Poem of the Week

November 18, 2010 #608
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a set of proverbs.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
SELFISHNESS AND SELFLESSNESS
 
1. The last vestige of egotism is the desire to sacrifice oneself for others.
2. The reward for self-sacrifice is self-adulation.
3. The desire to “make a difference” is a desire for personal significance, the cause of much evil, error, and pain.
4. True selflessness requires one to relinquish the desire for power.
5. The motivations for action ought always to be joy and love.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 11, 2010 #607
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Veterans Day poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Victories are never victories.
Every battle waged is a defeat.
The end contains the seeds of the repeat.
Even heroes will take liberties.
Remember this, then, when you go to war:
Although the cause be just, the means is not.
None can write in blood without a blot
Seeping back beneath the bedroom door.
Death cries for vengeance; destruction for destruction.
A battle plan is always a reduction:
You kill your foe yet murder so much more.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

November 4, 2010 #606
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a philosophical poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Generations are like streams
Fed by storms in paradise,
Leaping down in waterfalls
That smash upon the rocks below.
 
More placid now, they bear the weight
Of barges on their oily breasts,
And cool the coils of power plants,
And make of love a sacrifice.
 
Near the sea they flatten out
And drop their rage among the reeds,
A swamp of toxic testament
Filtered through the mangrove roots.
 
They start and end with love. Between,
They pick up silt and carry it
Through life, up to the delta's edge,
Where, washed by fear, they join the sea.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 28, 2010 #605
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Election Day (USA)..
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Politics brings out the worst in us.
One is more vile the more there is at stake.
Leveraging a little animus,
It turns mere opposition into hate.
The lava bubbling underneath each heart,
Inhibited by guilt or love or fear,
Comes bursting forth, by scribes with subtle art
Stoked vigorously as new elections near.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 21, 2010 #604
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Fifty-one is entering the fall,
In which the colors of her life will brighten.
For her the painted world is but a wall
That shields a void no passion can enlighten.
Yet one can mime its mystery in all.
 
O season of remembrance! A shawl
Now covers the dark branches that will whiten,
Each laden with a dream none will recall.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 14, 2010 #603
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a political poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
The triumph of the victor means
The losses have begun.
To be well-nigh invincible
Is to be on the run.
 
Power is a current that
Goes swiftly out to sea.
One's will is wind on grass; one's only
Hope is to be free.
 
Safety lies in wisdom more than
Strength since strength must die,
While wisdom rides the waves beneath which
Sunken victors lie.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

October 7, 2010 #602
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Columbus Day poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Could I have seen the consequence
Of my bold exploration,
Looking back before I left
Upon my life's creation --
Millions genocidally
Butchered, starved, enslaved
Under laws and governments
Sustained by men depraved --
Despite all this, I would have gone,
And new lands found, and new worlds known,
Yet drawn by winds I craved.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon