Moving On from Middle School

June 20, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a middle-school graduation poem about moving on.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Moving on from middle school.

Growing up, I guess.

Going on to high school.

Happy, more or less.

Sometimes life is like that.

Leaving stuff behind.

Nothing much remaining.

Memories in the wind.

Yes, sometimes life is like that.

Here and then it’s gone.

That’s OK. I’m ready.

Moving, moving on.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 20: Moving On from Middle School

The Things You Taught Me I Will Always Know

June 19, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day thank-you poem from a grateful child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The things you taught me I will always know.

How could I not? The roots have sunk so deep:

All lessons of the heart that I will keep

No matter who I am or where I go.

Kids learn from what their parents are, and so

You are my book of life, the thoughts I reap;

Only in your arms I quiet sleep;

Under my words your voice sings soft and slow.

From you I learned the rules of right and wrong

Against which I at times had to rebel,

Though with regret I carry with me still.

How lucky I am to have been loved so well,

Even as I pushed against your will,

Relying on a father fair and strong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones

June 15: Happiness Comes in Many Shapes and Sizes

June 16: Daddy, I Love You

June 17: Fathers Who Must Love from Far Away

June 18: Perhaps We’ll NeverUnderstand Each Other

Jun 19: The Things You Taught Me I Will AlwaysKnow

Perhaps We'll Never Understand Each Other

June 18, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day poem from a son who fights with his father.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Perhaps we'll never understand each other.

Loving doesn't mean that we agree.

If that were so, then I would say, why bother?

But there are things I know I'll never see.

I'm sure your heart knows what I don't yet know:

The pain of loving a reluctant son;

The anger, coming fast and building slow,

Of being helpless to control someone.

You want only that I grow up right,

But you know what right is, and I still don't.

I have to learn to wield my inner light,

And if I follow yours, well, then I won't.

I'm sorry for the anger in the air;

Though we fight, my love is always 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/perha2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones

June 15: Happiness Comes in Many Shapes and Sizes

June 16: Daddy, I Love You

June 17: Fathers Who Must Love from Far Away

June 18: Perhaps We’ll Never Understand EachOther

Fathers Who Must Love from Far Away

June 17, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day poem for fathers who are separated from their child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fathers who must love from far away

Are distanced from their child by more than space.

The child changes almost every day.

How might the father hope, then, to keep pace?

Even so, the deeper bond remains

Regardless of the losses and the gains,

Sight unseen, yet strong and full of grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/fathe7.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones

June 15: Happiness Comes in Many Shapes and Sizes

June 16: Daddy, I Love You

June 17: Fathers Who Must Love from Far Away

Daddy, I Love You

June 16, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day poem from a little child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Daddy, I love you

For all that you do.

I'll kiss you and hug you

'Cause you love me, too.

You feed me and need me

To teach you to play,

So smile 'cause I love you

On this Father's Day.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones

June 15: Happiness Comes in Many Shapes and Sizes

June 16: Daddy, I Love You

Happiness Comes in Many Shapes and Sizes

June 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day poem for someone who is childless.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness comes in many shapes and sizes.

Anyone can find a proper fit.

Praised be those who take life bit by bit,

Poised to polish setbacks and surprises.

Yet life is always more than one surmises.

Fortune favors those who favor it,

And whether caused by choice, chance, whim, or writ,

Turns out to be a text that one revises.

How might you, childless, celebrate this day,

Enjoying what will never be your own,

Reminded of a loss you might regret

‘Mid families out to pay their homage due?

So may you cherish children on your way,

Delighting in the ones you have on loan,

And do with love and art the things that let

You father what is beautiful and true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ73.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones

June 15: Happiness Comes in Many Shapes andSizes

I Have You in My Bones

June 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is fatherhood, in honor of Father’s Day, which falls on June 19.

Today’s poem is a Father’s Day poem from a child who was abandoned by his father.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I have you in my bones, the way I laugh,

The way I shrug, a moodiness that gathers

When I don't get my way. You are half

Of me, and yet I've never met you. It matters,

Oh, yes, it matters. You are in my smile,

The way I whistle when I'm happy, a certain

Skip up the stairs, a jaunty sense of style,

Off-kilter, off-key. I peer around the curtain

Of your abandonment and wonder: What

If you had stayed, had loved me, had loved my mother?

And what does it say of me that you would put

Yourself so first? Is that also me? What other

Ugliness have I from you? Or grace?

They say I am the mirror of your face.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Fatherhood.

June 13: Children Need a Daddy

June 14: I Have You in My Bones