Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

March 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about choosing between a life of love and a life of lust.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fools desire flesh; the wise love souls.
Friendship, kindness, generosity,
Humor, wit, a harbor free of shoals --
These bring far more joy than ecstasy.
Yet there are those who, bored by harmony,
Prefer an edgy dissonance that holds
The prospect of a life near duty free,
Adventure unconstrained as time unfolds.
There is, of course, no choice without its cost.
One must be this or that or in between.
And what one isn’t stays within the heart.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is lost.
The self’s less self less selfless, and more mean,
While loving is a rich yet ruthless art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/foolsd.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust
March 12: Fools Desire Flesh; the Wise Love Souls

Let the Love Be Free of Lust

March 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about how lust and the imagination help a marriage survive.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let the love be free of lust
And watch the marriage die.
Devils dance on days of dust
As desperate lovers lie.

Yet how might lust survive the years
Of naked intimacy,
The thousand nights of talk and tears,
The flesh too tame to free?

The answer lies in lovers' dreams
Made flesh in lovers' play,
Where each becomes the other's means -
White canvas, willing clay;

A mutual acceptance of
A mutual desire
For lust, a generous act of love
That fuels the inner fire;

Still themselves, still faithful to
A marriage of the heart,
Making old love ever new
With chaste and playful art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/letth4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding
March 11: Let the Love Be Free of Lust

Supine but Unyielding

March 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about a woman who needs lust but is afraid to love.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Supine but unyielding
She undisposed lay,
Ready for pleasure,
Unready for play.

The point was relentless,
The orgasm long,
The aftermath ugly,
The aftertaste strong.

Driven by need
She opened her pelt,
Too angry and bitter
To open herself.

And so the rage rotates,
And so the world turns:
The love that one risks
Is the love that one earns.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/supine.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart
March 10: Supine but Unyielding

I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

March 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

In today's poem a misogynist serial lover warns his next victim to beware.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,
Nick Gordon

I would not sink my teeth into your heart
Nor leave you in your naked need alone.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I'll pursue your love with all my art,
Then thrust my hatred in you, bone to bone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart

And drag you off to ravish like some tart
Whose body will disgust me when I'm done.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

That I will rip your rhapsodies apart
And turn your sweet illusions into stone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart.

Instead, I'll share with you the funeral cart
That slowly takes our love to its last home.
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start

As you attempt our harmonies to chart:
I will not for one agony atone.
I would not sink my teeth into your heart,
But I give you fair warning 'ere we start.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwoul4.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure
March 9: I Would Not Sink My Teeth into Your Heart

Passion's a Preliminary Pleasure

March 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about passion’s place in love.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Passion's a preliminary pleasure,
An introduction to the themes of love.
Some mistake it for the greater treasure,
Sustaining it by keeping on the move.
In beginning time and time again,
One makes oneself the centerpiece, and then
None can of one's heart the object prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/passi3.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust
March 8: Passion’s a Preliminary Pleasure

The Difference Between Love and Lust

March 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is lust, both the good and the bad.

Today’s poem is about the difference between love and lust.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The difference between love and lust is:

Lust is about me.

Love is about us.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thedif.html. For more poems about love, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Lust.
March 7: The Difference Between Love and Lust

I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself

March 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is child abuse. Since many of my poems are written on request, some of the stories you will see contained in these poems are unfortunately true.

In today’s poem an abusive mother, years after her children are grown, asks for understanding.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I had a rough time with three kids by myself,
And I know that I didn't do well.
Counseling, fights, children's services, courts:
What I put you through must have been hell.

But I loved you - all of you - all of that time,
When my heart seemed to break every day,
When crushed, and crushed, and crushed against stones,
I would that the wind were my way.

And I tried - how I tried - to be what you needed
And show you the love in my heart.
But often the fantasy crashed and exploded,
And all that I was came apart.

And now you are grown, I don't ask forgiveness,
Just some understanding will do,
Of the person, however imperfect, whose life
And whose love was devoted to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ihadar.html. For more poems about child abuse, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/childabusepoems.html.

This week’s theme: Child Abuse.
Feb. 29: At Odds of the Night My Sister Irene and I
Mar 1: Adelaide
Mar 2: I Never Thought that I Would Do to You
Mar 3: Caitlynn
Mar 4: You Told Me in a Dream You Always Loved Me
Mar 5: The Pain Will Never Go Away
Mar 6: I Had a Rough Time with Three Kids by Myself