Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

July 10, 2014 #796

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Because the root of poverty is injustice,
And there is wealth enough for all to have
Sustenance and shelter, and the promise
That all will prosper if they work and save;
Indeed, because those then have fewer children,
Leaving each more room in which to grow,
Leveraging lives through education,
Elevating lives by what they know:
Do not succumb to comfortable despair,
And think the poor, like flies, are simply there,
Yielding what might be to what seems so.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/uSgMPWmNBGQ.

Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

July 3, 2014 #796

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Indeed, this should be interdependence day.
No nation can lay claim to independence.
Despite the myth of sovereignty, we are
Entangled in a web of greed and need,
Poised upon the lip of life’s destruction.
Eventually, pain will have its way,
Nor will we fail forever our descendants.
Death comes singing anthems from afar,
Even as each victim is a seed
Now blowing in the wind of our redemption.
Come, then, for the Earth will have its say,
Eloquent on the subject of dependence.
Divided, we have not the strength to bar
A nation from its exercise of greed.
Yet as one world, we can avoid extinction.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/mylUe9xF6zk.

Right Action Is the Mother of Right Feeling

June 26, 2014 #795

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Ramadan.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Right action is the mother of right feeling.
As one does, one ultimately becomes.
Mere words are insufficiently revealing.
An act of faith revives what living numbs.
Do, then, faithfully the month observe,
And by your abstinence your spirit serve.
Nor will that act be any less than healing.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/7iq0rtKHp2g.

This Is a Time of Extraordinary Hope

June 19, 2014 #794

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

This is a time of extraordinary hope.
What makes a couple think their love’s for life?
The passion comes and goes as couples cope
With what it means to be a man and wife.
Love that lasts is more than just a feeling,
More than ecstasy or tenderness,
More than empathy, however healing,
More than affection, joy, or happiness.
All these are love, and yet they will not last
Without a daily, conscious act of will.
The bridge between the future and the past
Is the choice to love through good and ill.
Love can be for life, but only when
The choice is made again, again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/3fheWnV409I.

Find Your Children Everywhere You Look

June 12, 2014 #793

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Find your children everywhere you look
And nurture them with passion and with pleasure.
The road you're on and those that you forsook
Have joined in what you ultimately treasure.
Each life is filled with love one can pass on,
Returning, turning, burning till one's gone,
Such sweet inheritance as none might measure.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/enC4ECBCs7I.

Glad to Graduate and Sad to Leave

June 5, 2014 #792

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/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Glad to graduate and sad to leave.
Ready to go, reluctant to depart.
Anxious to learn what more we can achieve.
Divided down the center of the heart.
Underneath our premature nostalgia,
Avidly we dream of things to come.
The moment is a multilayered mixture
In which each part is greater than the sum.
Our longing is the source of memory.
Nor will we soon forget when we were we.

© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/2jv0IoYIRSU.

My Tiny Toes Are Not My Nose

May 29, 2014 #790

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for children.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My tiny toes
Are not my nose.
My chubby thighs
Are not my eyes.

My slender hips
Are not my lips.
My salty tears
Are not my ears.

My soft, soft skin
Is not my chin.
My tummy-tum-tum
Is not my thumb.

My wrinkled palms
Are not my arms.
My tight-clenched fist
Is not my wrist.

And yet I know
I am made so
When they combine
They are all mine!


© by Nicholas Gordon.

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at http://youtu.be/Z56cZl1xbfI.