Thank You for the Gift of Understanding

 

A Thanksgiving poem thanking God for the gift of understanding how little we can understand:

 

Thank you for the gift of understanding
How little one can hope to understand.
A universe is all we have at hand,
Nothing too confusing or demanding.
Knowledge is like spindrift on the sea
Sitting on the surface of a wave.
Granted one can know how things behave,
Ill-formed to know how they might come to be.
Vast Your Being, beyond imagination!
Immeasurable, of neither shape nor size.
Nor ought one lose one's sense of adoration,
Gift equal to the gifts of mind and eyes.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allemande. By Wahneta Meixsell. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/than47.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

From Teachers, There Is Much That One Can Learn

 

A poem about the teaching profession:

 

From teachers, there is much that one can learn.
One ought not judge their worth by what they earn.
Rather, it's the task one should judge by:
To teach not only what, but how and why,
Yielding goods no teacher's pay could buy.

Even though teaching's a profession,
In fact, it is for many a vocation,
Given the knowledge and the expertise,
Having earned the requisite degrees
To touch the soul of each new generation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fromte.html. For more poems about professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

 

Voices of the Dead Are All Around Me

 

A Veterans Day poem about the psychological difficulty of returning to civilian life:

 

Voices of the dead are all around me.
Everyone alive seems much less real.
The smoke and screams and bombs and blood surround me,
Enduring through the love I still can't feel.
Reality is rarely in the present
As truth and falsehood are defined by pain.
Nor can I stand one moment that is pleasant.
Sanity to me just seems insane.
Death is more attractive than a wife,
And loneliness a far less lonely life.
Yet I must turn and somehow live again.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: End of Time. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/voice2.html. For more Veterans Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

November Knows the Beauty of a Line

 

A calendar poem for November:

 

November knows the beauty of a line:
One stroke across the heart of a gray sky.
Vacancy is where true vision lies,
Eternity redacted into time.
Memory now moves into the garden,
Bringing with it music never heard.
Each slender, naked branch is like a word
Recalling the lost happiness of Eden.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/novemb.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Hell Has Little Hope of Happiness

 

HELL HAS LITTLE HOPE OF HAPPINESS

A Halloween poem about why the inmates of Hell visit us on All Hallows’ Eve:

 

Hell has little hope of happiness.
A devil is eternally on fire,
Locked within unquenchable desire,
Longing with hatred for lost holiness.
On Halloween the devils and the dead
Wander through the world as though to warn
Each soul of an eternity forlorn,
Evangelists condemned to speak through dread,
Nightmares that must preach through pain till dawn.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Sharp Senses. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hellha.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

It Wasn't Over When You Died

 

IT WASN'T OVER WHEN YOU DIED

A poem about how child abuse can be passed on through generations:

 

It wasn't over when you died,
When I was still too young to know
The damage that you did inside,
The pain that I would undergo.

When I was still too young to know,
You did to me what things you would.
The pain that I would undergo
Came later, once I understood.

You did to me what things you would
While I lay numb and still. The hate
Came later, once I understood
The sorrow that you came to sate.

While I lay numb and still, the hate
Arose in you as love, as need.
The sorrow that you came to sate
Then passed between us in your seed.

Arose in you as love, as need
To undergo yourself in me,
Then passed between us in your seed,
Became your lasting legacy.

To undergo yourself in me,
The damage that you did inside
Became your lasting legacy.
It wasn't over when you died.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Journeyman. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/itwasn.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html .

Clearly, I Was a Person of My Times

A poem for Columbus Day in which Columbus asks us to understand the context of his actions and appreciate his role in creating our times:

 

Clearly, I was a person of my times,

One who treated races not my own

Like savages, sub-humans. Now my crimes

Understandably must stand alone,

Must, like Washington's, like Jefferson's,

Be seen as though memorialized in stone,

Unfit for celebration, the preference

Switched to those whose brutal genocide

Deserves far more than I to be remembered.

A plea for context, though: the seas I plied

Yielded up a future I engendered.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Destination Unknown. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear4.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

October Is Self-Confident and Strong

 

A calendar poem for October:

 

October is self-confident and strong,
Crisp and ready for the captious wind.
Though life lies less ahead and more behind,
Old age can barely peek through well-clad bones.
Beauty so outrageous can't be wrong,
Even as death steals among the stones,
Resting where the leaves lie battered, blind.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/octobe.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html . 

You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

 

A poem for Yom Kippur about a congregant who has doubts about the efficacy of prayer but prays out of love for the ritual:

 

You wonder whether fate is accidental,
Or whether this one day a harrowed heart
Might make some difference to a willing God,
Knowing faith is not experimental.
In fact, you know quite well that you don't know
Precisely why you're here, or why today,
Perhaps most out of loyalty, you pray,
Unwilling to let long-loved labors go,
Reciting with true grace the ancient part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: If You Close Your Eyes, I’m Still with You. By Late Night Feeling. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/youwon.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

 

A Rosh Hashanah poem about the need for communal atonement:

 

Rosh Hashanah opens to the page
On which is writ, for good or ill, our fate.
Still wrestling with angels, we engage,
Harrowing our hearts, our future state.
However, "we" encompasses us all,
As though we were but droplets in a wave
Suspended on its journey to the shore,
Hard put to any single droplet save.
And so we pray not only for ourselves,
Nor only for our family, friends, or tribe:
All must be our congregation, else
How might we turn to God to turn the tide?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Revelation. By Jeremy Blake. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/roshh2.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Adelaide Is Gracious to a Fault

 A name poem for Adelaide about an abused child who grows up with an exaggerated fear of conflict:

 

Adelaide is gracious to a fault,
Desiring harmony more than she does desire.
Each disagreement threatens to turn dire.
Likes and dislikes never leave the vault.
A child of war becomes adept at peace.
Intuitively she skirts the hidden mines,
Determined not to cross long-vanished lines,
Eluding rage long after rage has ceased.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: A Kiss for Amanda. By DJ Williams. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/adelai.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

September Lingers in the Arms of Love

 

A calendar poem for September:

 

September lingers in the arms of love
Even as a certain crispness calls.
Perhaps some fear she's not yet conscious of
Takes messages as she slows down and stalls,
Embracing joys that soon must be entombed.
More frequently, she starts to feel marooned.
Business bustles busily with tasks,
Each answering more questions than it asks,
Reminding her how life can be consumed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Photo Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/septem.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

 

A Labor Day poem about the dignity 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

 

Audio and Video Music: Maryandra’s Waltz. By Jesse Gallagher. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

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 .

Movement Comes Most Often Without Motion

 

A psychological poem about unconscious change:

 

Movement comes most often without motion.
Incremental thaws can peel a rock.
Years wash away the stubbornest emotion,
While silence can the rustiest thought unlock.
There are magic whispers quietly in mourning
That soothe what we will never know as pain,
And songs that come upon us without warning,
Undoing all the buttons that remain.
Our skin is quite a permeable border
Across which strangers freely come and go,
Subversive to our phantom sense of order
Yet never touching what we think we know.
Thus without motion do we silent move
Unknowing, until suddenly we love.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Arms of Heaven. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/motion.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

There Is a Joy that Banishes All Reason

 

A poem about the difficulty of freeing oneself from an addiction:

 

There is a joy that banishes all reason,
An ecstasy so vast it has no shore,
A craving that devours all decision,
A lust for nothingness that lusts for more.
There are angels in pursuit of pain
Who take Satanic pride in degradation,
Who'll drag you down the hill and back again
Hosanna-ing your sweet humiliation.
Just like a fire fanned by a hot, dry wind,
Or like a flood that sweeps away all will,
This wall of pleasure leaves no one behind,
No sign of life where all one loves lies still.
So does the soul in anguish hate the joy
That soothes the hate that does the soul destroy.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/addict.html. For more poems about addiction, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alcoholismaddictionpoems.html .

Clearly, There Can Be No Better News

 

A congratulations poem on the birth of a child:

 

Clearly, there could be no better news.
Of life and love, now there will be more.
Nor can we guess what grace we have in store,
Granted but imaginary views.
Rejoice in the creation of a soul,
A universe again emerged from darkness,
There being nothing, then a veiled vastness,
Unknowable, infinite, and whole.
Let there be again that bolt of light,
Again the wonder and the mystery,
The being that no cause could cause to be,
Incandescent day from utter night!
O children of desire, what have you done?
New-made a universe, another one,
Shard of One too luminous to see.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear2.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

August

 

A calendar poem for August:

 

August starts to shade a bit towards shade,
Upon the cusp of full tide and retreat,
Grace, poised upon a turning point of time,
Unwilling to welcome what it can't decline,
Sweet season no foreboding can defeat.
Though evenings earlier begin to fade.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Please. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/august.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Farewell, My Friend and Confidante

 

A goodbye poem to a friend who is going away:

 

Farewell, my friend and confidante!
As you go, so must I
Resume alone the well-worn path
Each soul must travel by.
Wend where you will, my wanderer,
Even as you stay
Long treasured in my lonely heart,
Loved well, though far away.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/farewe.html. For more goodbye poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodbyefarewellpoems.html .

For You the Earth Must Be a Greener Green

 

A love and number poem wishing a loved one every gift of grace:

 

For you the Earth must be a greener green;
Orange buds must burst with greater glory;
Rivers must be pure, light full of grace,
Time unfold a more enchanting story;
Years must shape a spirit more serene.

To you the birds must sing with more delight;
Hyacinths must pour forth sweeter scent;
Rain must wear more gently, storms retrace
Each devastated path, and harm repent,
Each turbulence turn calm, and sorrow right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/greene.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .