Hard By Happiness Is Always Pain

May 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is motherhood, in honor of Mother’s Day, which falls on May 8.

Today’s poem is about how to deal with mixed emotions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hard by happiness is always pain.

A child is born in equal hope and fear,

Perhaps because one grieves what one holds dear,

Perhaps because all longing is in vain.

Yet beauty is what mothers stand to gain,

Music none but parents get to hear,

Of which the organ tone is deep and clear,

The best of being, love, that life sustains.

How might one manage well one’s mixed emotions,

Embracing while enduring parenthood,

Retaining the sweet glow of expectation

‘Mid chaos that one knows one must control?

So might one have to rearrange one’s notions,

De-coupling what one wills from what one would,

Allowing love to launder complications,

Yielding slowly to a separate soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hardb2.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Motherhood.

May 2: Mothers Are What Make the Boo-Boos Better

May 3: Hard By Happiness Is Always Pain

Mothers Are What Make the Boo-Boos Better

May 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is motherhood, in honor of Mother’s Day, which falls on May 8.

Today’s poem is about a mother’s timeless role.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Mothers are what make the boo-boos better,

Overcoming crises with a kiss.

There is no greater burden or delight,

Having as one’s role to make things right,

Even when one may find much amiss.

Remember that such loving lasts forever,

Singing through the silence of each night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/moth14.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Motherhood.

May 2: Mothers Are What Make the Boo-Boos Better

The Earth Needs Its Defenders

May 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is about the need to engage the souls of trees if we would save the Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The Earth needs its defenders. The long healing

Has just begun, has costs, has enemies,

Is fitful, is here and there, is not assured.

Remember that the patient won’t be cured

Till more of us engage the souls of trees,

Yielding to a deep and ancient feeling.

Those who don’t yet feel it must be lured

With wilderness, with art, with games revealing

Our inner tides, the wash of outer seas.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/theea2.html. For more poems for Earth Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/earthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 29: Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast of Light

April 30: Eleven

May 1: The Earth Needs Its Defenders

Eleven

April 30, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a number poem comparing an eleven-year-old girl to a young tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eleven is a lovely, slender tree,

Leaves fluttering like bright green butterflies.

Each root is tuned to murmurs in the skies,

Veering deep dark down deliciously.

Even as the root winds towards its lair,

New winds caress the sapling's long green hair.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/11.html. For more number poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 29: Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast of Light

April 30: Eleven

Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast of Light

April 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a poem for Arbor Day about the inner life of trees.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even trees awake to a breakfast of light.

In hungry excitement they elevate their leaves,

Great green choirs with ten thousand open mouths,

Hosanna-ing the sun from silent boughs.

Trees know glory with neither sound nor sight,

Yet spread their limbs with phototropic ease.

No one knows the inwardness of trees;

Imagination, though, rapport allows:

Nor sickness, fire, drought, nor age, nor blight

Erodes their silent worship of delight.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 29: Even Trees Awake to a Breakfast ofLight

To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

April 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a poem to a beloved older brother, comparing him to a tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To my brother, the tree upon my plain,

Open and upright, of love and sunshine made,

My landmark, my windbreak, my shelter from the rain:

You gather my longings into your dappled shade.

Before I spoke, you commandeered my tongue;

Remnants of that lordship linger still.

On your expression all my heaven hung;

The least of what you wanted was my will.

However much may change, this love remains,

Even as new faces new days fill,

Rich in yearning, as when we were young.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/tomybr.html. For more poems to family members, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/familypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 28: To My Brother, the Tree upon My Plain

After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree

April 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is trees, in honor of Arbor Day, which falls on April 29.

Today’s poem is a love poem in which a woman waits for her distant lover like a tree.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

After you leave, I will become a tree

Alone on a hillside, loving wind and sun,

Waiting for you to return home to me

Though centuries of lonely stars may run.

I'll grow tall and give lots of shade,

Sheltering birds and other bright-eyed things.

Pleased with all the progress that I've made,

I'll spread my leafy branches out like wings.

But oh! Every moment of every day

I'll miss you with the passion of the wind,

Gazing endlessly upon the way

That without you must empty, empty wind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/after2.html. For more love poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Trees.

April 25: For Ancient Trees Weeping Once a Year

April 26: Ashley

April 27: After You Leave, I Will Become a Tree