Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

July 9, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Blessed are those who compromise their visions
And share their power with the other side,
Substituting faith for fratricide,
Trading principles for joint decisions.
Instead of blood, their battles will yield laws,
Less just, perhaps, than those they would have wanted,
Less brutal than the crimes that would have haunted
Each of them and undermined their cause.
Democracy requires compromise
And sometimes letting fools outvote the wise.
Yet some prefer the righteousness of wars.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-kxMVUYKU2Q. For more Independence Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

July 2, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about corruption for Independence Day (USA).

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In politics corruption is the norm,
Nor can one wield much power without its aid.
Democracy demands that minds be swayed,
Eviscerating efforts at reform.
Perhaps in tyrannies corruption’s worse,
Existing without recourse or restraint.
Not even when the ruler is a saint,
Devout and good, can one stamp out this curse.
Each country has some white knights still unstained,
Nor can idealists long remain in power.
Corruption simply waits until their hour
Erodes once their energy has waned.
Depending on its character and press,
A nation might be more corrupt or less,
Yet underneath the law the blight remains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/TVoNe-fLyhE. For more Independence Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

Live with Me and Be My Love

June 25, 2015

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

BRIDE OR GROOM
Live with me and be my love,
My lifelong friend and lover, too,
My confidante, my counselor,
And I will be the same to you.

GROOM OR BRIDE
Live with me and be my love,
My partner in this venture new,
My paramour, my pleasure toy,
And I will be the same to you.

BRIDE OR GROOM
Live with me and be my love,
My mentor and my witness true,
My second self, my family,
And I will be the same to you.

GROOM OR BRIDE
Live with me and be my love,
And live not just for one but two;
Be for me my home, and I
Will gladly be your home for you.

TOGETHER
Love’s a song that we will sing,
A dance that we will dance together,
And though in time our time must end,
A love for life will last forever.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/POJlgEJt_LQ.

Fantasies Find Flower in What's Real

June 18, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fantasies find flower in what's real –
A wife and children waiting at the door.
Though there is much, perhaps, one would repeal,
How sweet it is to know what one is for.
Enduring love is like an organ tone
Resounding 'neath the restless notes of home,
So beautiful one could not ask for more.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Uw9JbqdxU74.

Graduation Grabs You from Behind

June 11, 2015

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

Graduation grabs you from behind.
Reality seems suddenly unreal,
A timeless moment somehow trapped in time,
Drowning in a feeling you can’t feel.
Ultimately, when the day is over
And you are left alone with who you are,
The moment will be something to remember,
In which you feel your feelings from afar.
Only now too much is happening.
Nor can you keep your heart from wandering.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/4lbYBRyp828.

We Put Our Greatest Treasures in Your Hands

June 4, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a thank you poem to school bus drivers and attendants.

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

We put our greatest treasures in your hands,
And watch the yellow buses pull away,
And turn back to the purposes and plans
That tend to take up much of every day.
How strange! Our scattered lives depend on trust.
We give our children up into the care
Of people we don’t know because we must,
Because to do our jobs we can’t be there.
How strange! For life to work we all must be
Dependable and good at what we do.
But children must be handled lovingly,
And therefore we are grateful to have you.
The work you do requires skill and art,
But most of all it needs a loving heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/nFcIaxR8Bvw.

Let There Be Joy, Always Joy in Giving

May 28, 2015

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about charity written for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly.

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

Let there be joy, always joy in giving,
In serving those who cannot serve themselves.
There is no better gift one gets from living
Than that sweet will that from the heart upwells.
Let there be pleasure in giving others pleasure,
Enjoyment in giving others joy,
Sheer happiness, beyond all one might measure,
In toiling in a loving God's employ.
So may we be the instruments of love,
The flesh of God's will working in the world,
Each a thread within the banner of
Redemption, to the winds of time unfurled.
Sacrifice is then no sacrifice,
Obligation then no obligation,
For what is gained has neither peer nor price,
There being none remotely in relation.
How might one find sanctity in service,
Each menial task a grateful act of prayer?
Perhaps if one believed that life was senseless,
Old folk were simply woe one wouldn't share.
Only love gives dignity to all,
Restoring faith in those who heed its call.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem on YouTube at https://youtu.be/xW9PUXQtBQo.