Poem of the Week

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 10: Bobbie Jo Can’t Be with Us

March 11: Birthdays Do Not End with Death

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Bobbie Jo Can't Be with Us

March 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem for a deceased friend on her birthday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Bobbie Jo can't be with us

On this, her special day,

Because, although she fought like hell,

Bobbie could not stay.

If love can reach across the void,

Each of us will let her know

Just how much we treasure still

Our time with Bobbie Jo.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 10: Bobbie Jo Can’t Be with Us

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

March 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is from a mother to her children, all of whom died in a fire.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Where did you go, my lovely ones?

Where did you go, my babies?

Where did you come from, where did you go,

My gentlemen and ladies?

Where are you now, my lovely ones?

Where are you now, my babies?

I sing to you, but do you hear,

My gentlemen and ladies?

Where can I turn, my lovely ones?

Where can I turn, my babies?

I cannot live, I cannot die,

My gentlemen and ladies.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

March 9: Where Did You Go, My Lovely Ones

Our Grandson Tyler Was Just Over Seven

March 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the dead coming back to visit the living.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Our grandson Tyler was just over seven

When he died while eating supper in our home.

Two weeks earlier he'd talked of heaven,

And of how after death we're not alone.

His best friend said a prayer when he was buried,

And just as if he'd answered from the dead,

We heard the drone of planes high up, unhurried,

And saw the "missing man" fly overhead.

He left behind his mom and little brother,

Pappy, Emma, Uncle Bubba, too;

And ten months old, his baby cousin Jordan,

Who now does all the things he used to do.

We see him in her smile, her hands, her shoulders;

He quiets her and makes her more serene.

He comes to her at night, and to his brother,

And tells them of the wonders he has seen.

He tells them of a paradise of angels

Filled like a billion suns with love and glory,

And of the many souls arranged on stages

Waiting for the end of history;

And of the recent dead, who can return

To tell their loved ones what death has in store,

Who hang around that little ones might learn

The secrets of "life" on the other shore.

Is all this true? And are the dead still living?

Can our love persuade their souls to stay?

I only know that Tyler is still with us,

Though long since his flesh has passed away.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

I Think of You as Watching from

March 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the emotional need to believe in an afterlife.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I think of you as watching from

A time and space beyond the sky,

A place where we might someday come,

Alexis and I, and we three some

Sweet moments share. Though it's a lie,

I think of you as watching from

This place, and know you're gone, but numb

With grief, I cannot let you die.

There is no place where we can come

Together once again. It's dumb

To think so. Yet when I cry,

I think of you as watching from

A happiness I cannot plumb,

More real than real, more want than why,

A place where we might someday come,

Alexis and I. No heart can sum

The measurements that yield goodbye.

And so I keep you watching from

A place where we might someday come.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Monday, March 5, 2018

Death Is Nothing but a Moment's Rest

March 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about death as a waiting period for Christ’s Second Coming.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death is nothing but a moment's rest

Until the Second Coming of the Lord

When He shall gather to Him of the best

To take them to the place of their reward.

I've felt the power of Jesus in my soul

Shining like a golden sun within,

Melting my hard heart to make me whole,

Burning out the remnants of my sin.

I've felt Him work within me, so I know

The glory that will come when I awake.

I'll sleep just like a child who'll homeward go,

And in my dreams of love great pleasure take.

So do not mourn my death, and do not grieve.

The Lord will come for me: This I believe.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Death Is like a Car

March 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is one in which a dying woman compares death to a variety of earthly experiences.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death is like a car

That disappears around a curve,

Or like an ancient custom

That we've failed to preserve.

The car continues going

Even though we cannot see,

And the custom just remains

Outside of memory.

Death is a relation

To a certain time and place;

To Eternity it's nothing

In a line of endless grace.

I've loved you all so much

That I've known Eternity,

Vast and never ending

Deep within the thing that's me.

Time is like a river

And love a clear, still lake

That holds the sky within it,

Crystalline and yet opaque.

And I have had that gift

In an abundance that is rare,

With you and with my husband

Who's both gone and everywhere.

I feel the awesome beauty

Of the end of earthly breath.

I've had a rich, full life

And now a peaceful, shining death.

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

This week’s theme: Life After Death

March 5: Death Is like a Car

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Poetry and Explanation

March 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs about the inadvisability of explaining what a poem means.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

POETRY AND EXPLANATION

1. Since poetry is a partnership between poet and reader, what the poet meant is not what the poem means.

2. The image always means more than the explanation, making any explanation by the poet reductive.

3. Explanations by those other than the poet, however, may be enriching because they are not authoritative.

4. What, then, is a reader to do when faced with an intriguing passage that seems obscure? First, search her own mind and heart; second, search the minds and hearts of others through reading and conversation; third, treat the explanation of any poet foolish enough to make one with the same attention given to that of any informed reader; fourth, always be aware that the fault may be with the poet and not with the reader.

5. What, then, is a poet to do, having written a passage that many readers find obscure? First, consider whether the passage is unnecessarily obscure, and, if so, revise it; second, if the passage is richly obscure, have faith in your readers; third, if neither of the first two suggestions works, consider another vocation.

