Be My Valentine, for I

February 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the good that Valentines can do for one another.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine, for I

Each day have thought of you.

My whole life couldn’t manage what

Your ready smile can do,

Vanquishing my loneliness

And making me anew.

Let me be your Valentine

Even as you're mine,

Needing what I have to give

That each might each define

In friendship and in harmony,

Now you, now I the melody,

Each helping each to shine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyv2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how mutual love restores lost innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vest your love in me, as I in you,

And we will share our bit of time in heaven,

Lost innocence regained through mutual love

Enduring in the hush of our embrace.

Nor will we find in life a greater grace,

The beauty of which will our choices move,

In spite of daily troubles, east towards Eden.

Nor will love be more sweet at dawn than evening,

Ever just as lovely, old or new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

In Daylight You're a Haunting Melody

February 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem that says I miss you.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In daylight you're a haunting melody,

More lovely than the world before my eyes.

In darkness you become my symphony,

So much of me, I know no other ties.

So are you nestled with me night and day,

Your missing self transmuted into song,

Or walking close beside me on my way,

Unleashing all the love for which I long.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 10: There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

February 11: In Daylight You’re a Haunting Melody

There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

February 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem to a lover in prison.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are no bars to our embrace,

No presence more than in the heart.

We live our lives with love and grace,

Together still, though still apart.

No presence more than in the heart,

No touch more salient than a dream.

Together still, though still apart,

We are more lucky than we seem.

No touch more salient than a dream,

Though dreams alone must sometimes be.

We are more lucky than we seem

If I trust you, and you trust me.

Though dreams alone must sometimes be,

We live our lives with love and grace.

If I trust you, and you trust me,

There are no bars to our embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 10: There Are No Bars to Our Embrace

It's as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

February 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about seeing life's beauty.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

It's as if we were riding in a sealed railroad car.

Life passes by unseen.

Then someone throws open the door.

In the fierce sunlight we sense joy

But cannot clearly see.

How beautiful! we murmur, weeping,

Our tears like music.

Why haven't we known this all along?

In an open field we dance

Under sun and moon and stars all together.

You press my hand. You say:

I can't believe it!

I can't believe life has always been so lovely!

I tell you, my darling,

I tell you now, yes!

Yes, it is, my darling,

Yes. It is.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 9: It’s as if We Were Riding in a Sealed Railroad Car

I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

February 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about the fear of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I am afraid to love, and yet I love you.

My fear is like a wall I walk right through.

The wall is there, and yet it doesn't stop me.

I need it still, and yet I still need you.

I know someday we will be in a field

Surrounded by the blessing of the sky.

I'll dance with all the freedom of pure joy,

Needing you without a reason why.

But now I'm still afraid that I might lose you,

That you might not accept my desperate need.

You make me laugh and cry and be completely.

You are the flower, I the slender reed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 8: I Am Afraid to Love, and yet I Love You

How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

February 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem about the difficulty of declaring one’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I tell you what I feel for you?

When I think of you my feelings twist inside

As if someone's fist reached in and grabbed a few,

And turned and turned them tight and tangled. I've tried

Somehow to say: You're the sun in my sky,

The wind that takes me where I want to go,

The sweet incense that makes me feel so high

That loving you seems all I need to know.

But it all sticks in my throat! It sounds too cute,

Empty as a wrinkled paper bag.

You won't believe it! Better I stay mute

Than offer you clichés that make you gag.

And yet I wish to tell you of my love,

If only love its own locks would remove!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/howca4.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be JustFriends

February 7: How Can I Tell You What I Feel for You

Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

February 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem to a friend, asking for something more than friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some people think that friends should be just friends;

To try for more might ruin what they have.

I think the closest friend is one you love,

Sharing life with words and lips and hands.

One caress unravels mysteries

Lodged behind the most elaborate mask.

The revelation's more than worth the risk.

I want with you such sweet simplicities.

I want us to be friends who now are free

To speak with all the languages of touch.

