Each Day Your Smile Becomes My Morning Star

February 11, 2019

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.

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

A Valentine’s Day poem to a teacher:

Each day your smile becomes my morning star.

I look at you and then my feelings shine.

From you I learn far more than words or numbers:

You're the book that someday will be mine.

You're the one whose love my love of learning

Will one day trace in its ancestral line.

For all the ways you help me grow towards beauty,

I ask you please to be my Valentine.

© 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/eachda.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

2/11: Each Day Your Smile Becomes My Morning Star

Treat Yourself Each Day to Love and Kindness

February 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which began on February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Sheep, from the Sheep’s point of view:

Treat yourself each day to love and kindness.

Heaven is a place within the heart.

Each ritual of faith may well seem mindless,

Yet one is only whole when one is part.

Even though I may seem timid, shy,

A worrier for all who might feel pain,

Remember well the well-wrought reason why:

One gives with love what will one's love sustain.

Faith is one's connection to the whole,

The story that makes sense of the event.

How might the self seem separate from the soul

Except through love perceived as permanent?

So must we be filled with love that we

Have just a glimpse of what it means to be,

Embracing freely what we cannot know,

Each suffering what all must undergo,

Patient in the hands of mystery.

© 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/treaty.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’s Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

2/6: There Is No Knowledge – Only Good Opinion

2/7: There May Be Some Who’ve Wondered Why the Rat

2/8: There’s No Secret to Nobility

2/9: They Also Serve Themselves Who Lie in Wait

2/10: Treat Yourself Each Day to Love and Kindness

They Also Serve Themselves Who Lie in Wait

February 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which began on February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Snake, from the Snake’s point of view:

They also serve themselves who lie in wait,

However much they may be moved to strike.

Empty-headed fools do as they like,

Yielding the ill fortune they call fate.

Eventually, things fall into place

As patience reaps its ultimate reward.

Remember that the wise are rarely bored

Or restless as the game goes on apace.

For those who play it well, with subtlety,

Taking nothing as it might appear,

Having much desire and little fear,

Each moment is suspended ecstasy.

Success is sweetest when it is well earned,

Not snatched from some unmeditated wind.

All one loves may well be left behind,

Kindred of the heart or blood, not kind,

Each a lesson from which one has learned.

© 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/theyal.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’sNothing Really Wrong with Being Last

2/6: There Is NoKnowledge – Only Good Opinion

2/7: There May BeSome Who’ve Wondered Why the Rat

2/8: There’s NoSecret to Nobility

2/9: They Also Serve Themselves Who Lie in Wait

There's No Secret to Nobility

February 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which began on February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Horse, from the Horse’s point of view:

There's no secret to nobility.

Having seen it, one knows what it is:

Easy elegance, restrained but free,

Yielding grace that's more than hers or his;

Enduring loyalty to one's liege lord,

As much for love as for a sense of right;

Reverence that looks for no reward,

Out of some sweet source of inner light;

Friendship that pursues its proper end,

That needs a whole of which one can be part;

Humility, on which pride can depend,

Ever the safe refuge of the heart.

Human animals are far less able,

On the whole, to give themselves to love,

Reason being far less sure and stable,

Sensing what is real at one remove.

Even so, some few might noble prove.

© 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/ther33.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’s Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

2/6: There Is No Knowledge – Only Good Opinion

2/7: There May Be Some Who’ve Wondered Why the Rat

2/8: There’s No Secret to Nobility

There May Be Some Who've Wondered Why the Rat

February 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which began on February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Rat, from the Rat’s point of view:

There may be some who've wondered why the rat

Happens to be first to have a year

Exclusively devoted to his name.

Yet clever, crafty creatures never fear:

Eventually they'll win -- that's where they're at!

And this is how it came about: The rat,

Racing for the prize, fell towards the rear.

Out of breath, he thought he'd lost the game.

Fast rampaging Bull was drawing near;

The problem was: How to reach his back?

Here came by the lost, high-leaping cat.

Eureka! Up they went, the two friends dear,

Riding on the bull's back towards fame.

At the last, Rat pushes Pussy clear,

Then leaps ahead of Bull -- and that was that!

© 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/therem.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’s Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

2/6: There Is No Knowledge – Only Good Opinion

2/7: There May Be Some Who’ve Wondered Why the Rat

There Is No Knowledge -- Only Good Opinion

February 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which began on February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Dragon, from the Dragon’s point of view:

There is no knowledge – only good opinion.

Happiness is not afraid of pain.

Each truth is limited to its dominion.

Years sweep away one's walls again, again.

