Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

March 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about choosing happiness through a life of faith and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness has much to recommend it,
A choice, though hard, that often satisfies.
Passing joys, pursued, bid fair to end it,
Perhaps because their truths turn into lies.
Yet one may choose a life of faith and love,
Even dogged by doubt and ripe with lust,
Ample as a river on the move
Singing down the balustrades of dust.
To love is to step forward into light,
Embracing what would else return to night,
Redeemed, redeeming by this act of trust.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ13.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding
March 26: Heaven Has No Exit to Despair
March 27: Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

Heaven Has No Exit to Despair

March 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about the twin errors of too absolute a faith and no faith at all.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Heaven has no exit to despair.
A faith too pure’s a prison in disguise.
Passion is the impetus for prayer,
Pleading for more hope than meets the eyes.
Yet lack of faith can, too, be too complete,
Emancipating one from all that matters,
A separate, though quite equal, self-deceit,
Sustained by reason, that one’s flailing flatters.
Truth demands fidelity to pain,
Ecstasy that comes and goes again,
Revealing nothing but a faith in tatters.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/heave2.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding
March 26: Heaven Has No Exit to Despair

Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding

March 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem questions God about the purpose of Creation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Grant us all the peace of understanding
Why it is that anything is here.
Happiness or horror notwithstanding,
The point of the whole thing is far from clear.
If You are perfect, why this botched creation,
Replete with hunger, torture, lust, and greed?
Why suffer on the cross for our salvation?
I understand the end, but not the need.
A perfect being needs no son, no heaven,
No purposes, no places, priests, or prayers,
No stars or sepulchers, no souls, not even
One dead fool, about whom someone cares.
Could it be perfection could not be
Without my love for You, and Yours for me?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grantu.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection
March 25: Grant Us All the Peace of Understanding

Each Year We Celebrate Christ's Resurrection

March 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about how faith can be beautiful even for those who don’t share it.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each year we celebrate Christ's resurrection,
Although some of us do not believe it.
So does faith become our common myth,
The beauty of which we must grapple with,
Even if the truth, as we conceive it,
Remains the moonlight of our own reflection.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eachy2.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain
March 24: Each Year We Celebrate Christ’s Resurrection

Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain

March 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about the difference between telling the tale of Christ and attempting to model one’s life on His.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even though passions are common as rain,
And we must pass by as God’s children are slain,
Smiling while crossing their rivers of pain,
Telling the tale of Christ risen again:
Even as we do our best to stay sane,
Redemption comes only to those who remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eventh.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be
March 23: Even Though Passions Are Common as Rain

Each of Us Eventually Will Be

March 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem expresses faith in personal resurrection and redemption.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us eventually will be
A soul in waiting, neither here nor there.
So shall we wait until Messiah comes
To take us with Him to His Heavenly home,
Embracing us with love. This is our prayer,
Redemptive faith, life-giving prophecy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eacho6.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing
March 22: Each of Us Eventually Will Be

Even in the Depths of Longing

March 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is faith, in honor of Easter, which falls on March 27.

Today’s poem is about how the beauty of being turns every moment into joy.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even in the depths of longing,
All one is and sees is light.
So the moment, barren, burning,
Touches bliss beyond one's sight,
Embers of a flame so bright,
Reason turns to joy, to dancing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/eveni3.html. For more poems for Easter, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Faith.
March 21: Even in the Depths of Longing

St. Patrick's Day Commemorates the Turning

March 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about why St. Patrick’s Day is meaningful to everyone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the turning
To Christianity of Irish clans.
Perhaps, if you’re not Irish, there’s no burning
Ache to march, so you’ve got other plans.
The day, however, marks a special moment
Regarding the persuasion of us all.
Islands are not islands of the spirit;
Callings come to more than hear the call.
Know that we are one, and Irish monks
’Ere we were born redeemed us with their prayers,
Sang our chants and gave our gracious thanks,
Died our deaths and climbed our golden stairs.
All changed for all after Patrick’s day;
Years turn, and yet their winds within us play.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpat2.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes
March 20: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

March 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about casting out inner snakes.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

St. Patrick rid the emerald isle of snakes,
Though only those that crawl upon the ground.
Perhaps not even he had what it takes,
Although a puissant saint, and well renowned,
To cast out those whose children still abound.
Remaining in our hearts, as when of old
In Eden green they tempted us to sin,
Cold and lean they grow more passing bold,
Knowing we’ve cast out the saint within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatr.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
> March 19: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

March 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick, asking God to save His rage for those who enabled the rape of children.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So let them be, who have had sex with children!
And turn Your rage on those who turned their eyes,
Intending to defend Your church with lies!
Nor were they ever fit for Your dominion!
These hypocrites are far worse than the poor
Polluted souls they moved from place to place,
Avid to avoid undue disgrace,
Trafficking in silence to be sure.
Remember them when You return! For they,
Instead of proper penance, yet remain
Cardinals, bishops, princes in Your name,
Knowing well what price they ought to pay!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/solett.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean

March 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is one for St. Patrick’s Day about saints and sin.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Saints are rarely saints, if you know what I mean.
They're human, with desires, hungers, sins.
Perhaps you thought sin stops where grace begins,
Arrested in such souls as faith redeems.
Then think again. Though angels might be seen
Resting on the wind with rainbowed wings,
In blissful choirs as the sunlight sings,
Can one, ought one be of all sins clean?
Knowing Christ Himself was human, and
'Mid flesh and sin lived out His few short years,
Still human as He suffered and cried out,
Demands that we obey the same command
And follow Him through suffering and tears,
Yet struggling in the heart with faith and doubt.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/saints.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness
March 17: Saints Are Rarely Saints, if You Know What I Mean

Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

March 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is one in which St. Patrick asks God for forgiveness and grace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sinners all, we ask for Your forgiveness
As we await the hour of Your return.
If only grace were something one could earn!
Nor can we hope to imitate Your goodness.
The saints know well the hopelessness of being
Put upon the pedestal of faith
As though we had already gained Your grace.
The heart is naked to Your restless seeking.
Regard us all, then, equally with love:
In saints and vicious pederasts find lovers,
Cherishing not one above the others,
Knowing none has anything to prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/sinner.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy
March 16: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

March 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is a love poem for St. Patrick’s Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing me a love song for my Irish boy;
Take from me my heart, my head, my home;
Pass to him my body, life, and joy;
Add to his my fields of fertile loam.
To him I am and will be earth and heaven,
Resting in the sanctum of his fire;
In me he’ll find all his gods have given,
Creating dynasties of his desire.
Know, my love, that I will come to you
’Ere this sun has set on Patrick’s Day;
So you must find the courage to be true,
Daring to give other dreams away.
After this leap, all loneliness is past:
Years may come and go, but love will last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singme.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race
March 15: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

Sing in Celebration of Your Race

March 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17.

Today’s poem is about the need to be aware of one’s national history and culture.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Sing in celebration of your race,
The anonymous composer of your song,
Passionate provider of your grace,
A host to which you cannot help belong.
Take a day to sing of who you are,
Rejoicing in the choice of what must be,
In gratitude for what, beyond the bar,
Chooses in dark joy one’s history.
Know the lineaments of ancient lore
’Ere you feel and act, and know not why.
Stories long forgotten lie in store,
Destined for revision by and by.
All you are and do is not by chance,
Yet you may face your partners as you dance.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/singi2.html. For more poems about St. Patrick’s Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 14: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

Please Don't Mind if I Make Love to You

March 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about the need for lust in marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Please don’t mind if I make love to you
Imagining another in my arms.
No one special - anyone will do
Whose claims have not yet sanitized her charms.
Lust loves not love, but finds its joy in power:
To stir someone to sunlit ecstasy;
To purchase someone’s person by the hour;
To force the flesh to yield the fantasy.
Love loves not lust, but finds its joy in giving:
Pleasure, yes, but passion slowly fades.
Affection, yes, but one needs more from living:
The knife-sharp edge of lust that love betrays.
Give then, my love, the flesh that spurs the dream,
As I for you, that lust might love redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/pleas2.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust
March 12: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls
March 13: Please Don’t Mind if I Make Love to You

Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

March 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about choosing between a life of love and a life of lust.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn’t stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self’s less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust
March 12: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

Let the Love Be Free of Lust

March 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about how lust and the imagination help a marriage survive.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the love be free of lust
And watch the marriage die.
Devils dance on days of dust
As desperate lovers lie.

Yet how might lust survive the years
Of naked intimacy,
The thousand nights of talk and tears,
The flesh too tame to free?