6. The only thing a poet should even consider explaining is what he never should have written in the first place.

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

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

March 1: Fifty-Four3

March 2: To Be Consumed by Something More than Beauty

March 3: Thirty-Eight6

March 4: Poetry and Explanation

Friday, March 2, 2018

Thirty-Eight6

March 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about an artist who suddenly realizes that he needs to make a living.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-eight must now make hay from beauty,

Having lost his love for lack of cents.

In professing a profession that pays well,

Rejuvenating what he has to sell,

The artist weighs ideals against expense,

Yearning for his bit of labor's booty.

Even as he redefines his duty

Intent on an intention less intense,

Grappling with his heart, he cannot tell

How much his art was an excuse to fail,

There being need no longer for pretense.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/38f.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

March 1: Fifty-Four3

March 2: To Be Consumed by Something More than Beauty

March 3: Thirty-Eight6

To Be Consumed by Something More than Beauty

March 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about the experience of artistic creation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To be consumed by something more than beauty,

Holding in one's hand the sense of all,

Innocent of self, of interest pure,

Reaching for a grace that will endure,

The fragments of a light beyond the wall

Yielding truth with neither rage nor pity;

Seized by inner craftsmen, skilled and sure,

In reverent abandon, ruthless awe,

X-ing out the fruits of one's own fancy . . .

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

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

March 1: Fifty-Four3

March 2: To Be Consumed by Something More than Beauty

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Fifty-Four3

March 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem about how a person might make her life a work of art.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-four redecorates her day

In passionate pursuit of near perfection.

For her each detail elevates the whole,

The vivid essence culled from the collection,

Yielding grace no fragment can convey.

Facing entropy, she has her way,

Overcoming dullness through selection,

Undoing the conventions of her role,

Revealing unseen radiance through rejection.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/54c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

March 1: Fifty-Four3

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Forty-Five6

February 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for a composer whose musical phrases are begging him to use them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-five is full of unheard music,

Organist in the chapel of his soul,

Reverent beneath a reverberant dome

That like stone lace lets in the noontide light.

Yearning for the organist to use them,

Fleeting phrases hope that he will choose them,

Integrating them into a whole

Vast enough to compass day and night,

Eternal in its well-wrought womb of stone.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/45f.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

February 28: Forty-Five6

Fifty-Five3

February 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for an artist whose expertise can become a limitation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-five is grounded in her game,

Intuitively expert in her aim.

For years of focused, patient practice yield

The instinct that will one's technique sustain.

Yet expertise will suffocate if sealed.

For her, the truth is ever to be revealed.

In become, one must let go became.

Verities must never be too tame,

Enduring only in an unfenced field.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/55c.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 27: Fifty-Five3

Monday, February 26, 2018

There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

February 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about the artist’s motivation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no better painting than a sunrise,

Nor colors more majestic than its glow,

Nor canvas so immense that it might outsize

The spectacle that every day we know.

There is no love as moving as our own love,

Nor character as complex as our own,

Nor ecstasy as sweet as we have known of

Since puberty, though chaste till we were grown.

Why should we turn from windows to a wall

On which there hangs a mere interpretation,

When just outside the colors of the fall

Surpass the most inspired imagination?

Like God writ small, the artist would say, “Light!”

And eternity comes forth from night.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther42.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Artist

February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise

Sunday, February 25, 2018

To a Friend on His Election to an Inner-City Board of Education

February 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political congratulations poem for someone just elected to an inner-city board of education.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Congratulations on your victory

Over those who'd labor in your stead.

Now that you have won, the road ahead

Gives pause: for what good soul-elect can be

Respondent to such need? Or happily

Attendant on such pain? It's often said

That power corrupts, but your audacious tread

Unheard might leave its footprints on the sea.

Little can one do, yet much is asked

As life responds to policy unfazed,

Taking, just perhaps, a hopeful turn.

Intending good, one is widely tasked,

Open to rebuke, and rarely praised,

Needing faith to change, as one must learn,

Scenes on which all helpless long have gazed.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 23: Sixty-Seven

February 24: Thank God for Pendulums

February 25: To a Friend on His Election to an Inner-City Board of Education

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Thank God for Pendulums

February 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is about the constant sweep of the political and social pendulum from right to left.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank God for pendulums!

Compassion will swing back

Like a corpse on a noose,

And we'll grab it by the knees,

Revive it mouth to mouth.

Faith in people will come back,

And social dreams,

Self-sacrifice and sharing,

While the market crumbles,

Caught in contradictions,

And discos of running dogs and lackeys

Boogie down into the dustbin of history!

Yes, pendulums! Marriage

Till death will come back,

And loving children,

And life once again a fire,

And we its worshippers,

While those who struggle to "succeed"

Cut each other's throats.

Thank God even

That it will swing away again,

Out far out to the dark side

Beyond our most powerful scopes,

Where people crouch like madmen in dark caves,

Chanting slogans we fail to understand.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 23: Sixty-Seven

February 24: Thank God for Pendulums

Friday, February 23, 2018

Sixty-Seven

February 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem for someone who holds on to his political dreams.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sixty-seven is a man of dreams,

Invested purely in what ought to be,

X-ing out the barriers to will

That make it hard to see what one would see.

