Tough and Lovely

July 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being in one’s twenties.

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

A number poem about the emotional effect of seeing one’s child grow into an adult:

Tough and lovely, to see my child gain

What personality she will assume,

Each bit and gesture worked on year by year,

No stopping till the character is clear.

Tough and lovely, to see the child remain

Yet underneath the mask that is her doom.

Only slowly does the child disappear,

Not needing me to kiss away all pain,

Entering alone the darkened room.

© 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/toug21.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Being in One’s Twenties

7/15: Twenty Is a Bud That’s Finally Flowered

7/16: Tough and Lovely

Twenty Is a Bud That's Finally Flowered

July 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being in one’s twenties.

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

A number poem about the insights of a twenty year old.

Twenty is a bud that's finally flowered,

Wide open to the sunshine and the rain.

Each day's a moment of eternal truth

New rendered through the perfect eyes of youth,

The light by which the blossom is empowered,

Yielding clarities one would sustain.

© 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/20c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Being in One’s Twenties

7/15: Twenty Is a Bud That’s Finally Flowered

Because Injustice Is the Match

July 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated today, July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the cycle of injustice, revolution, dictatorship, and restoration that seems to distinguish every modern revolution:

Because injustice is the match,

And revolution is the fire;

Silence, the enabling wind;

Tyranny, the funeral pyre:

In time it ends in restoration;

Less injustice, just a little;

Life returns, just slightly better;

Each Estate is forced to settle.

Does this small mini-step repay

A generation drowned in blood?

Yet so goes progress through the cycle.

© 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/becau3.html For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

7/14: Because Injustice Is the Match

Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

July 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about how in politics good intentions can lead to evil actions.

Good and honest people can do evil

As just ends can inspire brutal means.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Calculating what might be the level

Of suffering the greater good redeems.

Good and honest people can do evil

As well-honed ideologies give ample

Cause to murder others for one’s dreams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Romantic as the idealistic rebel,

Tyrannical as truth splits at the seams.

Good and honest people can do evil,

Reducing life’s complexities to simple

Slogans that are best conveyed by screams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

More saint, more devil, a hammer on an anvil

That shapes the willing faithful into fiends..

Good and honest people can do evil.

In politics, a saint can be a devil.

© 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/goodan.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

Beyond the Reign of Terror

July 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the hope that continues to survive brutality:

Beyond the Reign of Terror,

Beyond the tyranny,

A silence lingers just offshore

Like fog upon the sea.

Is it death? Or is it

A future yet unknown?

Or is it in one’s flooded heart

A longing all one’s own?

It is eternal hope,

A peace that has no when,

Hanging just offshore, beyond

One’s brutal mise-en-scène.

© 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/beyond.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

July 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the virtues of compromise:

Blessed are those who compromise their visions

And share their power with the other side,

Substituting faith for fratricide,

Trading principles for joint decisions.

Instead of blood, their battles will yield laws,

Less just, perhaps, than those they would have wanted,

Less brutal than the crimes that would have haunted

Each of them and undermined their cause.

Democracy requires compromise

And sometimes letting fools outvote the wise.

Yet some prefer the righteousness of wars.

© 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/bless6.html For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

July 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem arguing against the assumption that poverty is inevitable:

Because the root of poverty is injustice,

And there is wealth enough for all to have

Sustenance and shelter, and the promise

That all will prosper if they work and save;

Indeed, because those then have fewer children,

Leaving each more room in which to grow,

Leveraging lives through education,

Elevating lives by what they know:

Do not succumb to comfortable despair,

And think the poor, like flies, are simply there,

Yielding what might be to what seems so.

© 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/becau2.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

July 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the dangers of absolute power even in the hands of those who wish to do good:

Beware of power absolute, unshared,

As you pursue the ends that are your passion.

So why might one, as sovereign, choose to ration

The power one might summon unimpaired?

In doing so, one sees what one might be:

Like those whose ends were good, but means were not;

Like those who hoped that blood might sweep the rot

Encrusted on their longings out to sea.

Desperate to do good, some would, unchecked,

Appropriate the world they would perfect.

Yet evil knows no ideology.

© 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/bewar4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

July 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the need for love in making economic choices:

Brace yourself for love, for it is coming,

A wave of love that well might knock you down.

So may you lose your hard-earned rep for cunning,

The ruthlessness for which you are renowned.

In every moment, every thought and feeling,

Love waits for you to turn and it is there,

Lying ‘neath the equities you’re dealing

Endlessly, a longing that you share.

Do, then, turn, and let yourself be broken,

And let your pain and sorrow be a token

You leave for those who deal and do not care.

© 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/bracey.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

In Every Point of View That's Held Sincerely

July 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the need to embrace opposing truths through love:

In every point of view that’s held sincerely,

Not intended for manipulation,

Decent folks just speaking from the heart,

Each selfish, selfless, idealistic cynic

Pursues a radiant, iridescent truth.

Embrace them all, ingenuously and dearly,

Nor deem one truth not worth consideration

Despite your own perhaps dissenting part.

Each voice adds to the beauty of Earth’s music,

Nor does a vivid counterpoint need proof.

Clearly there is hatred, yes, quite clearly,

Eluding reason, fact, faith, love, relation,

Damning all belief, truth, passion, art,

A scourge that turns the sweetest truth acidic.

Yet love puts all truths under one large roof.

© 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/ineve8.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

7/6: Jury’s Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

7/7: In Every Point of View That’s Held Sincerely

Jury's Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

July 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the uncertainty of democracy’s survival:

Jury’s still out, I guess, on democracy.

Unfortunately, it ever will be so.

Let go the wished-for verdict, let it go,

Yielding to a sure uncertainty.

False democracies continually

Overrun wherever laws can’t grow.

Underneath our waves, an undertow

Returns our hopes for freedom to the sea.

The forecast even here now threatens pain --

Here, where we must rise again, again.

© 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/juryss.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

7/6: Jury’s Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

July 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the world as one country:

Inevitably, the world will be one country,

Nor will there be a need for barbed-wire borders

Defending those that have from those that haven’t.

Everyone will have an equal voice

Politically in governing the Earth.

Eventually, humanities’ shared bounty

No longer will be siphoned off by hoarders,

Divvied up unmercifully, with blatant

Economic myths to mask their choice,

Needing myths to justify their worth.

Change will come, a summer wind or wintry,

Evolving or rebelling, a new order

Destined by demography, emergent,

As some lament their loss and some rejoice,

Yet all yield to the light of this rebirth.

© 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/inevit.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

July 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the interdependence of nations:

Indeed, this should be interdependence day.

No nation can lay claim to independence.

Despite the myth of sovereignty, we are

Entangled in a web of greed and need,

Poised upon the lip of life's destruction.

Eventually, pain will have its way,

Nor will we fail forever our descendants.

Death comes singing anthems from afar,

Even as each victim is a seed

Now blowing in the wind of our redemption.

Come, then, for the Earth will have its say,

Eloquent on the subject of dependence.

Divided, we have not the strength to bar

A nation from its exercise of greed.

Yet as one world, we can avoid extinction.

© 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/indeed.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

Justice Is a Collection Agency

July 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem arguing for a government role in the redistribution of wealth:

Justice is a collection agency,

Uniting what one pays with what one owes.

Let the government collect the fee

Yearly, rebalancing the highs and lows.

Free markets are efficient but not just:

One after all must beat the competition.

Unions, taxes, fines can temper lust,

Restoring rivals to the same condition.

To be sure, the rich still have it made;

However, the poor’s bill must first be paid.

© 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/justi5.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

July 2, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the true derivation of rights:

Indeed, from whom or what are rights derived?

Need we pin them on some deity,

Dependent for them on some fragile faith?

Even so, we cannot do without them,

Predisposed to fear and rage and greed.

Embrace them, then, however they arrived,

Nature’s scaffold for morality,

Destined to the power of kings replace,

Enduring truths so salient none should doubt them,

Nor more nor less than what the heart decreed.

Crafted, then, by love, to love ascribed,

Each right is more than mere legality,

Dependent on a purely human grace,

As those who love must keep their bliss about them,

Yielding self to a more urgent need.

© 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/indee2.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

July 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

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

An Independence Day poem about the way our view of justice has changed:

Justice now means food, health, habitation.

Unequal access means unequal right.

Let us understand that as a nation

Years have changed the foci of our sight.

Freedom once applied to property.

One did with what one owned as one saw fit,

Using land or slave or factory

Ruthlessly, for what it might remit.

Today, one can’t do simply as one would,

Having monetized a common 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/justi4.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

Flowers Symbolize Unbridled Passion

June 30, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem about the symbolic meaning of flowers:

Flowers symbolize unbridled passion,

Love, and the attraction lust requires.

Of beauty born, they burn with fragile fires,

Waiting to be some lover’s prized possession.

Even so may lovers be drawn higher,

Rapture melting soon their self-obsession,

Swept up to tenderness by love's desires.

