Poem of the Week

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

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

June 25: I Want to Make It to My Graduation

June 26: There Are No Words to Match My Gratitude

Friday, June 24, 2016

I Want to Make It to My Graduation

June 25, 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 someone who might not live long enough to graduate.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I want to make it to my graduation

Even though I haven't long to live.

I want that one last hard-earned celebration

To give me all the joy that it can give.

I want your pride around me like a song,

To walk within its passion and its beauty,

To feel its pleasure in me sweet and strong,

To be possessed of all of those who love me.

And then I want the lazy afterglow,

The long, slow chatter of the waning day,

The easy confidence of those who know

That something precious has been put away.

Death's a dawn in that its golden light

Reveals the loveliness long hid by night.

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/iwant5.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

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

June 25: I Want to Make It to My Graduation

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.

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 22: Graduation Is a Time2

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

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

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.

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 22: Graduation Is a Time2

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

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.

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 22: Graduation Is a Time2

Monday, June 20, 2016

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.

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.