The answer lies in lovers' dreams
Made flesh in lovers' play,
Where each becomes the other's means -
White canvas, willing clay;

A mutual acceptance of
A mutual desire
For lust, a generous act of love
That fuels the inner fire;

Still themselves, still faithful to
A marriage of the heart,
Making old love ever new
With chaste and playful art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/letth4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust

Supine but Unyielding

March 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about a woman who needs lust but is afraid to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Supine but unyielding
She undisposed lay,
Ready for pleasure,
Unready for play.

The point was relentless,
The orgasm long,
The aftermath ugly,
The aftertaste strong.

Driven by need
She opened her pelt,
Too angry and bitter
To open herself.

And so the rage rotates,
And so the world turns:
The love that one risks
Is the love that one earns.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding

I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

March 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

In today's poem a misogynist serial lover warns his next victim to beware.

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

Yours,
Nick Gordon

I would not sink my teeth into your heart
Nor leave you in your naked need alone.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I'll pursue your love with all my art,
Then thrust my hatred in you, bone to bone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart

And drag you off to ravish like some tart
Whose body will disgust me when I'm done.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I will rip your rhapsodies apart
And turn your sweet illusions into stone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart.

Instead, I'll share with you the funeral cart
That slowly takes our love to its last home.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

As you attempt our harmonies to chart:
I will not for one agony atone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart,
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwoul4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

Passion's a Preliminary Pleasure

March 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about passion’s place in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion's a preliminary pleasure,
An introduction to the themes of love.
Some mistake it for the greater treasure,
Sustaining it by keeping on the move.
In beginning time and time again,
One makes oneself the centerpiece, and then
None can of one's heart the object prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/passi3.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure

The Difference Between Love and Lust

March 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about the difference between love and lust.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The difference between love and lust is:

Lust is about me.

Love is about us.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust

I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself

March 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

In today’s poem an abusive mother, years after her children are grown, asks for understanding.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I had a rough time with three kids by myself,
And I know that I didn't do well.
Counseling, fights, children's services, courts:
What I put you through must have been hell.

But I loved you - all of you - all of that time,
When my heart seemed to break every day,
When crushed, and crushed, and crushed against stones,
I would that the wind were my way.

And I tried - how I tried - to be what you needed
And show you the love in my heart.
But often the fantasy crashed and exploded,
And all that I was came apart.

And now you are grown, I don't ask forgiveness,
Just some understanding will do,
Of the person, however imperfect, whose life
And whose love was devoted to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ihadar.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me
Mar 5: The Pain Will Never Go Away
Mar 6: I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself

The Pain Will Never Go Away

March 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is to an abused child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The pain will never go away;
The wound will never heal.
The evil that was done to you
Is now your eyes, your heart.

The black will never turn to gray;
The blood will not congeal.
The violence is never through;
The past does not depart.

Time will merely make you whole,
Consuming what you are:
Part sufferer, part comforter,
Part victim, part new song;

Part mother of an angry soul,
Part child of despair,
Part witness and part conqueror
Of all that did you wrong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thepai.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me
Mar 5: The Pain Will Never Go Away

You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me

March 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

In today’s poem an abandoned child, now old, dreams of his mother.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You told me in a dream you always loved me.
I wept with joy at what with joy you said.
My sadness was not there. It was so lovely.
And with you was my darling, also dead.
The sky was with an early sunrise burning,
Yet still with ample darkness for the moon,
Which held the secret of its youthful yearning
Although it knew that it would vanish soon.
How wonderful, I thought, at last to hear you
Say what I had known but never heard!
Abandoned, I have long longed to be near you
And find my long-lost refuge in a word.
I saw the truth of it within your eyes
And blessed the dream that ends but never dies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youtol.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me

Caitlynn

March 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a girl abandoned by her father.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Caitlynn, like us all, has just one father,
A person whom she loves but does not see.
In fact, he has decided not to bother
To be the person only he can be.
Losing him, for her, is like a head-on:
Years and years of unremitting pain.
Nor will she ever feel quite free to let on,
Numb with rage, the fear that she’s to blame.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/caitly.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn

I Never Thought that I Would Do to You

March 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a poem about child abuse from the point of view of the abuser.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I never thought that I would do to you
The terrible things my father did to me.
But here I am consumed with bitter rage,
Beating you with fists I can't control.

It is as though my father were within me,
Smirking at my helplessness as I
Do the things I can't believe I'm doing,
Slapping, punching, growling like a dog.

"You see? You see?" he says. "I couldn't help it!
My father did it to me, and I to you.
And now you to your son. Come join the circle,
And when he has a son, he'll join us, too!"

