I Don;t Want You to Think that You Must Do

April 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is about friendship as a joy rather than an obligation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don’t want you to think that you must do

Anything for me you don’t want to.

Friendship should not ever be a burden,

But should instead through sharing one’s load lighten.

Please don’t think you know my expectations

And then interpret them as obligations,

But do whatever brings you joy and grace,

And I will join you in that sunny space.

And when I share my sadness and my pain,

Feel blessed to know that you can do the same.

For friendship is a gift that in the giving

Gives beauty to one’s daily acts of living;

Gives music to the moment, and gives dance

To all who would through love find choice in chance,

And in a friend the good that friendship grants.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite the poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/idont4.html . For more poems about friendship, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship.

April 4: I Don’t Want You to Think that You MustDo

For Us There Is No Death

April 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph on a cemetery headstone for a couple buried together.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For us there is no death.
Rest here merely bones.
Around you love's in flower,
Zero though our breath,
Etched into these stones.
Read and feel its power.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth
March 31: Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting”
April 1: My God Was the Future
April 2: So Few Realize What Life Is About
April 3: For Us There Is No Death

So Few Realize What Life Is About

April 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a man who treasured ordinary life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So few realize what life is about.
If I knew nothing else, I knew warmth, pleasure,
Despite everything, I knew love.

People look for what they can measure:
A degree, money, children they can brag about,
Reasons others might wish them mazel tov.
On days like other days were moments I treasured,
Life like other lives, humdrum, passing without
Yammering, with you, with the children, full, enough ...

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth
March 31: Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting”
April 1: My God Was the Future
April 2: So Few Realize What Life Is About

My God Was the Future

April 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a former Communist.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My God was the future. I’m with Him now,
As inchoate as we must always be,
Xeroxing my position on eternity.

Go find me in the future of your dreams,
Or in the box wherein you hide your zeal;
Remember me when fear says what is real,
Dictating truths to which your hopes must bow.
Only fierce passion a misplaced heart redeems:
Nothing less shall be my legacy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth
March 31: Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting
April 1: My God Was the Future

Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting

March 31, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a former union president.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death came to me while I was at a meeting,
Opened up my chest and wandered in.
Nor did it leave until a few days later,
Satisfied it need not come again.
It was a death both unforeseen and fitting,
Living as I did for what I did,
Being one averse to merely being,
Engaged in service to the world I would.
Remember me, then, as I was when death
Made its sudden entrance to my heart:
Attentive in my seat, my wife beside me,
Night come, the meeting just about to 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/death2.html. For more epitaphs, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html.

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
> March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth
March 31: Death Came to Me While I Was at a Meeting

All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth

March 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a social scientist with a sense of humor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All I wanted was to find the truth,
Subtle and elusive though it be,
However insusceptible to proof,
Ever stranger than the world we see,
Revealed to us as probability.

And so I found in humor a fit foil,
Rendering the world a tad askew.
I would with relish expectations roil,
And with a wry pun pertly turn the soil,
Not distant from a different kind of true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace
> March 30: All I Wanted Was to Find the Truth

Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace

March 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is epitaphs, imagined final words in the form of name poems from real people who have died.

Today’s poem is an epitaph for a proper Englishwoman who died of lung cancer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Endure your pain with patience, grit, and grace.
Do your work with pleasure and with care.
Nor should you let your troubles cloud your face
And veil the sunshine that you else might share.
Cheerfulness disarms adversity.
One muddles through on pluck and with a smile,
On courage and a proper cup of tea.
Nor should such sense be just a passing style.
Even though I suffered monstrous pain,
Yet with whole heart would I live again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Epitaphs.
March 28: Shadows Haunted Me
March 29: Endure Your Pain with Patience, Grit, and Grace