Everyone knows better in their hearts,

Although their hearts know better than to know.

Reason is a razor's edge that parts

Objects from the fullness of their flow.

Fortune is a poor excuse for failure.

The only help one needs is what one gives.

Hard work and happiness extend one's tenure,

Ever more alive the more one lives.

Death is a prerequisite of time,

Revealing far more than it ever hides.

All is limitless, yet etched in lines,

Graven images of what abides.

One dragon, yes, can harmonize a song,

Needing only dreams to sing along.

© 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/ther31.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’s Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

2/6: There Is No Knowledge – Only Good Opinion

There's Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

February 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which begins today, February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for this Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Pig, from the Pig’s point of view, explaining why the pig is content to be the last of the zodiac signs to have a year devoted to him:

There’s nothing really wrong with being last.

How much one loses in pursuit of first!

Each sacred soul is neither slow nor fast.

Years yield equal good to best and worst.

Each moment is too dear a sacrifice,

Alight upon the pyre of ambition,

Reduced to ashes, burned-out paradise,

Offered up to some preferred perdition.

For what could be more holy than a meal

That gives two gifts in one – both health and pleasure?

How much more satisfying, much more real

Each bite than any status one might treasure!

Pursuing some mechanical lure, the pack,

Immersed in pride, think only what they lack,

Given grace and beauty beyond measure.

© 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/ther44.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

2/5: There’s Nothing Really Wrong with Being Last

The Point Is Just that I Don't See the Point

February 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which begins tomorrow, February 5, and this year is the Year of the Pig.

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

A poem for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year of the Ox, from the Ox’s point of view:

The point is just that I don't see the point:

However much one wants to be turned on,

Ecstasy can put things out of joint;

Yearning is for what will soon be gone.

Each can choose content or discontent;

All are happy, if they would be so.

Revelation isn't Heaven sent;

Out of what you are comes what you know.

Forget, then, the pursuit of the sublime.

There is no thing that's needed -- all is here.

Happiness will settle in, in time,

Enduring, though the weather may turn drear.

One must plod to plow, and plow to plant.

X marks the heart, where lies all one could want.

© 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/thepoi.html. For more poems for the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

2/4: The Point Is Just that I Don’t See the Point

Christopher

February 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Christopher, who seeks the source of peace:

Christopher's a quiet, sheltered pool

Hidden well within a garden wall.

Remembrances of fragmentary bliss

Inspire him to seek the source of peace.

Silently he meditates, while leading

The exemplary suburban life, receding

Oddly into happiness. His lease

Passes like a slow, distracted kiss.

He discovers nothing. He finds no source at all.

Each day is ground and polished like a jewel.

Regarding life, Christopher's no fool.

© 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/chris.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

1/30: Nathan

1/31: Jayaur

2/1: Ethan2

2/2: Seymour

2/3: Christopher

Seymour

February 2, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Seymour, who is devoted to seeking justice:

Seymour sees more than most can imagine.

Empathy rules his oft-hearkening heart.

Yearning for justice can open one's eyes

More often to pain than to panderer's lies.

Oceans are willing but rarely to part.

Undismayed, Seymour knows what of truth a pure passion

Running like fire through rock can impart.

© 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/seymou.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

1/30: Nathan

1/31: Jayaur

2/1: Ethan2

2/2: Seymour

Ethan2

February 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Ethan, for whom the speaker has an unrequited love:

Ethan is the sun that lights my moon.

There is only darkness till he shines.

Hope must wait till time our love aligns

And I reflect his heart into the gloom,

Night's sun sailing through its silver noon.

© 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/ethan2.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

1/30: Nathan

1/31: Jayaur

2/1: Ethan2

Jayaur

January 31, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Jayaur, who has performed one heroic deed:

Jayaur is the hero of the hour,

A man whose courage equaled the event.

Yet he knows the moment soon will sour

As his sweet celebrity is spent.

Underneath the fame so briefly won

Remains for good the good that he has done.

© 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/jayaur.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

1/30: Nathan

1/31: Jayaur

Nathan

January 30, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Nathan, a sad child who is very much beloved:

Nathan is a child much beloved

Although too often he seems very sad.

Through all the many things we'll never know,

Hope and love can make a child grow

As tall and green as oak in sunshine clad.

Nor should one's heart from patient faith be moved.

© 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/nathan.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

1/30: Nathan

Alistair

January 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Alistair, a man who likes to show off how much he knows:

Alistair exudes sophistication,

Leaning on his learning as though lame.

Intelligence in him is like a curtain,

Shutting off the windows to his heart.

There is with him no chance for conversation,

As though each point were counted in some game.

Intent on winning, prepped and always certain,

Rest assured he'll flaunt his range and 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/alista.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

1/29: Alistair

Riley

January 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Riley, a boy who is popular with the girls:

Riley is a boy with auburn hair,

Immensely popular with all the girls.

Love comes easily to one whose curls

Entice the hearts that harbor dreams to spare.

Yet Riley will not soon his young heart share.

© 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/rilely.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Men

1/28: Riley

Melba

January 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A name poem for a multicultural woman:

Melba mixes cultures like bright colors,

Each of which the dappled whole enhances.

Lavish in her love of life, she dances,

Blessed in years, to the tunes of many others,

A wealth of music as the world advances.

© 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/melba.html. For more poems about race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

1/23: Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

1/24: I’m Married to This Muslim Arab

1/25: Mugabe and Mandela

1/26: Beneath the Canopy of Moon and Stars

1/27: Melba

Beneath the Canopy of Moon and Stars

January 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A poem about a love between two hostile races:

Beneath the canopy of moon and stars

Two tiny people sit, for now together.

Love binds them, they would like to hope, forever;

But there is much that such a union bars.

Heaven is so vast; the Earth so small,

Yet large enough to stretch a great love thin.

For love to flourish, it must turn within:

To the single soul that unifies us all.

Within this soul the walls of fear dissolve:

Distance, difference, history are no more.

The holy silence stills the sounds of war.

We love as round us miracles revolve.

We know we cannot stay within this shell

Of heaven. We must live back down below.

Day by every day the world we know

Will guarantee we recognize it well.

Yet there are truths far greater than the sun,

Beyond the blanket blue of every day.

In love's dark longings, we will find a way

To make our separate, hostile races one.

© 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/beneat.html. For more poems about race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

1/23: Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

1/24: I’m Married to This Muslim Arab

1/25: Mugabe and Mandela

1/26: Beneath the Canopy of Moon and Stars

Mugabe and Mandela

January 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A poem contrasting the ways in which two newly-liberated African countries treated their white minorities:

Mugabe and Mandela,

Two strategies for change:

One would whites include;

One would whites estrange.

Murder begets murder;

White murder begets black.

Once one goes for blood,

There's no exit back.

Power unrestrained

By wisdom, love, or law

Leads to even greater

Horrors than before.

Yet letting whites retain

The property they stole

Leaves blacks still dispossessed,

Though equal at the poll.

For wealth is ever power,

Wont to have its way

With those of any color

Who happen to hold sway.

And so the pot still boils

With anger finely honed.

Was violence avoided?

Or was it just postponed?

Mugabe and Mandela,

Two ways to found a state:

One through storms still sailing;

The other drowned in hate.

© 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/mugabe.html. For more poems about race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

1/23: Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

1/24: I’m Married to This Muslim Arab

1/25: Mugabe and Mandela

I'm Married to This Muslim Arab

January 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A poem about an intermarriage of both race and religion:

I'm married to this Muslim Arab,

A lovely woman who wears the hijab.

Our differences dissolve in love

Of God, of life, of one another.

A lovely woman who wears the hijab

Comes naked to my marriage bed.

Of God, of life, of one another,

We then say not a single word.

Comes naked to my marriage bed,

As naked as we are to God.

We then say not a single word,

But silently I thank the Lord.

As naked as we are to God,

Our differences dissolve in love,

But silently I thank the Lord

I'm married to this Muslim Arab.

© 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/immarri.html. For more poems about race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

1/23: Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

1/24: I’m Married to This Muslim Arab

Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

January 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A poem about overcoming the obstacles to interracial love:

Love has obstacles enough, they say:

Why add to them the obstacle of race?

Two backgrounds so diverse can't share one space.

Love can't keep the world's harsh truths at bay.

Ah, love! Let such trite wisdom go its way!

All life is difficult yet full of grace.

All men and women share the same small place.

Nor should we out of fear our love betray.

Love is to daily life a vein of gold

Running through the rock like liquid fire,

Making ordinary moments glow.

May we treasure it as we grow old:

The breath that does our dreary clay inspire,

The touch that transforms everything we know.

© 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/loveha.html. For more poems about nationality and race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

1/23: Love Has Obstacles Enough, They Say

Love's a Stream That Knows No Borders

January 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 21.

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

A poem about how love transcends nationality and race:

Love's a stream that knows no borders,

Passports, visas, lengths of stay,

Laws and papers, rules and orders:

All these lies it sweeps away.

Love knows no color, race, or creed,

Spilling over states at will,

Submerging memory in need,

Drowning walls in waters still.

No bar can block it as it flows,

Tumbling towards eternity,

Gathering wisdom as it goes,

Yearning for our common sea.

© 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/lovesa.html. For more poems about nationality and race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

1/22: Love’s a Stream That Knows No Borders

Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

January 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is nationality and race in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated today, January 21.

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

A poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the never-ending struggle for justice:

Moses never reached the promised land,

And I, too, died upon that distant mountain,

Resting on the laurels of my dream.

There is no end to struggle, no safe refuge

In which one can say, yes, I have arrived,

No longer feel the guilt of privilege,

Let go the fierce anxiety for justice,

Untie the knots of conscience in one's soul.

The promised land's a vision, not a place,

Held within the unrelenting heart.

Each generation must behold its beauty,

Reach for its uncompromising goodness,

Know that its long looked-for realization

Is in a time zone one will never see.

No matter. There's a joy in going forward

Greater than the joy of going home.

© 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/mosesn.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Nationality and Race

1/21: Moses Never Reached the Promised Land

Dylan

January 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A name poem for a young man who devotes himself to truths beyond time, and who is therefore prepared for winter as a metaphor for death.

Dylan says eternity's his garden,

Yielding the present for precincts better known.

Life goes on, of course, as habits harden

And winter wields the wind to drive him home.

No matter: He has been there all along.

© 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/dylan.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

1/16: Winter3

1/17: For You There Is No More Enduring Passion

1/18: She Harbored No Illusions

1/19: Twenty-Six3

1/20: Dylan

Twenty-Six3

January 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A number poem in which winter is a metaphor for a young man’s prediction of hard times ahead:

Twenty-six whistles in the wind,

Well aware of bitter times ahead.

Even in the midst of winter snow,

Needing all the woodcraft he might know,

The young man has no fear or sense of dread.

Yet like us all, of course, he's running blind.

So let the coming years to him be kind,

In which, as good and bad both come and go,

Xerophytes will bloom, by deep springs fed.

© 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/26c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

1/16: Winter3

1/17: For You There Is No More Enduring Passion

1/18: She Harbored No Illusions

1/19: Twenty-Six3

She Harbored No Illusions

January 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A love poem using the phrase “winter’s tale” to mean a sad tale:

She harbored no illusions.

She knew the winter's tale.

On and on the fragile boat

Sailed among the stars.

She managed without hope

But could not part with dreams,

And so as land approached she wept

And drank the bitter sea.

© 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/noillu.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

1/16: Winter3

1/17: For You There Is No More Enduring Passion

1/18: She Harbored No Illusions

For You There Is No More Enduring Passion

January 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A forty-fourth anniversary poem using winter as a metaphor for old age:

For you there is no more enduring passion

Or salient presence in your inner rooms,

Realizing the hopes of brides and grooms,

The deepest bonds that separate souls can fashion.

Years accumulate, the leaves turn ashen,

Forests stand naked as the winter looms.

On frigid mornings, on golden afternoons,

Underneath the roots love finds its ration.

Ravenous once, you now have long been sated,

Yearning still, but from a place called home,

Embracing what you have as what you are.

A choice was made, of course, but now seems fated,

Rendered as a fable writ in stone,

Signaled at your birth by some bright star.

© 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/foryo5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

1/16: Winter3

1/17: For You There Is No More Enduring Passion

Winter3

January 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A poem about the dangers of winter’s ice and snow:

Winter wills white whispers into being,

Into frigid air white dancing death,

Needles that can take away one's breath,

Thick, soft flakes preventing one from fleeing,

Ending briefly in bright drifted hills,

Returning with the churning chaff that kills.

© 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/winte3.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

1/16: Winter3

Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

January 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A poem in which winter is a metaphor for death:

Though winter come, thy will be done,

For time must have an end,

And death must serve the wanderer

Who worships but the wind.

The being of a being is

Beyond all space and time.

And yet . . . and yet each being is

A moment with a name.

Ah, wanderer! Do not fear

The loss of joy and pain.

For nothingness is nothing less

Than never having been.

© 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/thoug6.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2

1/15: Though Winter Come, Thy Will Be Done

Winter2

January 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is winter, both as a subject and a symbol.

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

A poem about the restorative effects of winter:

Winter is the world's long sleep,

In which the soil gets its rest,

Naked 'neath its blanket white,

Tucked in for the frigid night,

Earth by bitter north wind blessed,

Restored to life by slumber deep.

© 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/winte2.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Winter as a Subject and a Symbol

1/14: Winter2