Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

September 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A set of proverbs about the evil of ideological idealism:

PROVERBS ON IDEOLOGICAL IDEALISM

1.         Ideological idealism is an idealism that is so sure it is right that it is willing to impose its vision on an unwilling world.

2.         Ideals ought to be mountains to guide one’s chosen way, not blueprints for a prison to keep people behind bars for their own good.

3.         Non-ideological idealists devote their lives first to people and then perhaps to an organization or cause. Ideological idealists devote their lives first to an organization or cause and then perhaps to people.

4.         Cynicism, lust, and greed tend to cause less evil than ideological idealism since their evil is committed in pursuit of some limited selfish end, whereas the evil of ideological idealism is committed in pursuit of unachievable ends and therefore knows no bounds.

5.         One ought not be frightened away from idealism by the dangers of ideological idealism since once the differences between them become apparent, it should not be difficult to devote oneself to one and avoid the other.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/provid.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

9/20: Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

September 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about an inability to recognize how deeply one is implicated in the evil of one’s world:

Year after year, you promise to atone.

Often, yes, you actually mean it.

Maybe you remember life's on loan,

Knowing you're expected to redeem it.

Into prayers you pour your willing heart,

Perhaps at times unsure of what you've done,

Perhaps at times unsure of where to start,

Uncovering what look like sins, though none

Requires much atonement on your part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yearaf.html. For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

September 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A secular view for Yom Kippur of why one should be good rather than evil:

You wrap your mind around the consequence

Of sin not having any consequence.

Murderers, torturers, pimps, thieves in the end

Know they’ll share with saviors the same end.

If this is true, what reason to do good?

Perhaps there is an inner music good

People hear that evil people miss,

Universal love no soul should miss,

Radiance no one-time soul should miss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/youwra.html. For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

September 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A philosophical poem about how cynicism comes from a lack of balance in one’s vision of good and evil:

Cynicism comes from self-disgust,

Yearning for a world one has surrendered.

No vision is complete but in repose,

Implicit in the steady gaze within.

Come, then, to know that good and evil must

In everyone with due respect be rendered,

So delicate their dance, as much in those

Not cynical as in those steeped in sin.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/cynici.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

Swinging Low in Chariots

September 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A poem about the demise of faith in modern times:

Swinging low in chariots

Each band of angels holds its fire,

Thinking we poor fools below

Have all the pain that we require.

And the mountains in reply

Nod their drifty, rock-wreathed heads,

Drawing back bold deities,

Leaving us in anguished beds.

O, Mary, neither weep nor mourn

Remembering the fuel-less flame,

Remembering the love of God,

A thing we called "Ha-Shem," the Name.

In everyone there is a Name;

No ecstasies beyond our heads:

Each alone must tend the fire.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chario.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

9/12: Agostino

9/13: Faith

9/14: Jordyn

9/15: Zechariah

9/16: Swinging Low in Chariots

Zechariah

September 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A name poem for a prophet of reason:

Zechariah is consumed by longing

Even as he cherishes his state.

Choosing reason rather than belonging,

He feels the pathos of his complex fate.

A modern prophet must be only human,

Relinquishing the myths of god and tribe.

In visions passionate, he must illumine

A glory that needs neither faith nor bribe,

Having a domain he can describe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/zechar.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

9/12: Agostino

9/13: Faith

9/14: Jordyn

9/15: Zechariah

Jordyn

September 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A name poem for someone who describes the indescribable:

Jordyn speaks in parables,

Opening a veil,

Rendering beatitude

Dressed up as a tale,

Yielding what one cannot see

Now radiant, but in braille.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/jordyn.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

9/12: Agostino

9/13: Faith

9/14: Jordyn

Faith

September 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A name poem for a woman named Faith who has no faith:

Faith finds within her heart a windy sea,

A restless place untenanted by peace,

In which there's neither passion nor release,

The changeless void whose changes never cease,

Having wrought this unwilled will to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/faith.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

9/12: Agostino

9/13: Faith

Agostino

September 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A name poem for a Christian man who lives by his faith.

Agostino has been touched by grace,

Giving him the gifts of faith and love.

