I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother's Place

June 24, 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 graduation poem from a stepmother.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I do not wish to take your mother's place,

And yet my pride and pleasure are no less.

You may not be the daughter of my flesh,

But you are still the daughter of my heart.

I know my very presence in your life

Can't help but to remind you of the pain

And anger of your parents' separation.

And yet my only purpose here is love.

Stepmothers and stepdaughters are a pair

Created both by joy and by disaster.

We did not choose each other, but were chosen

By love and by the anguish of love's end.

But we can choose to love each other well,

Accepting fortune's gift with unfeigned grace.

Know as you step forth this graduation:

You have my love as long as I have life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/idono5.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

June 21: Friends in High School Are Forever Young

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 23: Graduation Isn’t Gradual

June 24: I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother’sPlace

Graduation Isn't Gradual

June 23, 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 graduation poem about the shock of graduation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation isn't gradual.

In fact it's quite abrupt, a sudden shock.

It's more like rushing towards a waterfall:

One moment we're afloat, and then we're not.

Sure, we see it coming up ahead,

The water roaring into the abyss.

We make a joke and look away instead,

Unable to acknowledge what this is.

And then the moment's past, and we're the same.

Everyone is smiling, sunny bright.

Someone kisses us and calls our name,

And then we think, well, everything's all right.

But life is like that: things get smashed inside,

And we don't even know it. Foolishly,

We think we're in it only for the ride,

Yet mourn for all that can no longer be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grad6.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

June 21: Friends in High School Are Forever Young

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 23: Graduation Isn’t Gradual

Graduation Is a Time2

June 22, 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 humorous graduation poem about going just a bit insane.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation is a time

When our thoughts turn naturally

To vandalism, sex, and crime,

Now that we at last are free.

Our teachers think we're well prepared

To make decisions on our own;

But now, perhaps, they're running scared

As they listen to this poem.

Don't worry, folks, we aren't crazy,

Though sometimes we look that way;

Just annoyed, bored, and lazy

As we make it through the day.

So just like birds out of a cage

Or slaves set free from toil and pain,

We aim to try to act our age

And be for now a bit insane.

For life too soon will close its doors,

And then as we grow old in years

We'll teach our own kids to be bores,

But hopefully they'll stuff their ears

And do as we did, not as we do,

Facing life a tad askew.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grad5.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

June 21: Friends in High School Are Forever Young

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

Friends in High School Are Forever Young

June 21, 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 high-school graduation poem about leaving friends behind.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends in high school are forever young.

Unchanged, they're where you always will belong.

The crowd is never gone, the pleasure stays,

The music of the moment always plays,

The time remains a field of wistful grace

To which you may return from anyplace.

Of course, you may still know them later on

When you are someone else and years have run;

And you may love them dearly, and they you,

But time must make their friendship something new.

Meanwhile, flourishing within your heart

There is a whole, of which you were a part:

A group of friends, one in love and pain,

In whom your longing comes alive again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

June 21: Friends in High School Are ForeverYoung

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