I want to share your anguish with a kiss

And feel your happiness against my cheek.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 6: Some People Think that Friends Should Be Just Friends

Please Don't Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

February 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a love poem in which a girl asks a guy out for a casual date.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Please don't spaz if I should ask you out.

A girl can ask a guy out on a date.

If she likes the guy, I mean, why wait?

Taking risks is what it's all about.

So we have some dinner, maybe dance,

Go out to a bar and have a drink.

You ask me this or that and what I think.

No need right away for a romance.

Why not just two people having fun,

Being with each other, nothing more.

And then, or then not, opening a door

To see what else might happen with this one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Romantic Love

February 5: Please Don’t Spaz if I Should Ask You Out

How Can One Moment Hold the Work of Years

February 4, 2018

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 from children to parents.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can one moment hold the work of years,

As if time could be gathered in a sea?

Perhaps one might sail upon one's tears,

Pensive in the drift of memory.

Yet now is time to celebrate your love

After many years of loving well.

Now we, whose lives your hearts and spirits move,

Need our joy and happiness to tell.

In your love is our ancestral home.

Vistas in our hearts come from your fields.

Eden rests with you, that we may roam

Rich in dreams that early sunlight yields.

So may you savor this, your special day,

And sweet, sweet memories the time delay,

Recalling with fresh wonderment the life

You've shared so long in love as man and wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/howca7.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 3: How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

February 4: How Can One Moment Hold the Work of Years

How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

February 3, 2018

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 expressing the joy of married love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How wonderful to have you in my life!

All my feelings whirl about my heart!

Perhaps I can't contain that I'm your wife;

Perhaps I don't know how or where to start.

You have me always, no matter what you do:

A gift I give my gift, joyously.

Nothing means as much to me as you;

Nothing else so fully makes me, me.

If I had everything that God could grant,

Very little there would bring me peace.

Enwrapped in you is everything I want:

Rapture, warmth, affection, sweet release.

So strong my love! So happy, sure, and strong!

A thousand thousand years would not seem long!

Reason tells me everything must end,

Yet you will always be my lover-friend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 3: How Wonderful to Have You in My Life

Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

February 2, 2018

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 50^th anniversary poem in which one must still make the daily choice to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty years is a long time to be married,

Interweaving lives so thoroughly

Fortune seems like fate. Love seems to carry

The monumental weight of destiny,

Yet love is still a choice since one is free.

Years and generations notwithstanding,

Each day of marriage one must choose anew,

As love long lived in is no less demanding,

Requiring one to make one life of two,

Sharing one’s bright being through and through.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/50yea5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 2: Fifty Years Is a Long Time to Be Married

Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

February 1, 2018

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 thank-you anniversary poem from a pregnant wife.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for being the love of my life,

Half of the child asleep in my womb,

A husband whose husbandry made of his wife

Near as blissful a blossom as ever did bloom!

Knight of my nights and dance of my days,

Yours are the eyes in which I am most me.

Only with you will I wend through my ways

Unburdened as heaven, unscathed as the sea!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/than19.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

February 1: Thank You for Being the Love of My Life

Here We Have Two People Much in Love

January 31, 2018

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 9^th anniversary poem about the need to say I love you.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here we have two people much in love,

A fact not celebrated every day,

Perhaps because more words would less convey,

Perhaps because more fuss would little prove.

Yet love’s a word one should make time to say.

Now’s the time to celebrate your love

In annual honor of your wedding day,

Needing just this moment to convey

The feeling that the everydays will prove,

Here, now, when the words are there to say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/herew5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

January 31: Here We Have Two People Much in Love

Until We Met I Didn't Know

January 30, 2018

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 first anniversary poem about happiness realized.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Until we met I didn't know

How light a heart could be;

How, chained to one by bonds of love,

I still could feel so free.

I didn't realize that my dreams

Could ever be so real;

Or when I had all I could want,

Exactly how I'd feel.

This year of love has brought me through

A long-awaited door:

Were angels parked along our skies,

I could not love you more.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 30: Until We Met I Didn’t Know

Happy Eleventh Anniversary

January 29, 2018

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 11^th anniversary poem in which the day becomes a still lake mirroring the couple’s love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy eleventh anniversary!

All those years distilled into one glass!

Praised be those who will the things that last,

Pausing to renew them annually!

Years are music to which all must dance,

Ever changing, ever just the same,

Lending love a moment that remains

Embedded in the rhythms of romance.

Volumes can be captured in a word;

Empires, in a logo lifted high.

Nestled in this moment is the sky

Trembling, as two lovers might observe,

Heaven in one blue, reflective eye.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ82.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

January 29: Happy Eleventh Anniversary

Tarrah and Serrin Have Not Passed Away

January 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a name poem about the death of two children in which the dance is not yet over.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tarah and Serrin have not passed away.

A dance is not over when dancing is done.

Remembering them is like feeling the sun

As the moon turns to silver the black-bordered bay.

How can one ferret out words that might say

All the truth of the truth that two children are gone?

Not just the meaning but also the song,

Deepening what no dissent can delay.

So may we linger with them for a while,

Each moment a moment of beauty and pain,

Restoring a sense that makes no sense at all.

Reason alone cannot sponsor a smile.

In faith and desire we see them again

Nearby, still dancing beyond a glass wall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 27: Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

January 28: Tarah and Serrin Have Not Passed Away

Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

January 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a love poem about a love that needs to dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Our love has slowly gone downhill,

Heavy with mundane demands,

The dregs of days spent dutiful

While hunger goes to sleep unfed.

We love each other still, of course,

But love is listless, fretful, tired,

Pining for the potent word

That comes from angels in the heart.

Oh, say it, Love, and I will, too!

And time will wait for us to dance,

Touched by one another's grace

To give what we so long have sought.

There is a passion undismayed

That lives throughout the long, gray days

Of work and worry, knowing that

Our patient love awaits our will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ourlo3.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 27: Our Love Has Slowly Gone Downhill

So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

January 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a Seasons Greetings poem in which one dances to the rhythm of the year.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So shall the changing seasons mark the year,

Earth tilted at an angle towards the sun,

As all dance to that rhythm, everyone

Singing down the days, sun-drenched or drear.

One needs holidays to make things clear,

Needs rhythms to reveal how time will run,

Singing as the cycle’s almost done,

Glad still to be although the cold winds near.

Remember that this time of celebration

Endures within the vestibule of winter,

Endures because one’s joy in life requires

That one undo the dark with inner light.

It needs an unremitting affirmation,

Not least because the season can be bitter,

Grace consuming one’s lifelong desires,

So beautiful one dances into 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/sosha2.html. For more Season’s Greetings poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 26: So Shall the Changing Seasons Mark the Year

It All Went Far Too Quickly

January 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a love poem expressing regret for not having danced awhile before heading for bed.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

It all went far too quickly when

We started our romance.

We went right for the Broadway stage

Before we learned to dance.

Naturally, we shared the fear

Of intimate intimacy,

And scared to stay while loath to part,

We both longed to be free.

Ah, me! Well, now we're separate

To see how we might feel.

And then perhaps we'll try again.

Our love, I think, is real.

But this time we'll go slow and ask,

Before we head for bed,

If we might try some artful grace

And dance awhile instead.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 25: It All Went Far Too Quickly

Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

January 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a birthday poem for children in which dinosaurs dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Dinosaurs will dance all day

If you let the music play.

“Happy Birthday!” they will sing,

Crashing into everything,

Crushing cars and trucks and trains,

Bicycles, bridges, buses, planes,

Houses seven stories tall,

A factory, a shopping mall,

Having lots and lots of fun!

And before your birthday’s done,

You should dance and sing like them.

Well, maybe not just like them!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 24: Dinosaurs Will Dance All Day

Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem compares death to a dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death can also be a dance.

Each must grace its final steps.

A life immersed in pain, perhaps,

Too much controlled by circumstance,

Has one more leap to come to rest.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

Kaylee

January 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a name poem about a woman who, unknowing, dances the dance choreographed by her lineage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Kaylee cannot her antecedents trace.

Awake within her day, she feels quite free.

Yet she is but a dancer in a dance

Long practiced and perfected in advance,

Emerging from her will spontaneously,

Exquisite in its unsuspected grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

Love Engenders Love

January 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

Today’s poem reflects Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of non-violence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love engenders love,

Hate engenders hate.

When words descend to blows,

Both lose the debate.

The means become the end,

Regardless of the goal.

The foe you hate becomes

The mirror of your soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

January 21: Love Engenders Love

My Face Is an Icon, My Life a Scrim

January 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the way his fame has distorted the truth of his life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My face is an icon, my life a scrim

Alight with meaning, my words inscribed

Reductively in stone, a hymn

To dreams annually revived.

In me you found a founding father

New, like Lincoln a colossus

Late arrived: righteous Other,

Unavenging nemesis,

The token nigger of American

Heroes, aggrieved but restrained,

Engaged but non-partisan,

Radical but house-trained.

Know that I still believe in you,

In spite of what you've done to me.

Nor can a holiday a truth

Give flesh long flayed by memory.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/myface.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., urges the reader to go beyond knowledge and reason.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meaning is a morning song,

A dawn, a dance of light.

Reason merely sings along

To get the lyrics right.

In what you know is what you are,

Not what you'll become.

Let not sight your vision bar,

Undone by what is done.

To love must be to hope, for love

Has far too much to lose.

Embrace the good you're wary of,

Refusing to refuse.

Knowledge is as knowledge does.

It so quickly turns to was.

Now is ever when

Grace will come again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani3.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on what in life might mean more than life itself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there is more to life than living.

A person is a ripple in a stream,

Roiling the waters with a dream,

The revelation that makes life worth giving.

In love one finds a reason for believing,

Needing love to make life more than seem,

Love that makes the mundane moment gleam,

Undoing fate with faith, and death with grieving.

There is no love but at the risk of death,

Having valued something more than self,

Embracing what gives life to life, and grace,

Replacing fear of death or loss with joy.

Know then that the dreaded end of breath

Is not the end one ought to aim for, else

None would speak to fortune face to face,

Granted life no bullet can destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe6.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the election of Barak Obama to the Presidency of the United States.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe some had thought I hoped too much

And dreamed a dream that never would come true,

Reasoning from what they saw and such

Trends as might confirm their points of view.

In dreams, however, one creates what is --

Not from what one sees but what one wills:

Like light, from the Lord's dream sprung, now All, as His

Undying Word the void unending fills.

Then look! Look! What miracles occur!

Here we have a black man judged upon --

Exactly as I dreamed -- his character,

Regardless of his skin! And he has won!

Know, then, that the dream for which I fought

In time became the ground for what I sought.

New realities require dreams

Given to us not as ends but means.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe5.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on what he was unable to accomplish.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe more than love was needed.

All my love was not enough.

Reason is but rarely heeded.

Talk means little at the trough.

Icons look good on the wall.

Nothing changes but the names.

Love is merely protocol.

Undiluted fear remains.

The life is fast, the changes slow.

Hope must be its own reward.

Eventually, the undertow

Returns, returns towards times untoward.

Kings build castles in the sand.

Infinity awaits the tide.

None can settle on the strand.

Grace must live with fratricide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybem.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

Maybe It's a Little Strange that I

January 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which is celebrated today, January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., wonders why his birthday is still celebrated and not Washington’s or Lincoln’s.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe it's a little strange that I

Am now the only one whose day of birth

Remains a holiday. I don't know why

That honor should be mine alone. My worth

Is certainly no more than Washington's,

Nor do I more than Lincoln days deserve.

Let me then suggest a change: Once

Unmoored from my name, let the holiday serve

To honor not the person but the cause,

Healing racial wounds, pursuing justice,

Examining the morals of our mores,

Revisiting the pain of prejudice.

Kings require homage; this king would

Instead be an occasion for remembrance:

Not of me, but of all who fought for good,

Giving “Freedom Day” its proper sense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe9.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I