Poem of the Week

June 7, 2012 #687

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a wedding 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/week.html .

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 others' love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 31 2012 #686

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a graduation 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Free at last! Our childhood is over!
Now we can look back with tearful eyes
And see ourselves through sentimental lies,
As though these were for us the best years ever.
Perhaps they were, but we won't know till later,
When we have seen the landscapes of our lives,
And known the love of husbands or of wives,
And tasted of our fortunes, sweet or bitter.
For now, we're simply happy to move on
Yet sad for all that we must leave behind,
Celebrating as we say farewell.
Days and years flow swiftly through the mind,
Lingering long after they are gone
As tales we cannot help but oft retell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 24, 2012 #686

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Memorial Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make a little time for public mourning,
Easing the harsh pangs of hidden grief.
Maybe ritual tears will bring relief,
Offering a role for one's dark calling.
Remember the utility of sharing,
Inviting cloistered hearts to come outdoors
And dance with us along our barren shores,
Lost within the music of our longing.
Death requires our collaboration
As we render due commemoration,
Yielding sorrow to the common cause.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 17, 2012 #685

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a love 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon.

How can I persuade you I'm sincere,
That my affection equals my desire?
I can tell you what you want to hear,
But there's no way to prove I'm not a liar.
Time may tell, but how much time must pass
Before you are convinced by what I do?
My eyes are eyes, not windows made of glass
Through which you can see clearly what is true.
Love cannot be, but at the risk of pain.
Nothing can be guaranteed to last.
Mere longing leads to neither loss nor gain.
One must bet before the dice are cast.
I know I love you, but you cannot know
My heart unless you trust that it is so.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

May 10, 2012 #684

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Mother's Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here there can be no excuse for sadness!
All must be happy on this Mother's Day!
Pleased to be, for being comes this way;
Pleased to feel the common sense of gladness.
Yet some are blighted, broken by life's badness,
Maimed by mothers battering as they may,
Owned by grief unowned, and tears that stay
Through joy and sorrow, sanity and madness.
How might such victims join the celebration,
Enduring happiness they cannot share,
Remaining, as they must, marooned outside,
'Mid memories too painful to recall?
So might there still be love in the relation,
Despite the rage that, buried, yields despair,
A longing in the child that screamed and cried
Yet strong enough to make sense of it all.

© by Nicholas Gordon

May 3, 2012 #683

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a graduation 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduates are people with degrees,
Rewarded with some letters by their names.
An education must be more than these.
Doubtful bosses aren't playing games.
Unless you know the things you need to know,
And have a mind honed well by what you've learned,
The piece of paper might as well be snow –
It is the least of what you here have earned.
Of what value have these hard years been?
Now that depends on how much you put in.

© by Nicholas Gordon

April 26, 2012 #682

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a name 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/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

ABNER/ABNER

Abner likes to do what is expected,
Being in agreement with the rules.
Now and then, of course, he feels rejected,
Even though no duty is neglected,
Restored by thinking pride is meant for fools.

Abner likes to do the unexpected,
Being in rebellion against rules.
Now and then, of course, he feels neglected,
Even though no outrage is rejected,
Restored by thinking most of us are fools.

© by Nicholas Gordon