© 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/flower.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

6/26: As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

6/27: Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

6/29: Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

6/30: Flowers Symbolize Unbridled Passion

Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

June 29, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem about how love grows stronger over time:

Exactly when did love come to your hearts,

Vesting something one in something twain,

Exchanging simple wholes for complex parts,

Less purely self, more vulnerable to pain?

Yet passion often migrates into need,

Not needing much to crave unfeigned affection;

And so each craving does the other feed,

Need serving need as bond against rejection.

Doubt not such sweet sense can be sustained,

Not by passion, but by will and grace.

In long-lived love there's too much to be gained,

Convectively, to easy unembrace.

Oceans well up richly well within,

Letting go the air that we begin

Avidly to breathe, with passion burning,

So fraught with love no years can hold our yearning.

© 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/exactl.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

6/26: As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

6/27: Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

6/29: Exactly When Did Love Come to Your Hearts

Because like Roots We Intertwine

June 28, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem in which the best man is the groom’s brother and the maid of honor is the bride’s sister:

BEST MAN

Because like roots we intertwine,

Planted in a single place,

Your happiness is also mine,

Deep as love's first twisting sign

In that most labyrinthine space.

Because like roots we intertwine

And each for each the world designed,

Wrestling towards a common grace,

Your happiness is also mine

Though shared in ways we can't define,

Too close to touch, too vast to trace.

Because like roots we intertwine,

Obliterating every line

That might divide our long embrace,

Your happiness is also mine

As you with nuptial vows combine,

And with your loved one lines erase.

Like roots, your lives will intertwine.

Then let your happiness be mine!

MAID OF HONOR

Because like roots we intertwine,

Living in a long embrace,

Your happiness is also mine,

Spilling over, just as wine

Must flood the heart's too narrow space.

Because like roots we intertwine

And each for each must life define

In ways too myriad to trace,

Your happiness is also mine,

A joy that knows no boundary line,

Nor limit to its golden grace.

Because like roots we intertwine

And over years did love refine,

Planted in our single place,

Your happiness is also mine

As you with nuptial vows combine,

And with your loved one lines erase.

Like roots, your lives will intertwine.

Then let your happiness be mine!

© 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/becaus.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

6/26: As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

6/27: Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

6/28: Because like Roots We Intertwine

Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

June 27, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem about the beauty of love:

Beauty is the radiance of Being,

Opening a seam of inner sky.

Now we pause a moment beyond seeing,

Not at the heart of things but quite nearby,

In fields where all our deepest longings lie.

Each of us becomes more beautiful

As we are touched by love's angelic grace.

Now life seems more blessed and bountiful,

Delighting in the gift of an embrace,

Meaning more than meaning's eye can trace.

As one can be unfazed or filled with music,

Rejoicing in the glory of a song,

Kind hearts can have more Being if they choose it,

United in a gentle love and strong,

So sweet they dwell in beauty all life long.

© 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/beauty.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

6/26: As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

6/27: Beauty Is the Radiance of Being

As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

June 26, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem from the bride to her mother:

As I wait at the head of the aisle

On Dad's arm, about to be wed,

I remember the light of your smile

In the days when I still was a child,

And you kissed me goodnight in my bed.

And I think, as I wait by the aisle,

Of an innocent world without guile,

An Eden where goodness is bred:

Lit by the light of your smile,

A place where one tarries awhile,

Sheltered from sorrow and dread.

I wait by the head of the aisle

With a gift that no years can defile,

A beauty no winter can shed.

And I walk in the light of your smile

To a life that was mine all the while,

And a love that is just as you said:

A love that waits down the aisle

For the warmth and the light of my smile.

© 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/asiwai.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

6/26: As I Wait at the Head of the Aisle

All My Happiness Goes Out to You

June 25, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name and wedding poem wishing a couple happiness:

All my happiness goes out to you:

Pride and pleasure, joy, sweet tears, and love!

Reason, hope, and faith together move

In harmony to bless all that you do.

Let this beginning be the golden dawn

At which all dew-drenched nature sings its glory!

Nor should the darkness shrouding every story

Dim the blue-eyed beauty of this morn.

More of life will come than you can hold:

A flood no mortal witness can withstand.

Rest, then, within a quiet, gentle hand,

Knowing where love is as you grow old.

© 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/allmyh.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

6/25: All My Happiness Goes Out to You

A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

June 24, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A wedding poem about the marriage that follows the wedding:

A wedding is the entrance to a marriage:

One drives through, and suddenly one's there!

Stepping from a fairy tale carriage

Into quite ordinary air.

Life is now a dance, though beautiful,

Requiring intense coordination;

Each self becomes, in ways inscrutable,

More fully what it is in combination.

And we who love you wait, of course, outside

As you become through love that mystery:

One flesh made whole of separate groom and bride;

Two selves, one life; two notes, one harmony.

When you are one, we then may cherish two:

Loving not just one, but both of you.

© 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/aweddi.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings

6/24: A Wedding Is the Entrance to a Marriage

Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

June 23, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about sadness and loss:

Graduations sometimes can be sad,

Removing from our world a world of friends,

An instant that, in golden garments clad,

Divides our bright beginnings from our ends.

Underneath our confidence and pride

A sense of loss like music haunts the heart,

Telling us that what we are inside

Is presently a place we must depart.

Our years have yielded paradise and pain,

Nor will we ever taste such fruit again.

© 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/grad9.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

6/20: To Graduate Is like a Crow

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

6/22: Josh2

6/23: Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

Josh2

June 22, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A name and graduation poem for a classmate who died years before he would have graduated:

Josh would have graduated with our class,

One of us had he not long since died.

So shall he be, though years and lifetimes pass,

Here in his place, with us by his side.

© 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/josh2.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

6/20: To Graduate Is like a Crow

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

6/22: Josh2

Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

June 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the wish to remember the moment of graduation:

Give me just this moment, please, forever.

Replicate it for me on demand.

As I flow unceasingly downriver,

Do not make me leave this day behind.

Understand my bittersweet confusion

As graduation crystallizes youth,

Tallying my treasures with precision,

Illuminating well a wistful truth.

Out of all my moments pluck this one,

Nor let me lose its grace when it is gone.

© 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/giveme.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

6/20: To Graduate Is like a Crow

6/21: Give Me Just This Moment, Please, Forever

To Graduate Is like a Crow

June 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem for children comparing graduation to a number of animals and situations:

To graduate is like a crow

Flying up into a tree.

Once he gets there he can see

The younger children down below.

To graduate is like a frog

Hopping up from stair to stair.

He doesn't know until he's there

How high he is above the bog.

To graduate is as though you

Were climbing up a rocky hill.

Up and up you go until

You’re at the top and see the view.

Up and up and up we go

From grade to grade, from hop to hop.

Why do we hop all the way to the top?

When we get there, we will 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/tograd.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given thatWe’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: GraduationsCan Be Bittersweet

6/20: To Graduate Is like a Crow

Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

June 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A bittersweet graduation poem about the pain and joy of graduation:

Graduations can be bittersweet,

Reminding us of all that's come and gone:

All our battles, whether lost or won,

Days of bliss, and days of near defeat.

Underneath our pride there is the sense,

Almost like a wound, of something past,

The beauty of a time that cannot last,

In which we shared the joys of innocence.

Open vistas lie before our eyes;

Now’s the time for hopes and for goodbyes.

© 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/grad2.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

6/19: Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

Given that We're Happy to Be Here

June 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the losses and gains involved in graduating:

Given that we're happy to be here,

Remember what we're gaining and we're losing.

Admittedly, the moment is confusing,

Demanding sad farewells and well-earned cheer.

Underneath the moment is the motion,

A silent passage out to open sea,

Taking place regardless what may be

In front of us, this ritual commotion.

Of what we are, but little will remain,

Nor will we ever come this way again.

© 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/given3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

Kindergarten Graduation

June 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A kindergarten graduation poem for parents about the importance of the ceremony:

Kindergarten graduation

Is the end of a beginning.

Now they start the numbered grades,

Dancing through the years of grace.

Ends require celebration,

Rituals of well-earned winning,

Giving kids the accolades

A dancer needs to keep the pace.

Rejoice, then, in the raw sensation,

The shyness bursting, rapture spinning.

Eventually, the glory fades,

Nor will it ever be replaced.

© 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/kinder.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

Happy Father's Day to My Dear Dad

June 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year is celebrated today, June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about how a father’s love shapes his child’s personality:

Happy Father's Day to my dear Dad!

As you have loved me, so have I loved you,

Pleased to tell you, now that words are due,

Pleased to have this chance to make you glad.

Your years of love and sacrifice have had

For me the force that you would wish them to,

A wind that takes me home to harbors new,

The inner voice in clothes familiar clad.

How might I be myself, except I see

Each gesture in the mirror of your grace,

Remembered as it was when long ago,

'Ere I knew why, I looked to you for love?

So am I of you inextricably,

Defined by trends not difficult to trace

As I grow into someone that I know,

Yet myself in ways that time will 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/happ25.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

6/13: I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

6/15: Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

6/16: Happy Father’s Day to My Dear Dad