Poem of the Week

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 4: Maybe There Is More to Life Than Living

June 5: Make My Sorrow Pride

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

June 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about how life is a gift that is sometimes worth giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there is more to life than living.

Existence has more meaning as a means.

Maybe life's a gift that's well worth giving

Once the sacrifice distills the dreams.

Remember, then, the heroes we have squandered

In ignorance and fear and lust and greed.

All sacrifice ought equally be honored

Lest we confuse the courage with the need.

Destiny decrees the undreamed end

As some die for the dreams they would defend,

Yet yearning for what lies beyond the deed.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe3.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 4: Maybe There Is More to Life Than Living

Friday, June 3, 2016

There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

June 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the saving grace of grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is in grief a saving grace,

A melody of love

So beautiful no angel could

A mourner's heart so move.

The pain is just a measure of

The value of the loss,

A gift that will remain a gift,

For life can be no less.

The love's not lost, nor will it be

Eroded by the wind,

But will become the soil in which

You plant new seeds each spring.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther35.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

June 3: There Is in Grief a Saving Grace

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Memory's an Antidote for Death

June 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about memory and death.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memory's an antidote for death.

Each love remembered does not wholly die.

Maybe one thinks loved ones will recall

One’s sacrifice preserved in ritual,

Redeemed by more than meets the buried eye.

In homage do the fallen draw their breath.

All, then, have a stake in memory,

Living in the hope of honor due.

Death might all obliterate, but all

Act with their post-mortem lives in view,

Yet longing to be loved in worlds to be.

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Memories Respond to Invitations

June 1, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the need for memorials to keep the memory of those long dead alive.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memories respond to invitations,

Electing in their interests to attend.

Moments of remembrance moor sensations

On shadows shifting gently in the wind.

Remember to remember, then, those passed

In whom we vested hope in days of strife,

Again among the trenches, dropping fast,

Lost now to love as once they were to life.

Do honor them with rituals that last,

A list of names reduced to battered brass

Yet hallowed by a hell we cannot end.

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.

Make of Me Whatever You Desire

May 31, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which falls on May 30.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day epitaph for a fallen soldier.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make of me whatever you desire.

Empty me of everything but you.

Memory's the light without the fire,

Offering what now will have to do.

Remember me for your sake, not for mine.

I'm nothing now but what you want to see,

A well-wrought miniature of your design,

Laid to rest within your marquetry.

Days of longing are for you alone

As I turn slowly into soil and stone,

Yielding what means nothing more to me.

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day.