Grateful for What We Have Learned

May 12, 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 need for lifelong learning.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Grateful for what we have learned,

Ready now to start

A life in which what we will earn

Depends upon the heart.

Underneath our new degrees

Are habits, knowledge, skill,

That are essential qualities

In anyone who will

One day look back upon this day

Needing learning still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grate2.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

May 10: I Would Be Proud of You, Could I Attend

May 11: To the Graduate Who Makes Me Smile

May 12: Grateful for What We Have Learned

To the Graduate Who Makes Me Smile

May 11, 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 for a graduate from a female friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To the graduate who makes me smile

Or melt away whenever he comes near,

The handsome one, with lovely eyes and hair,

Hearts leaning toward his sunlight all the while:

Even I, who am your friend, lean toward you,

Gripped with pride in all that you have done,

Relishing the compliments you've won,

Alight with all the ways I might reward you.

Draw your own sweet dreams. I wish you well

Upon your graduation and beyond.

And if I could, I'd wave my magic wand

That happiness for you I might compel,

Even as I think what time might tell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

May 10: I Would Be Proud of You, Could I Attend

May 11: To the Graduate Who Makes Me Smile

I Would Be Proud of You, Could I Attend

May 10, 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 for a graduate from a deceased parent.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I would be proud of you, could I attend,

Would I now know the things I'll never know,

Could I have watched you come to comprehend

The wonder of the world in which you grow.

Do not think I did not think of you,

Imagining the beauty of this day,

For I was at your graduation, too,

Though long ago, and in a different way.

Life can be full, no matter short or long,

As long as love can fill it with its grace.

And I have felt such pride, and love so strong,

That you will live your life in my embrace.

So of the pride today I claim my share:

Though I am not, I know that I am there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwoul3.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

May 10: I Would Be Proud of You, Could I Attend

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