"No! No!" I answer silently. But I
Go on beating, beating, beating who?
Myself? My father? But it is only you
Who lies there screaming, scrunched into a ball.

Why? Why do I do this? Why? I wonder
As I watch myself go on and on.
Then suddenly I'm done. The thing is over.
And you, as I once did, weep to the wall.

I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, so ashamed.
I touch your shoulder gently, and you shudder.
The remorse is so much worse than was the beating.
I remember. But I cannot help it.

I take you in my arms. You lie unmoving,
Surrendering your body, not your heart.
I know that I will never, never reach you.
And still I hope without hope for your love.

My fear and shame are like a dark cocoon.
They were when I was you, are with me still.
I'm safe within our shared disgust and horror.
I know like me you'll never say a word.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ineve7.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You

Adelaide

March 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a grown-up victim of child abuse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

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

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/adelai.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide

At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I

February 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

Today’s poem is the story of an abused child in Alaska who, looking back, sees a providential purpose to her pain.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

At odds of the night my sister Irene and I
Would count our coins that we might run away,
Stepping off the fated path of pain
That led me to the man whom I would love.

So little do we know of these, our lives,
That lead through dark and bitter labyrinths,
Sometimes to wind through sorrows unrelieved,
Sometimes to turn and climb through sunlit fields.

My mother was shot when I was three years old.
They brought us up to Anchorage to see her.
I don’t remember hearing she was dying.
I cried for juice and then was led away.

They took us down to live in Lower Kalskag
With those who didn’t care how we might wander
Through the chaos of their junk-strewn days,
Two melodies oft sung but rarely heard.

Often then we thought to run away
To live under the frozen moon and stars
Like faeries in a world of glittering ice,
Tinkling with each breath of polar wind;

Or walking with the freedom of the dead
By daylight in the shadows of the living,
Playing tricks on those whose anger lashed us
With all the passing fury of a storm.

Ah, bitter cold those days in Lower Kalskag!
Love was like an eagle high above us,
Soaring high above our frozen valley
Strewn with pleasure’s gnawed and splintered bones.

And life for me exactly was my heart:
A stone grooved deeply by slow-moving ice,
Borne upon an unrelenting glacier
Sliding like a snake towards some vast hell.

Long were I then lost to angry lust
Like those around me, save for two bright angels,
Strangers moved to pity by my suffering,
Who sent me to the Wrangell Institute.

There was a serenity of order
Strict with the insistence of wise love,
And I could be a child once again,
Safe to dream within my castle walls.

And there I met my life’s sweet love and light,
The boy who would become my man, my husband,
Whom I’d not have found another way.
And even as two children we knew love.

After Wrangell Institute I headed
Back to Lower Kalskag, for I knew
No other place to wait upon adulthood
When I and my sweet boy could make a home.

I never knew I had an older brother,
Now grown, who met me at the Wrangell airport,
Tore up my ticket, vowed that I would never
Go back to live in such a hell again;

And sent me to my sister in Bethel,
A sister also whom I never knew,
And there I stayed until I finished high school
And joined again the partner of my life.

We walked through rich and lovely fields together,
Filled with children, some who didn’t live,
Nor would I choose now to have suffered less
Upon a different path from birth to death.

We cannot know where fate by chance may take us
Or where the road through suffering may lead,
Or whether when we’re most submerged in darkness,
Our steps are headed straight into the light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/atodds.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I

How Both of You Are Voices of One Song

February 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem about how a couple’s love affects everyone around them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How both of you are voices of one song!
As counterpoint makes one soul out of two,
Pleasing to the heart in all you do:
Praising love with music clear and strong.
Your harmonies our faith and hope renew
As beauty like a wave sweeps over wrong:
No act of love can fail to touch us long,
Nor cold, dark anger fail to undo.
In coming years your love will only grow.
Vistas shared will open up behind.
Each kiss will glisten in the early dawn,
Reminding you of stars long tucked away.
So may your years of happiness bestow
A gift of sunlight warm, serene, and kind,
Revealing love of pride and passion shorn,
Yet basking in the glow of golden day.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/howbot.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary
Feb. 24: Forty Years Together You Have Loved
Feb. 25: A Father’s Fiancée
Feb. 26: Angels Just Love Weddings, Don’t You Think
Feb. 27: I Feel as Though a Dam Within Me’s Burst
Feb. 28: How Both of You Are Voices of One Song

I Feel as Though a Dam Within Me's Burst

February 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is about how a love betrayed can become a prison through the family it created.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I feel as though a dam within me’s burst
And yet the water’s solid and won’t flow.
I cannot bear to touch you, even though
I lie beside you praying for the worst.
Everything I’ve cherished now is cursed
By what I know and what I still don’t know.
I’m shut, and neither can nor cannot go.
I need to gather up my furies first.
My love for you lies murdered and unmoved,
Waiting for a wound that will not bleed.
We stay together for the children, yet
It seems a thousand years since we once loved,
And you were still a treasure and a need,
And I a fool whom fate would not forget.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary
Feb. 24: Forty Years Together You Have Loved
Feb. 25: A Father’s Fiancée
Feb. 26: Angels Just Love Weddings, Don’t You Think
Feb. 27: I Feel as Though a Dam Within Me’s Burst

Angels Just Love Weddings, Don't You Think

February 26, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem about a community of angels participating in the ceremony.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Angels just love weddings, don’t you think?
No one sees them, but we know they’re there,
Golden halos lassoing their hair,
Embodying a love beyond the brink.
Love draws them in like revelers to drink,
Alive in love, breathing love like air,
Amorous in ways we could not bear,
Needing us to be love’s earthly link.
Do, then, with an angel’s ecstasy,
Make your lives an amorous delight,
Intimate in ways both sure and sly,
Chaste but in the chamber of your love.
Heaven is not quite a fantasy;
Angels hover near, awaiting night.
Eden was a place where none was shy,
Loving as the naked lust might move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/angel6.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary
Feb. 24: Forty Years Together You Have Loved
Feb. 25: A Father’s Fiancée
Feb. 26: Angels Just Love Weddings, Don’t You Think

A Father's Fiancee

February 25, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem about how a marriage affects the children of a former marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A father’s fiancee is
An intended mother.
More than two are joined
This day in joy.
Though two may blossom
By the winged boy’s fountain,
Other flowers are watered
By that love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/fafian.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary
Feb. 24: Forty Years Together You Have Loved
Feb. 25: A Father’s Fiancée

Forty Years Together You Have Loved

February 24, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is a 40th anniversary poem about how marital love is passed on to subsequent generations.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty years together you have loved,
Opening a door to love for me.
Romantic hearts bequeath a harmony
That proves more rich than any life might prove.
Years pour like water rapidly downstream,
Yielding harvests gleaned in fields to come,
Each waiting for the heart to bring it home,
An unsought legacy so long foreseen.
Rejoice, then, in a beauty never gone,
Sustained by songs more sweet because passed on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/40year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary
Feb. 24: Forty Years Together You Have Loved

Happy Seventh Anniversary

February 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is a seventh anniversary poem comparing a marriage to a tree within a grove.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy seventh anniversary!
A tree now deeply rooted in the soil!
Praised be those whose love is long and loyal,
Pleased to join content with ecstasy.
Yet, as you know, your tree's within a grove,
So every limb and leaf you think is yours
Endures through common legacies and laws,
Vaster than the will of any Jove.
Even so, your love must play its part.
Never think that every casual kiss
That leaves your lips does not increase the bliss
Held for you in some communal heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ70.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself
Feb. 23: Happy Seventh Anniversary

No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself

February 22, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is how marriage both needs and creates a community of love.

Today’s poem is a poem about marriage that echoes John Donne’s Meditation 17, which begins, “No man is an island …”

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

No marriage is an island unto itself.
It is a piece of a mainland – of a family, of friends, of a community, of history.

Couples tend their gardens, but the water of life comes from elsewhere.
However great their efforts and their love, they cannot thrive alone.

Of each person, the boundaries are uncertain.
Lines are drawn on surfaces, but underneath roots tunnel where they will.
A marriage is but the most intimate intertwining.
So many others – even strangers – burrow into us for sustenance, or give us, unknowing, their nutrients underground.

A great love does not shine on only one small patch of ground,
Nor does love between husband and wife light only the space between the walls of their marriage.
Do not doubt that love felt in the privacy of one’s heart will someday lend a bit of beauty to someone else’s night.

