Alma Maters Nourish More than Mind

May 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is about the value of a broad, general education.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Alma maters nourish more than mind:

Light within illuminates the whole,

Making one of multitudes combined,

Allowing each the passion of its soul.

Maybe we'll forget much that we've learned

As we narrow to a single road.

The powers we were given we have earned,

Ever the way blessings are bestowed,

Riches not retained until returned.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Graduation.

May 9: Alma Maters Nourish More than Mind

Maybe There's a Hug for You This Morning

May 8, 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 the difficulties and joys of motherhood.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there’s a hug for you this morning,

Opening your heart to happiness.

The sacrifices are far more than you

Had thought in your worst fantasies you knew,

Exacting more than language can express.

Regardless, you would do again no less

Since joy comes every day with little warning.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/mayb11.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

May 4: Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

May 5: Maybe There’s a Sorrow That You Hide

May 6: Here There Is No Antidote for Longing

May 7: Maybe There Are Mothers Without Children

May 8: Maybe There’s a Hug for You This Morning

Maybe There Are Mothers Without Children

May 7, 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 for mothers without children.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there are mothers without children

On whom this day will smile out of love.

The name, perhaps, is honored by the burden,

However justified, or not, by blood.

Each love of children, even not one's own,

Reverberates throughout this world of stone,

Singing of what nothing else could prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/mayb10.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

May 4: Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

May 5: Maybe There’s a Sorrow That You Hide

May 6: Here There Is No Antidote for Longing

May 7: Maybe There Are Mothers Without Children

Here There Is No Antidote for Longing

May 6, 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 the need to give children space.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here there is no antidote for longing.

A love like this admits no more or less.

Perhaps that is the price of happiness.

Perhaps love is itself a kind of yearning.

Yet mothers need to temper their desiring,

Making room for those whom they would bless,

On whom they lay the burden of success,

The mirror in which they would see their dancing.

Here one cannot choose to be too choosy.

Each child is a separate universe

Regarding one’s sweet dreams with its own eyes

‘Mid the ancient battleground called love.

So must mothers do their chosen duty,

Deep in love for better or for worse,

And easy in their minds, if they are wise,

Yet with hopes no wisdom can remove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/heret6.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

May 4: Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

May 5: Maybe There’s a Sorrow That You Hide

May 6: Here There Is No Antidote for Longing

Maybe There's a Sorrow That You Hide

May 5, 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 for mothers of miscarried children.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there’s a sorrow that you hide,

One that never lessens, never leaves,

That sings a lonely counterpoint inside,

Hard to hear but for the one who grieves.

Each child unborn is not therefore unloved,

Redeemed by tears that through dry streambeds move

So quietly the pain can scarcely breathe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/maybet.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

May 4: Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

May 5: Maybe There’s a Sorrow That You Hide

Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

May 4, 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 a Mother’s Day poem for an aunt.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Aunts are like a small, secluded garden,

Untenanted but treasured nonetheless,

Needed most in times of most distress

Though visited at any time a person

Seeks comfort, peace, or just a place to rest.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/aunt3.html. For more poems about other family members, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/familypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Motherhood.

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

May 3: Hard by Happiness Is Always Pain

May 4: Aunts Are like a Small, Secluded Garden

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