always one of your favorite words,

As in, What is your position on ...?

Here it means opinion, yet

It also means pose,

Not as in pose a question,

But as in positioning oneself in front of a camera,

Going public.

Since the Hungarian Revolution I have preferred

Not to go public. My positions

Seem too awkward to expose.

What my camera sees remains

Undeveloped. I am in no position

To have positions.

My position is that of a scientist who knows

That the last time he was certain of anything

He turned out to be looking into a mirror.

Shaken, I place my questions

Into a mosaic of wonder.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

February 25: Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

Friday, February 24, 2017

When the World Is Laid Waste

February 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about after we have destroyed our planet Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

When the world is laid waste,

And its celebrants are cinders,

And its clothes ashes;

When it is once again a dead rock,

Like the rock that encircles it,

Its dust open to the poisonous wind;

When we have wrought what we've wrought

And done what we've done,

And there is no one left to look back in sorrow or anger:

Ah, then, what a song will never be sung!

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the ambition to lead a nation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What might make a person want to lead,

To bear the brutal burden of a state?

Power is for some a noble need

That only shaping history can sate.

One wishes to do good, but on what scale?

The wounded world lies heavy on one’s heart.

One’s gaudiest ambitions tend to pale

Upon the stage on which one plays one’s part.

So there are just a few who would ascend

To where one’s choices change the way things are,

And over many years to one’s will bend

The iron bolts that one’s bright visions bar.

And yet such power corrupts, unless one sees

The need to search one’s soul upon on one’s knees.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George