What I Want to Ask of You Is This

July 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is proposing marriage and getting engaged.

Today’s poem is an acrostic poem proposing marriage by reading the poem vertically down the left side.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What I want to ask of you is this,

If I can find the nerve to make the leap:

Life scatters dreams across the hills of sleep,

Lest it be too easy to find bliss.

Yet I am aware what I might miss.

Only what we treasure can we keep,

Ultimately sowing what we reap,

Moving us to dare that first brief kiss.

And so I must reveal to you my heart,

Recalling all my courage from its rest,

Ready for whatever word might be.

You are all the object of my quest,

My cynosure, my life, my other part.

Each line of this begins my urgent plea.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/whati.html. For more engagement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/engagementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Proposing Marriage and Getting Engaged

July 17: There Is a Time When Freedom Must Be Bound

July 18: What I Want to Ask of You Is This

There Is a Time When Freedom Must Be Bound

July 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is proposing marriage and getting engaged.

Today’s poem is a marriage proposal poem about the need to choose to limit one’s freedom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is a time when freedom must be bound

By what we freely choose to call our own.

For if not, someday we will have found

That we have made the choice to be alone.

I cannot call my love for you a choice:

I simply made a turn and you were there;

And all I was came singing with one voice

To lift my soul ten feet into the air.

But lightning bolts do not outlast the storm:

The years demand not ecstasy but will.

My love for you must take a different form,

One that lasts a lifetime, deep and still.

And so I make my choice, if you'll agree,

And seek your answer: Will you marry me?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/there6.html. For more engagement poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/engagementpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Proposing Marriage and Getting Engaged

July 17: There Is a Time When Freedom Must Be Bound

To Imagine What a Better World Might Be

July 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about someone who changes the world through role playing games.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To imagine what a better world might be,

Having thought it out in great detail,

Inventing settings, cultures, ways of seeing,

Reconstituting ancient ways of being,

Time traveling beyond the painted veil,

Yet all to change one’s own society;

Then turning one’s ideas into a tale,

Having sketched a future history,

Roles distributed to players, freeing

Each to live one’s vision fictively,

Experiencing the grace without agreeing …

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

July 13: Utopians Are Unrepentant Monsters

July 14: Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

July 15: Frailty, Thy Name’s No Longer Woman

July 16: To Imagine What a Better World Might Be

Frailty, Thy Name's No Longer Woman

July 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the peaceful feminist revolution.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Frailty, thy name’s no longer woman!

One’s destiny no longer is one’s gender.

Rebellion has turned into revolution,

The kind that frees, that casts old selves asunder,

Yielding souls that find their selves in no one.

This is a time to try the souls of women,

When time is broken, and one becomes a sculptor,

Old enough to shape one’s generation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frailt.html. For more poems about feminism, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/feminismpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Hearthttps://www.poemsforfree.com/befor4.html

July 13: Utopians Are Unrepentant Monsters

July 14: Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

July 15: Frailty, Thy Name’s No Longer Woman

Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

July 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day poem warning of the dangers of revolutionary chaos.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before the terror comes the tyranny.

A bloodstained flower has roots in bloodstained soil.

Some would steal the fruit of others' toil,

Then claim it as a right of property.

In revolutions, though, if chaos reigns,

Legitimacy is lost, and many will

Look back with less distaste at former ill,

Eager more for order than for gains.

Days of terror yield dictators new,

As the many yield power to the few,

Yearning for the clarity of chains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

July 13: Utopians Are Unrepentant Monsters

July 14: Before the Terror Comes the Tyranny

Utopians Are Unrepentant Monsters

July 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a about how a desire for utopia, or perfect good, can lead to evil.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Utopians are unrepentant monsters.

The perfect is the perfect rationale.

O send us serial killers, rapists, gangsters,

Preferably to "should" becoming "shall"!

In those who seek to make their visions real,

A rage becomes the furnace of their zeal;

Nor can they love, who would impose their will,

Sure enough of paradise to kill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

July 13: Utopians Are Unrepentant Monsters

The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

July 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about peaceful revolution through artistic and cultural change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The world is brought to beauty heart by heart.

How else might change take root but one by one?

