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