Of him it can be said he lives in joy,

Singing thanks and praise beneath each breath.

To see him is to be in his embrace.

In him there is a love no loss can move,

Nor passion still, nor evidence destroy,

Only peace along the edge of death.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/agosti.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

9/12: Agostino

Aisha

September 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A name poem for a Muslim woman who lives by her faith:

Aisha is a model Muslim woman:

Intelligent, loving, faithful, modest, kind;

Serving selflessly the words of Islam,

Having held them long in heart and mind;

A soul that seeks, yet knows what it will find.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/aisha.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

9/11: Aisha

O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

September 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of both the Jewish and Islamic New Years.

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

A prayer for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year:

O Lord, our hope and our redeemer,

Shine Your countenance upon us.

Make us this year worthy of Your love.

Empty us upon the thirsty sand

So that You may fill us

With Your goodness and Your grace.

Strengthen our will to do right,

And make us loving and kind.

Make us the friend of the sparrow

And the refuge of the hawk.

Grant us the gift of knowing

That You are our song and our light.

Help us to sing Your sweet music

And nurture our spark of Your glory.

O Lord, our hope and our redeemer,

Help us to serve You with every breath.

Make us the blade of Your healing scalpel.

Make us the balm You apply to each wound.

Make us a blessing to all we encounter.

And then, O Lord, only then

Grant us one more year of joy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/olordo.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Faith

9/10: O Lord, Our Hope and Our Redeemer

Long May You Labor at Something You Love

September 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about loving what you do:

Long may you labor at something you love,

Awakening daily to passion and pleasure,

Blessed to find joy both in work and in leisure,

Obliged to move mountains you most want to move.

Remember that work is defined by the heart,

Delightful or not as the laborer chooses.

All life is a game that one wins or one loses,

Yielding what one would with will and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/longma.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

9/5: Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

9/6: Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

9/7: Let the Market Set the Price of Labor

9/8: Let There Be a Right to Earn a Living

9/9: Long May You Labor at Something You Love

Let There Be a Right to Earn a Living

September 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about the benefits of guaranteed work over welfare:

Let there be a right to earn a living!

All who wish to work should have the chance.

Bad times come and go with circumstance:

Ought we then be hiring or just giving?

Rest assured, there's always much to do:

Demand's determined more by funds than need.

All we give away is wealth we bleed,

Yet work for wages would that wealth renew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/letth2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

9/5: Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

9/6: Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

9/7: Let the Market Set the Price of Labor

9/8: Let There Be a Right to Earn a Living

Let the Market Set the Price of Labor

September 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about the political impossibility of a market price for labor:

Let the market set the price of labor!

And who would want to vote for such a life?

Because we live in a democracy,

Our policies are shaped by peaceful strife,

Rewarding those who fight for what they favor.

Despite the logic, what fool would agree,

Alerted to his interest, to turn over,

Yielding neck to economic knife?

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/letthe.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

9/5: Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

9/6: Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

9/7: Let the Market Set the Price of Labor

Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

September 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem advocating for a living wage:

Let every worker earn a living wage,

And every family have enough to eat.

Better bellies full of bread than rage.

One finds no better peacemaker than wheat.

Really? Can we get around inflation?

Demand increases; what about supply?

Affluence reduces population.

Yet some prefer to see poor people die.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/leteve.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

9/5: Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

9/6: Let Every Worker Earn a Living Wage

Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

September 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about the burden and the blessing of labor:

Labor is the burden of our being,

A weight that weds us firmly to the earth,

Blessed servitude that serves a common meaning

On which each may erect a sense of worth.

Remember, then, the beauty of a calling

Demanding both integrity and skill:

A dancer in the drifts of early morning,

Yet traveling towards sunset through sheer will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labord.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

9/5: Labor Is the Burden of Our Being

Labor Is Identity

September 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated yesterday, September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about the need to choose an ethical career:

Labor is identity

As one is what one does.

Beware the work that will not sculpt

One into what one would.

Remember well the bunko bees,

Defined by work that is

Awash in ugliness and guilt,

Yielding little good.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labor3.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

9/4: Labor Is Identity

Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

September 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is labor in honor of Labor Day, which is celebrated today, September 3^rd.

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

A Labor Day poem about the dual necessity of labor:

Labor is a blessing and a curse,

As one must work to live and live to work.

Better jobs to get up for or worse,

On the whole, with none you'd go berserk.

Remember, then, that dignity requires

Doing, working, laboring -- a role

As giver, as attendant to desires

You recognize within some common soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labori.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor

9/3: Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

No More Favors, Please

September 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about a nineteen year old tired of favors loaded with expectations:

No more favors, please!

I'm already choked with people,

Nice people, sweetly moved,

Expecting themselves in the mirror.

Time to look at your watches,

Ease yourselves into lounges,

Enjoy the quiet of taking,

No more intrusive than trees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/favors.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

8/29: Fie on These Earthlings

8/30: Sixteen

8/31: Seventeen

9/1: Eighteen

9/2: No More Favors, Please

Eighteen

September 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about eighteen being the borderline between child and adult:

Eighteen is a windswept borderline:

In a moment, gates forever closed.

Gulf of dreams behind the vanished child,

Halfway round the corner of her smile.

The change flaps in the breeze, but in a while

Each motion turns to dance, each gesture wild

Eventually is placed, positioned, posed:

No leaping for sheer joy but by design.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/18.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

8/29: Fie on These Earthlings

8/30: Sixteen

8/31: Seventeen

9/1: Eighteen

Seventeen

August 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the white-hot molten selves of seventeen year olds:

Seventeen pounds heavy in the bass

Exactly ten feet from the danger sign.

Vandals had less chaos-lust than these

Ecstatic children of our mores and malls.

Now they tumble, burning, molten steel

To their molds like white-hot waterfalls,

Empty, plunging hearts too sheer to freeze

Each time the lights go on, the worlds align,

No wall of sound across one's ravaged face.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/17.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

8/29: Fie on These Earthlings

8/30: Sixteen

8/31: Seventeen

Sixteen

August 30, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A nostalgic number poem about a sixteen year old from her parent’s point of view:

Sixteen is intent on being lovely,

Immersed in the sweet rivers of her day,

X-ing out the chubby childhood ways

That I must cherish now in memory only.

Even as time steals the time away,

Each moment is a gift I treasure dearly,

Nor would I for my love the time delay.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/16.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

8/29: Fie on These Earthlings

8/30: Sixteen

Fie on These Earthlings

August 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a fifteen year old who looks down on adults:

Fie on these earthlings, who think equal

Is the same! Illogical. I'm

Fifteen, will never be their dreams,

Though they paint me into nightmares.

Eat a whole stackpack and die! Even

E.T. would think twice about home!

No! I'm equal--but not at all the same!

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fie.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

8/29: Fie on These Earthlings

Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

August 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem with advice for a fourteen year old.

Fashion for yourself a perfect mirror

On which to gaze when you are quite alone.

Undertake to view yourself completely,

Resisting being more than passive eyes.

There is serenity in merely seeing,

Even when the object is your own,

Even when you notice pride or loathing,

Not avoiding anything but lies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fashio.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

8/28: Fashion for Yourself a Perfect Mirror

Thirteen

August 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about the bubbly joys of being thirteen:

Thirteen is a very lucky age!

Happiness comes tumbling out the door

Instantly a-giggle with a friend,

Returning with the bounce of empty bliss.

There's no better ecstasy than this,

Even when the strange teen changes end,

Even when one finally knows the score.

No time of life's more bubbly than this stage.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/13.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Teenagers

8/27: Thirteen

Mostly, I Would Like to Be Remembered

August 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

An epitaph for a wife and mother who sacrificed much but savored so much more:

Mostly, I would like to be remembered

As someone who was passionate for life.

The days of unsought ecstasies are numbered,

However long we linger in the light.

I was one who cultivated wonder,

Less of one contented to explain,

Delighted by the promises of hunger,

Enduring for their joy the years of pain.

Gifts I had aplenty: Some I savored,

Others sacrificed for others' needs.

Remember me as someone who was favored,

Despite constraints, to tumble in the reeds,

Ocean to what winds I could not be,

Nightrider through what worlds I could not see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mostly.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

8/24: Amanda

8/25: Enduring Passions Are What Change the World

8/26: Mostly, I Would Like to Be Remembered

Enduring Passions Are What Change the World

August 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A poem for those who devote their lives to creating an institute:

Enduring passions are what change the world,

Undertaking what might last one’s life,

Grasping what at first in darkness furled

Emerges year by year into the light.

No gratitude can match such deep devotion,

Encompass all the good that it has done,

Grant such sacrifice its due emotion,

Reward a selflessness that asks for none.

Even so, we do what we can do,

Enabling this passion, if we can,

Not just by funding institutes, but through

Building what sustains what it began.

Each institute embodies an idea

Rooted in a passionate career,

Granting that the good outlasts the man.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

8/24: Amanda

8/25: Enduring Passions Are What Change theWorld

Amanda

August 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem for someone who sacrifices herself for love:

Amanda is a keeper of the flame,

Mistress of the house and of the ring;

A passionate giver, who knows well the shame

Needing someone silently can bring.

Don't pity her for her self-sacrifice:

Amanda knows her joys and pays the price.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/amanda.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

8/24: Amanda

Darrin2

August 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem about drug addicts who are resolved sacrifice their habit for the sake of their child:

Darrin is a ship of dreams

Afloat upon a wind

Reserved for those whom love redeems,

Resolved to turn again

In grim and patient sacrifice,

Not for themselves, but him.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/darri2.html. For more poems about alcoholism and drug addiction, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alcoholismaddictionpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

Selfishness and Selflessness

August 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A set of proverbs about selfish and unselfish sacrifice:

SELFISHNESS AND SELFLESSNESS

1. The last vestige of egotism is the desire for self-sacrifice.

2. The reward for self-sacrifice is self-adulation.

3. The desire to "make a difference" is a desire for personal significance, the cause of much evil, error, and pain.

4. True selflessness requires one to relinquish the desire for power.

5. The motivations for action ought always to be joy and love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selfis.html. For more proverbs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/proverbs.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

August 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A poem for Eid al-Adha about sacrifice as a gift:

Even as you sacrifice yourself,

In love with love and gratified to give,

Dancing 'cross the ancient inner gulf

Athwart the plain on which each soul must live,

Long-borne burdens lighten into prayer,

Acts of worship meant as acts of care,

Done freely out of gratitude and grace,

Hard - yes, hard - and far more than your share,

And still a gift no pleasure can replace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/evena3.html. For more poems about Eid al-Adha, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

Eric

August 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem for someone who sacrificed his life to save another:

Eric gave his life to save another,

Refusing to reduce it to his breath.

In his time of truth he faced his shudder,

Choosing life by going to his death.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eric.html. For more poems about ethics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

Sweet Sixteens Are Harbingers of Grace

August 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A birthday poem that serves as an invitation to a sweet sixteen party:

Sweet Sixteens are harbingers of grace,

Intimations of a childhood's end,

Xxx's on the envelope of time.

This invitation I to you extend,

Easy in the rush of time and place,

Expecting in the moment's silver chime

No more than just a glimpse of life to come.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/swee16.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Birthdays

8/13: Seven Years! That’s Not So Long

8/14: Aileen

8/15: Happy Birthday to My Cyber Friend

8/16: You See the Beauty of Your Years

8/17: Darcy Is Five

8/18: Quince Is the Sunrise of a Woman

8/19: Sweet Sixteens Are Harbingers of Grace

Quince Is the Sunrise of a Woman

August 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A fifteenth birthday poem (in Hispanic culture similar to the sixteenth birthday in the U.S.):

Quince is the sunrise of a woman

Underneath a starry sky of love.

In her again life's gift of youthful grace

New dawns across the ancient family face,

Charming in a way the years will prove,

Eager to translucent skies illumine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/quinc2.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Birthdays

8/13: Seven Years! That’s Not So Long

8/14: Aileen

8/15: Happy Birthday to My Cyber Friend

8/16: You See the Beauty of Your Years

8/17: Darcy Is Five

8/18: Quince Is the Sunrise of a Woman