Yet years need not accomplish much, it seems.

So does his passion sing like dammed-up streams

Enveloping the islands that agree,

Vast armies of the afternoon, who still

Expect their words to keep their honor free,

Needing to sustain what hope redeems.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/67.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

February 23: Sixty-Seven

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Need Is Not the Mother of Invention

February 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem about the true mother of invention.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Need is not the mother of invention;

Instead, we trace that energy to greed.

Nor does technology the children feed,

Even as it feeds on that pretension.

The bird is dying as the brigands carve,

Extracting meat from macerated bones.

Eden ought not be dug up for stones,

Nor the millions prosper as the billions starve.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/needi2.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Fifty-Nine2

February 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which this year was celebrated on February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political number poem for someone who exposes an unjust status quo.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-nine takes pleasure in exposing

Instruments of everyday oppression,

Fantasies of normalcy sustaining

The brutal oligarchy of possession.

Yet what she does is more than mere expression.

Nor does she care what fat she might be frying

In bold pursuit of media attention,

Nemesis of all who show discretion

Even as they see so many dying.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/59b.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 21: Fifty-Nine2

The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which was celebrated yesterday, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the relationship between the market and the heart.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The market is a merciless beast,

Bloodstained in tooth and claw,

A superbly crafted predator

Honed well by nature’s law.

Tame it and you’ll get a dog—

Friendly, useful, smart,

Overbred imperfectly,

The flawed result of art.

Which do you choose? The perfect beast

To maximize return?

To set unbiased by the heart

What people pay and earn?

Or the dog, who would prefer

To find some way to please,

And with a trick or two, the pain

Of life’s worst hardships ease?

Oh, yes, the market undisturbed

Works most efficiently.

But do you choose the wilderness

And nature’s cruelty?

Or do you choose the park, where nature,

Guided by the will,

As tame as we, is modified

To spare the weak and ill?

Which is your reflection?

The wild or the tame?

Your answer is a mirror,

Its heart and yours the same.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

Monday, February 19, 2018

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day

February 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which is celebrated today, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is about the proper spelling of Presidents Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?

Regarding spelling, what's the difference?

Even apostrophes must have their say,

Subtly shading each rendition's sense.

In the first, Washington alone

Deserves the day, the only president

Every state has honored on its own.

Nor does the change of date change what is meant.

The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,

Should share the honor, combining holidays

'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,

Depending on which state such honor pays.

All presidents, too, the second could convey,

Yet the third one must be read that way.

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

February 18, 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 slow and painful journey into love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before love, that jolting lilt

East of roses, in perturbed darkness,

Missing the eternal circumstance,

Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt.

Vainly would I fly into your heart

Afire, burning, consumed, expended.

Love is not an ending; nor does it end

Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts

Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,

The long climb out of loneliness, turning

In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.

No two are joined except in painful learning:

Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 18: Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 17, 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 to a lover who has been long dreamed of.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,

Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.

My inner picture was a portrait of you

Years before your heart my heart would move.

Vistas of enchantment are but rarely

As we find them in reality.

Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,

Eden as no dream could ever be.

Nor is this the magic of the moment,

The proper costume for the holiday.

In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,

Not merely of desire, but of fulfillment,

Else lost amid the chaff along the way.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

Friday, February 16, 2018

Before I Ask Y'All, Please Understand

February 16, 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 Southern style.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I ask y'all, please understand,

Even though I come from way down South,

My heart is more loquacious than my mouth,

Yearning like a wave for your smooth sand.

Very few down here will show their hand,

Aching like a riverbed for rain,

Lying like a platitude in pain,

Each chili inside, outside baked beans bland.

Now here down South it ain't right to demand

The things you're dying for, but you real fine,

In a voice like preachers set to dine,

Nicely say, "Mind if I trouble you, Ma'am," -

Easy like - "to be my Valentine?"

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 15, 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 we tend to take our blessings for granted.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Blessings are the things we take for granted.

Each holiday's a light that helps us see.

Most know the Earth is utterly enchanted

Yet walk through life and love mechanically.

Valentine’s Day is love’s well-timed ablution,

A ritual bath in sweet reality.

Love brings us the gift of absolution,

Enveloping our guilt in innocence.

No touch inspires so swift a revolution,

Translating lust-filled longings into sense.

In your love's a blessing I will sing,

Needing just your joy for recompense,

Embracing words that make the heart take wing.

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 14, 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 today, February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about transcending the loneliness of life through love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine: What does that mean?

Each of us might walk through life alone,

More lonely than a long-forgotten poem,

Yearning for a face we’ve never seen.

Valentines awake us from that dream,

Are like a sunrise on a world of stone,

Letting us be more than on our own,

Embracing us with love, that life redeems.

No way but through loving might we give

The freedom of our being to another.

In such a mutual sacrifice we live

Needing, trusting those we’re trusted with,

Even as we bind our lives together.

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I