Imagination is the proper tool,

Revealing what no doubt can overrule:

The wonder and the longing shaped by art.

Year by glacial year change will come.

For every game or story plays its part.

Over time, tiny shifts accrue

Until the old accommodates the new,

Returning, turning, till its day is done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/thewo7.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

Andrew

July 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a disillusioned idealist.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Andrew was a soldier of the faith:

No one was more loyal or more true.

Despite the hard, rich texture of illusion,

Reality insisted on confusion,

Eviscerating much that Andrew knew.

What remains stalks him like a wraith.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 11: Andrew

Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day poem about the dangers of basing life only on reason, as some revolutionaries tried to do.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Base your life on reason, only reason,

And watch your heart go crazy on the spot!

Some would vary judgment with the season,

Though some would say it is, or it is not.

In politics, one should be politic,

Lest change change what one needs to stay alive.

Logic cannot tell what makes things tick;

Each thought remains a creature of the hive.

Despite the power of reason, please take heed:

An amputated cranium tends to bleed.

Yet nations healed holistically will thrive.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution

July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

In Time All Meanings Fade

July 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem about the eventual demise of the holiday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In time all meanings fade. The days of glory,

Now forgotten, buried long ago,

Dead for generations, their founding story

Erased from consciousness like summer snow …

Perhaps we will succeed in preservation,

Enduring for millennia or so,

No more than that. There’ll be a generation

Destined by their seedtime not to know.

Embrace it then, the truth that even this,

Now so much a part of us, must go,

Caught tumbling on the edge of the abyss,

Eventually pulled in by the undertow.

Dear history, we hope to pass you on,

And so a bit of us, too, when we’re gone.

Yet more than that no yearning can bestow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 5: I Wish There Were a Washington

July 6: In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

July 7: Justice Is as Justice Does

July 8: Is This the Beginning of the End

July 9: In Time All Meanings Fade

Is This the Beginning of the End

July 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem about the dangers of indebtedness to other nations.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Is this the beginning of the end?

Now is when we start to fall?

Debtors to both foe and friend,

Eventually obliged to all?

Perhaps we can pull out of this,

Electing leaders who will lead,

Not stuck in this paralysis,

Dreading most what we most need.

Each must give that all might gain,

Nor ought we shun the sacrifice.

Could we but bear the healing pain

Equally, we'd pay the price.

Dependence on another's will

Assumes that we their coffers fill,

Yielding ever to their advice.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 5: I Wish There Were a Washington

July 6: In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

July 7: Justice Is as Justice Does

July 8: Is This the Beginning of the End

Justice Is as Justice Does

July 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem about the influence of the past on the present.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Justice is as justice does.

Under every is, is was.

Laws must be applied by those

Yet longing for their long agos.

For every change imposed by will

Oppressions linger, strangle, kill.

Underneath equality

Remains a brutal legacy,

The wandering ghost of slavery

Haunting still our history.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/justi2.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 5: I Wish There Were a Washington

July 6: In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

July 7: Justice Is as Justice Does

In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

July 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem about the ubiquity of corruption.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In every heart there is, of course, corruption.

No one is immune from lust and greed.

Democracy accommodates this need,

Embracing what might else lead to destruction.

People cannot people an ideal.

Equality's a myth, has always been

No more than something to put favors in,

Dependent on the lie that it is real.

Each decision is a battlefield,

Not of ideas but interests, yours and mine,

Calculated shrewdly to define

Exactly what advantage each might yield.

Do not be discouraged: Evil is

As much a part of us as love or bliss.

Yet what is not a wound cannot be healed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ineve6.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 5: I Wish There Were a Washington

July 6: In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

I Wish There Were a Washington

July 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem wishing every nation could be as lucky in leadership as ours was.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I wish there were a Washington

For every failed state,

A Jefferson or Madison

To guide them through the gate.

I wish there were a Lincoln

For those now ripped apart,

A Roosevelt or Kennedy

For those that have no heart.

I wish each had the fortune

With which we have been blessed,

And found in their own founders

Fit heroes for the quest.

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,

But such things none can will.

One can only plant the seeds

And shape the soil well.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 5: I Wish There Were a Washington

Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

July 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated today, July 4th.

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem imagining what it was like to rebel in 1776.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just think of how it was that hot July

Under threat of being hanged for treason.

Let yourself have faith enough to die,

Yet let that faith be in the power of reason.

Feel the heady fear of rash rebellion,

Of chaos, blood, death, vengeance, mayhem, blight.

Unleash with noble words that ancient hellion

Reigning cruelly over years of night.

They turned out to be right, those bold, brave men.

However, think what terrors faced them then.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 4: Just Think of How It Was That Hot July

Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

July 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a July 4^th poem about the holiday as myth and fantasy.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fantasies endure the test of time.

Out of myths emerge identities.

Underneath the prose there is the rhyme,

Revealing what was not and could not be.

There is a well-worn scrim across the past,

Hard to see through, absent light behind:

Old, self-serving stories made to last,

Fictive landscapes painted on the mind.

Just listen to the songs of who you are:

Underneath your words are melodies

Long rehearsed, the bedroom door ajar,

Years ago, when truth was meant to please.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/fanta2.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

July 3: Fantasies Endure the Test of Time

Fifty5

July 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the beauty of the infinite and beauty within time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty is a mark upon the waters.

Infinity’s the sea on which we sail.

Forever is a moment. Nothing alters

The being of the One behind the veil.

Yet there is beauty, too, in shades and borders.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/50c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

June 30: Forty-Four

July 1: Sixty-Three

July 2: Fifty

Sixty-Three2

July 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a number poem about someone who pauses on the brink of holiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-three suspends her animation,
Intending to replenish her reserves.
X marks the sacred center of her being,
The place beyond her appetites and nerves.
Yet still she hears the sirens of sensation.

To be oneself is to be all creation,
Here in ways no instrument observes,
Replenished by the simple act of seeing
Each windrow with the wonder it deserves,
Each remnant in the robes of revelation.

 © by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/63b.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

June 30: Forty-Four

July 1: Sixty-Three

Forty-Four4

June 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a number poem about someone who, living in the mundane world, longs for holiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-four looks within and listens,

Open to the whispers of the soul,

Remembering retreats, now long ago,

That gave him intimations of the whole.

Years may pass; the longing never lessens.

For such encounters, there can be no goal.

One stops one’s inner time within time’s flow

Until, now free of purposes and passions,

Returned to bliss, one can resume one’s role.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/44d.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

June 30: Forty-Four

Alessandra

June 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a woman who strives for holiness every moment of her life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Alessandra savors solitude,

Looking for connection to the whole.

Each of us is all, and so includes

Such rapture as resides in every soul,

Selfless self, with neither will nor goal.

Anticipating death, she undoes life,

Needing nothing, wanting, wishing nothing,

Delivered from what would engender strife,

Relinquishing all but simple acts of being,

A conqueror of all that's worth the winning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 29: Alessandra

Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

June 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about how Ramadan continues to affect the mundane activities that follow.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Evening, and at last the fast is over!

It remains a gift we celebrate,

Delighting in our prayers as in a lover,

Abstaining with a joy no meal could sate.

Let us gather now with food and drink,

For now we turn again to mortal Earth,

Intended to desire, and love, and think,

To savor what is ours 'twixt death and birth,

Reminded by our faith what things are worth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eveni2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 28: Evening, and at Last the Fast Is Over

Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

June 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the transition from Ramadan to more mundane forms of worship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each moment is like sunlight on the heart,

Infinity within infinity.

Descend now from the whole back to the part,

As fast gives way to feast, and One to me.

Love is worship, as is pure, chaste pleasure;

Food is worship, music, dance, delight.

Immersed in talk, we savor what we treasure,

The days of fasting fading fast from sight,

Returning, turning, burning through the night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eachm2.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 27: Each Moment Is like Sunlight on the Heart

Every Moment Equally Is Holy

June 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is the contrast between the holy and the mundane, in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which begins today, June 26, at the end of the month of Ramadan.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Fitr about the heightened recognition of holiness during Ramadan.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment equally is holy.

In Ramadan, we recognize it more.

Days of fasting preach throughout the body;

Appetite obeys a higher law.

Let us now return to the mundane

Fortified by what we have enjoyed,

In lives neither prophetic nor profane,

Toiling daily, gainfully employed,

Restored by holiness, our spirits buoyed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/every5.html. For more poems for Eid al-Fitr, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holy and the Mundane

June 26: Every Moment Equally Is Holy

We've Been Together Since We Were

June 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from elementary school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

We've been together since we were

Just barely more than babes,

Holding onto Mommy's hand,

Missing two front teeth.

Some of us now have to wear

A bra and some to shave,

Adults in what our hearts demand,

Still children underneath.

Together we learned how to read,

Together learned to play,

To add and multiply our friends,

To give and to receive.

Our teachers taught us how to lead,

To put our tears away,

To separate our means and ends,

To work and to achieve.

And now we step across a line;

Our childhood is gone.

Soon, just like a morning dream,

The memories will fade.

But if we turn out good and kind,

Rejoicing in the sun,

We'll know to thank these sheltered years

Where our first joys remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 24: Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

June 25: We’ve Been Together Since We Were

Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

June 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from middle school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Middle school is a time of yearning

For what's ahead and what is left behind:

Neither child nor adult, but burning

Unrestrained with love and fear combined.

Now that we must leave, we have the pleasure

Of moving one step nearer who we are,

Knowing that we lose the equal treasure,

Bit by bit, of leaving dreams ajar.

How lucky we have been this awkward moment,

Shifting from the shade into the sun,

To have this school as our communal parent,

Guiding us as well as you have done!

More than skills improved or knowledge gained

Are intellects inspired and gifts unchained.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 24: Middle School Is a Time of Yearning

Graduations Are like Stepping Through

June 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem looking forward to bittersweet memories.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduations are like stepping through

A veil into another, larger room.

Behind, where we can never go again,

Are memories like a shipwreck full of gold.

Strange, the harmonies of pride and sadness,

The dawn and sunset of the new and old,

The bittersweet good-byes while looking forward

To things unseen beyond the ridge of time.

Numb with too much life we stagger through them,

Time passing in the ordinary way.

Relatives and friends all swarm around us,

Buzzing round the silence of the real.

And once the ceremonies and the parties

Are over, and the sweet days come and go,

All we've lost comes back to us as music

Of love departed, never to return.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 23: Graduations Are like Stepping Through

Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

June 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation and goodbye poem to a friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Goodbye, dear friend and graduate!

Our golden time is over now,

Our time of nothing more than time,

Days of simply being friends.

But I will always treasure how

Your love for me inspired mine,

Each sharing hopes and dreams and ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodb2.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

June 22: Goodbye, Dear Friend and Graduate

Graduating Gradually

June 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduating from elementary school to middle school and then to high school.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduating gradually,

Rising school by school,

As I become what I will be,

Deliberately uncool.

Understanding more and more,

As I continue on,

The calling I’m intended for,

In which I’ll find my home.

Out of learning comes the dream

None but learning can redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad14.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

June 21: Graduating Gradually

Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood

June 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about graduation as the border of adulthood.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Goodbye, adolescence! Hello, adulthood!

Rest assured, I’m on my merry way!

A boy is crossing over into manhood,

Destined to arrive this very day!

Unveil the future, O Ye Gods of Glory,

And fill me in on what my prospects are!

Take me to the meaning of my story,

In which I hope to be a brilliant star!

One chance is all I get. It’s starting now.

Now let me be all will and fate allow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodb6.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 20: Goodbye, Adolescence! Hello, Adulthood!

Here We Have an End and a Beginning

June 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools will be having their graduation ceremonies this week, the theme for this week is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about the bittersweet feelings a graduation can evoke.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have an end and a beginning,

A stop-time moment memory will frame,

Placed beside a christening or wedding,

Pieces of a whole one seeks in vain.

Yes, here we have a mind that looks both ways,

Glad to leave and sorry to be leaving,

Recognizing these were precious days,

A joyful liberation laced with grieving.

Does one ever listen to one’s music

Underneath one’s own incessant voice,

A quiet strain, though one ought never lose it,

That moves one to the fortune of one’s choice?

In every moment there’s a melody

One plays to mirror one’s reality,

Needing both to mourn and to rejoice.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/herew4.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

June 19: Here We Have an End and a Beginning