Change and Love Are Contrapuntal Voices

June 29, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem for two musicians.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Change and love are contrapuntal voices

Held together by one harmony.

Remember that, though wed, one still makes choices

In which the will must shape love’s melody.

Sing, then, of that interminable duet,

The interplay of permanence and change,

Of which a marriage is the best score yet,

Performed by those whose lives love has arranged.

How might two people keep their lifelong vows,

Each changing, changing through the passing years?

Remember, then, the beauty that allows

A song to make a timeless joy of tears.

One creates through love a dwelling place

In which one lives with dignity and grace,

Founded on an act of will that would

Embrace for life what makes life sane and good.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/chang3.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

June 28: All Agree that Love’s a Good Investment

June 29: Change and Love Are Contrapuntal Voices

All Agree that Love's a Good Investment

June 28, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a wedding poem for a financial consultant.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All agree that love’s a good investment

That over time will yield a rich return.

However, it is not insured. Contentment

Is never guaranteed, as one will learn.

So look for long-term growth and lifelong gain,

Happy to ride out the ups and downs.

A love that lasts is one that two sustain.

Years pass, love grows, the grace of life astounds.

Amazingly, with love the more one spends,

Like little else in life, the more one has,

Investing one’s self more than one intends,

Yielding earnings unexpected, as

A well-wrought bond brings love that never ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

June 28: All Agree that Love’s a Good Investment

Wedding Vows3

June 27, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since June is a popular month for weddings, that is this week’s theme.

Today’s poem is a set of wedding vows.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

BRIDE OR GROOM

Strange how just one moment can

Determine a whole life,

One choice create a family,

One rite a man and wife.

GROOM OR BRIDE

Strange how just these few, brief words

I say today to you

Bind one soul to another,

Make one life out of two.

BRIDE OR GROOM

But so do we take charge of time

And make it all our own,

Joining years together in

A marriage and a home.

GROOM OR BRIDE

And so do we take charge of life

By choosing love each day,

For passions come and passions go,

But love is here to stay.

BRIDE AND GROOM TOGETHER

Marriage vows are promises

We make both to each other

And to ourselves, that we might share

A fragment of forever;

A bit of Eden’s innocence

Behind a wall of will,

For though the wide world turn to dust,

I will love you 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/wedvo3.html. For more wedding poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Weddings.

June 27: Wedding Vows

There Are No Words to Match My Gratitude

June 26, 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 that says thank you to a teacher.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are no words to match my gratitude,

However much like Shakespeare I might write.

Above all else, you've shaped my attitude,

Nurturing me with discipline and light.

Knowledge is the least of what you taught,

Yet that least at least prepared my head.

Out of your heart I've learned the things I ought,

Underscoring words you never said.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

June 25: I Want to Make It to My Graduation

June 26: There Are No Words to Match My Gratitude

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.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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 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’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.

© 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