Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

May 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 10^th anniversary poem about attaining and retaining happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness has much to recommend it,

Although it might require sacrifice.

People very often will refuse it,

Perhaps because it means one must be nice.

Yet some can find love strong enough to choose it.

There is no simple, practical advice

Embracing all that one must do to gain it,

Nor set of rules, consistent and precise,

That would help happy people to retain it.

However, all things precious have a price.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ71.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.

May 16: The Years Flow Through Our Marriage like a River

May 17: Happiness Has Much to Recommend It

The Years Flow Through Our Marriage like a River

May 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a 24^th anniversary poem about love and time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The years flow through our marriage like a river

We watch from some steep bank along the way,

Each of us as much in love as ever,

Nor can our words this sense of grace convey.

Time runs on below us as we pause,

Yielding to the wonder of our love,

Fate that seems beyond effect and cause,

Our choices moved by ends we know not of.

Underneath our love is something more,

Refusing time and will, refusing age,

The joy in being that all life is for,

Here within us as we turn the page.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/theye3.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries.

May 16: The Years Flow Through Our Marriage like a River

Graduates Become the Cover Story

May 15, 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 how graduates affect the reputation of an institution.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduates become the cover story,

Representing all those still within;

As those who came before provide the glory

Determining how well one might begin.

Underneath the letters are the learners,

A class on whom the mantle now must fall,

Taken into custody as earners,

Each a new advertisement for all,

Serving as the institute writ small.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

May 13: There Is No Future Good Enough

May 14: Give Me My Degree and Let Me Go

May 15: Graduates Become the Cover Story

Give Me My Degree and Let Me Go

May 14, 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 from the point of view of someone who didn’t really want an education.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Give me my degree and let me go!

Release me from this prison of the mind!

All I know is all I want to know,

Depending on the wisdom of the wind.

Unburden me of words and numbers, please!

Allow me to hang out and do my thing.

To learn best, I should best be at my ease,

In touch with what in life makes my heart sing.

Open up the world so I can see

No further than I need to be just me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/givem2.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

May 13: There Is No Future Good Enough

May 14: Give Me My Degree and Let Me Go

There Is No Future Good Enough

May 13, 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 college as an idealistic time before one must make compromises with life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no future good enough

For what we hope to be,

Nor world with windows wide enough

For what we hope to see.

Yet when we turn to compromise

The dreams with which we wake,

We'll glimpse behind a memory

Which we cannot forsake.

How beautiful this time of youth

That is so quickly gone!

We came to learn together, and

In moments we are done.

How long we will remember this

Brief time when life would wait

Upon the true perception that

Comes always far too late.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/there5.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

May 13: There Is No Future Good Enough

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