Early in the history of Earth, the air was poisonous, and the land was sand and naked stone.
Later, living things sweetened the air and clothed the land and made it fertile.
Love also must be replenished daily, like soil, like air.
Each bit of love we feel helps all of us to breathe, enables all of us to grow.
No more than one tree can survive alone in a desert, can one marriage survive without a landscape of love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: How Marriage Both Needs and Creates a Community of Love.
Feb. 22: No Marriage Is an Island unto Itself

So May One Do Good That Does No Good

February 21, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a number poem about political activity, even when it seems to be in vain.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So may one do good that does no good
In ways that can be cataloged and measured.
X-rays of the heart show what one would,
Though a thousand protests be withstood.
Yet the act itself is to be treasured.

Each act becomes a word, a poem, a song
In which one writes one's message to one's time,
Giving one's reply to right and wrong,
Having peacefully not gone along,
The bearer of a promise and a sign.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2
Feb. 17: Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice
Feb. 18: Some Would Have the Courage of Their Dreams
Feb. 19: Greatness Is Effect Far More than Cause
Feb. 20: The President Was Without Precedent
Feb. 21: So May One Do Good That Does No Good

The President Was Without Precedent

February 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a Presidents Day poem about how Washington and then Lincoln kept the Union together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The President was without precedent
At the time that he took on the post.
Equally homespun and elegant,
He struck the precisely right note.

Refusing the power of kings,
He yet understood that the State
Required what reverence brings:
A loyalty one can create.

And so he became The Great Leader,
The focus of wide adulation.
Yet only a one-time repeater,
He served not the man, but the nation.

He gave to the State what the states
Could only recopy writ small:
The sense of a Center the fates
Must bless for the good of us all.

He played well the hero who held
The Union together those years,
Until the still-thin mixture jelled,
And fact was more forceful than fears;

Till the other great president we
Now jam into one day for two
Kept the Union together and free,
His own blood the ultimate glue.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2
Feb. 17: Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice
Feb. 18: Some Would Have the Courage of Their Dreams
Feb. 19: Greatness Is Effect Far More than Cause
Feb. 20: The President Was Without Precedent

Greatness Is Effect Far More than Cause

February 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for George Washington about how the nation’s need shaped his life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Greatness is effect far more than cause.
Each hero is the servant of his fate,
On whom is laid the sacrificial weight
Reserved for those who would heed higher laws.
Given peace, I would have shunned applause,
Electing to remain a farmer, great
With long-gestating plans for my estate,
A much-loved labor lost to much-loathed wars.
So was I the father of a nation,
Having given over life and love,
Instrument of some far greater hand,
Not by choice but of necessity.
Glory was the means by which to fashion
The myth that would a king's replacement prove:
Only I would do, and that demand
Narrowed, deepened, scoured, chastened me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2
Feb. 17: Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice
Feb. 18: Some Would Have the Courage of Their Dreams
Feb. 19: Greatness Is Effect Far More than Cause

Some Would Have the Courage of Their Dreams

February 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who is dedicated to political change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Some would have the courage of their dreams.
If one falls short, at least one's moved ahead.
Xeroxing the present only means
That one must read what one's already read.
Yet one small change a lifelong quest redeems.

Fate must reap what will has left for dead.
One need not accept a world that seems
Unchangeable, or shrug when blood is shed,
Resigned as once we were to kings and queens.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/somew5.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2
Feb. 17: Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice
Feb. 18: Some Would Have the Courage of Their Dreams

Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice

February 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a name poem for George Washington about leaders who pursue great ends.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Great ends demand great sacrifice,
Else the dream becomes a debt.
Open hearts will pay the price,
Redeeming loss without regret.
Great leaders also make demands,
Else the mandate turns to dust.
Willing minds find willing hands,
As courage shared engenders trust.
So a nation moves ahead,
Having found its avatar,
In hard times hungry to be led,
Navigating by its star.
Great followers must take great care
To choose a leader who will be
Out of love and duty there,
Not shy, but still reluctantly.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2
Feb. 17: Great Ends Demand Great Sacrifice

Seventy-Six2

February 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a number poem for a seventy-six year old who has passed political activism down to his children and grandchildren.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seventy-six has sown the sacred seed,
Ensuring that another generation,
Vested in the cause of liberation,
Engages in the politics of justice.
Nor after centuries is there less need.
The archetypal rulers are relentless.
Yet one can pit one's love against their greed.

Sing, then, of an inherited vocation,
Identities along a chain that's endless,
Xeroxing the dream that marks the breed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/76b.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance
Feb. 16: Seventy-Six2

Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance

February 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Washington’s Birthday, is political activism and greatness.

Today’s poem is a name poem for George Washington about what is necessary to achieve greatness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Greatness is the child of choice and chance,
Even when one's character is right.
One must fit the urgent circumstance,
Requiring wrongs that one's gifts can requite.
Greatness needs a time that calls for greatness,
Embracing an entire generation,
When some grave danger, failure, or injustice
Awaits a leader to unite the nation.
So might the mantle fall upon a soul
Having just the qualities to be
In mien and temper suited to the role.
Nor ought one, chosen, turn down history.
Greatness waits upon one like a bride
That knows well one's humility and pride,
On which she plays to keep one by her side.
Nor, after, will one care how much she lied.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/great2.html. For more Presidents Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Political Activism and Greatness.
Feb. 15: Greatness Is the Child of Choice and Chance

A Valentine Is Nothing Like

February 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is a humorous definition of a Valentine.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A Valentine is nothing like
A chocolate or a rose.
For in a week these shall be gone,
But Valentines remain.

If love were always sweet to tongue
Or fragrant to the nose,
Each day would be like Valentine's,
And we would go insane.

A Valentine just hangs around
Waiting to be kissed
Long after special days have passed
And every days are here.

So one is wise to choose one well
And chocolates to resist.
For in the midst of mania
It's nice to have one near.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life
Feb. 10: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
Feb. 11: The Day of Love Requires a Companion
Feb. 12: Will You Be My Valentine
Feb. 13: Very Little Love Is Lost in Living
Feb. 14: A Valentine Is Nothing Like

Very Little Love Is Lost in Living

February 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the nature of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Very little love is lost in living.
A star can fill a universe with light,
Lasting not one second less for giving
Each of us the gift of its delight.
Nor do we love ourselves the less for loving,
Taking others' pleasures for our own.
In love there is an ecstasy unmoving,
Neither more engaged nor less alone,
Eternal in its house of flesh and bone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life
Feb. 10: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
Feb. 11: The Day of Love Requires a Companion
Feb. 12: Will You Be My Valentine
Feb. 13: Very Little Love Is Lost in Living

Will You Be My Valentine

February 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is a will-you-be-my-valentine poem.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
You are like a tossing sea
And I am like your shores.

You are like an endless wave
And I your waiting sand.
And I will wait forever as
You come and smooth my hand.

I will wait forever, yet
You are a part of me.
I hold you in my arms, while you
Come to me endlessly.

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
I love you with a love that yearns
To be your golden shores.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life
Feb. 10: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
Feb. 11: The Day of Love Requires a Companion
Feb. 12: Will You Be My Valentine

The Day of Love Requires a Companion

February 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about being alone on Valentine’s Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The day of love requires a companion,
But I find myself at this time all alone.
Words of sweet affection fill the morning
Like bells outside the windows of my room.

I don't know why I don't have someone with me.
I've loved and been loved through the restless years.
The mysteries of love I hold within me
Are a darkness unrelieved by moon and stars.

And yet I feel more love than I have ever
Felt within the circle of a kiss.
Love need not be a passion or a fever,
Nor does it need a hand for its caress.

Love does not require a companion.
It doesn't need an object or a home.
It flies above the ecstasy of morning
And fills the universe inside my room.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life
Feb. 10: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains
Feb. 11: The Day of Love Requires a Companion

Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains

February 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem to a former lover.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Although our love is over, it remains
An unfrequented garden in my heart,
Its beauty quite inseparable from pain,
A wilderness where once was willful art.

I hope a little piece of you is still
Reserved for me, a place you may not go,
But where my room, untenanted, can fill
A moment with my music, sweet and slow.

There are no wishes like a former lover's
That from the dark, repentant night must shine.
And so though we have both moved on to others,
I send you from afar this Valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/altho3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life
Feb. 10: Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains

You Are the Landscape of My Life

February 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day love poem to a spouse.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You are the landscape of my life,
The only place I feel at home,
The view familiar to my heart,
The woods and fields I call my own.

You are the music of my life,
The melody I silent sing,
The harmony beneath my words,
The rhythm of my wandering.

You are the space in which I live,
The boundary of my ecstasy,
The pleasure palace of my dreams,
The flesh that fills my fantasy.

All this you are to me and more,
A soul so much a part of mine
That when I look within, you are
In me, my love, my valentine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youa10.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 8: I’m Far Too Shy to Tell You that I Love You
Feb. 9: You Are the Landscape of My Life