Poem of the Week

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 8: You Put Yourself in Harm’s Way

September 9: There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

September 10: Librarians Are Those We Trust with Treasures

Friday, September 8, 2017

There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

January 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is for a singer/songwriter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no greater passion than for beauty --

Ecstasy distilled into a song --

Nor calling more exquisite than the duty

To make our own the truths for which we long.

Here's to you, then! And for what you've done

To be the muse who mirrors well our hearts,

Restoring the lone many to the one

Common love that underlies all arts.

O love of being, bearer of our pain!

Well might we praise the gardeners who bring

Our passions into bloom, that we again

Might hear the sunlit bird within us sing.

Long may you ply what practices you've learned,

Profiting all by artistry you've earned.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther27.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

January 13: For You, Life Has Its Own Internal Music

January 14: There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

You Put Yourself in Harm's Way

September 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of first responder (police or firefighters).

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You put yourself in harm's way,

Though you might die, that we might live,

The Good Samaritan for pay,

Asked often for what few would give.

Though you might die that we might live,

You make a conscious choice to be

Asked often for what few would give,

And to remain while others flee.

You make a conscious choice to be

The calm, well-trained professional,

And to remain while others flee

To face some danger for us all.

The calm, well-trained professional,

The Good Samaritan for pay:

To face some danger for us all,

You put yourself in harm's way.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 8: You Put Yourself in Harm’s Way

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of pastor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Pastors are supposed to be the shepherds

A willing flock has bid to guide their souls.

So must you be yourself a lamb of courage,

The one most lost amid the moral wreckage

Of Adam's sin, whose grief must be the fold's.

Remember we are all but broken potsherds,

Sustained alone by faith in some great whole.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Nurses Must Be Angels by Profession

September 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of nursing.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Nurses must be angels by profession,

Under the direction of their gods.

Restoring peace to those immersed in pain,

Sustaining life in those life can't sustain,

Each nurse each day must elevate the odds,

Skilled in love's most practical expression.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

Monday, September 4, 2017

Therapists Find Fortune in Misfortune

September 5, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the profession of therapist.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Therapists find fortune in misfortune,

Here to help us navigate our pain.

If our existence must precede our essence,

Requiring an extended adolescence,

There is need for those who keep us sane.

Yet some fear nothing more than resurrection.

Sing, then, of therapists, who would find ways,

Even in these times, to ease distress,

Vested in the cause of happiness,

Embracing life through long and brutal days,

Not least because their love demands no less.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Facts Are Never Simply What Is True

September 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which is celebrated today, September 4.

Today’s poem is a philosophical number poem about the need for statisticians.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Facts are never simply what is true.

One looks at them as one would look at notes

Resounding in the context of a key

That makes sense of it all. No note evokes

Yearning but from an aural point of view.

Each fact, as well, requires an inner key

If one would make some sense of it. It, too,

Gives way to meaning as it numbly votes,

Having shrunken to a number, to construe

The truth of a surmise statistically.

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

This week’s theme: Professions

Volunteers Are Willing to Take Risks

September 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is about the motivations, rewards, and need for volunteers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Volunteers are willing to take risks,

Out-of-pocket for some leisure time,

Letting love and joy dictate the tasks

Undertaken for some modest dream.

No one volunteers but for a vision

That never fits but may oblige a truth.

Each finds some ideal with which to fashion

Ends that are of hard-earned wisdom wrought.

Relentless need and hunger rule the world.

Still, volunteers do all the good they can.

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

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

September 2: Giving Gives Far More than We Intend

September 3: Volunteers Are Willing to Take Risks

Friday, September 1, 2017

Giving Gives Far More than We Intend

September 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is about the grace of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Giving gives far more than we intend.

In everything we do is what we are,

Vastly different than we comprehend,

Infinite as any quark or star.

No one ever loves for some clear end,

Gripped by grace that breaks beyond the bar.

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

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

September 2: Giving Gives Far More than We Intend

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Forty-Three5

September 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a number poem about how parental sacrifice changes one.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three is mainly now a father,

Offering himself to others' needs.

Remember that such love can give no quarter,

Taking one where obligation leads,

Yielding up a joy that breaks and bleeds.

To love is to become oneself another,

Heeding new hopes as the old recede,

Repurposing one’s self to serve some other,

Embracing what one’s former self concedes,

Ever mounted on quixotic steeds.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43e.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Allen2

August 31, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a name poem about someone for whom others will need to sacrifice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Allen sees the future far too clearly:

Life in debt to those for whom he cares.

Living thus dependent hurts severely,

Even though he knows they love him dearly,

Needing his strength more than he needs theirs.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/allen2.html. For more poems about people with disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Thirty-Eight8

August 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a number poem about a hand surgeon who sacrifices the health of her hands in order to heal the hands of others.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-eight is skilled at healing hands,

Hard at work each day on wrists and fingers.

In her hands are hands, so what she feels

Requires the same tissues that she heals,

The tiny tangles over which she lingers.

Yet her own must leap to her commands.

Ever deaf to her own hands' appeals,

Intent on what each patient probe reveals,

Guiding blades, she puts her wrists through wringers,

Harsh in her devotion and demands,

The toll intense, as she well understands.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more poems about various professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

Forty-Three4

August 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrifice when one has children at the same time one’s parents begin to need help.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three sustains his love of life,

Old enough to know what he must do.

Responsibilities have come with age,

The burden and the blessing of this stage,

Yielding joys less pure than those he knew.

There are the distant child and former wife,

Hard truths that no resentment can assuage.

Retired parents soon will need him, too,

Encumbering him on both sides as the view

Encompasses more grace than he can gauge.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Thirty-One5

August 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrificing oneself to save the Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-one returns the cosmic favor,

Here, like us all, through accidental grace,

Immersed in saving what of life he can,

Reversing the revolt of modern man

That has with reason reverence replaced,

Yielding an ecology few savor.

One hopes to find some meaning in one’s labor,

Not looking for success in one’s brief span

Except to hold one’s world in one’s embrace.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/31e.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-one5

Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree

August 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the need to care for oneself if one is to attain higher goals.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fruit is but a fraction of the tree.

One savors it, but knows what makes it sweet.

Remember that the tree is what one tends,

Taking care that it gets light to eat,

Yet rain enough to drink in avidly.

So must one tend oneself sufficiently;

In love and joy pursue, or else defeat,

Xerophyte or hydrophyte, one's ends.

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

August 26: Forty-Four5

August 27: Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree

Friday, August 25, 2017

Forty-Four5

August 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about taking some time to be alone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-four, immersed in vivid life,

Old enough yet young enough to be

Responsible to husband, child, and home,

Takes pleasure in her roles as mom and wife

Yet reserves some time to be alone.

For one can serve oneself unselfishly,

Organ of a music all one’s own,

Uniting strains of harmony and strife,

Resonance that sings across one's sea.

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

August 26: Forty-Four5

Thirty-Four6

August 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about being comfortable in one’s inner home.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-four has found her inner home,

Happy in her own well-tended space,

Inviting friends to drop in on their way,

Relishing the doldrums of the day,

Taking pleasure in each moment's grace,

Yet as content in company as alone.

For one must have such comfort to embrace

Oneself, and put one’s passions into play.

Ultimately one must, though one may roam,

Remain at last, perplexed or pleased, in place.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/34f.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Thirty8

August 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about choosing wisely what is most meaningful.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty knows quite well what binds one fast,

Having both received and given love.

In what one chooses is what one will be,

Regretting much, of course, but hopefully

The person one's best instincts will approve,

Yearning always for the things that last.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/30h.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Fifty-One3

August 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the need to embrace multiple selves.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-one reviews her long-past choices,

Interested in knowing who she is.

Fortune is the child of self in ways

That one can neither understand nor phrase,

Yet must accept in searches such as this.

One is, of course, a choir of many voices,

Not just one, one might condemn or praise,

Embracing all, redemptive and remiss.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/51c.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 23: Fifty-One3

Monday, August 21, 2017

Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the difficulties and rewards of family.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Family is a rescue squad in waiting.

One knows there'll be an answer to one's call.

Rest assured there is sufficient love

To water well the wastelands of us all.

Yet simple truths can sometimes bear restating.

Fear not, then, what fortune might befall,

Or what regrets show no signs of abating.

Understand the long-term love that proves

Resilient through the roughhouse of relating.

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

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith