To the Founding Fathers

July 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem paying homage to the Founding Fathers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Your light still lingers in our distant morning,

A star that we perceive across the void.

We chart our passage by your words, still burning

Long after your bright core has been destroyed.

No longer do we speak of "natural" rights,

Nor can we think that Reason guides our will.

We've been through far too many gruesome nights

To hope we have reduced our lust to kill.

Yet hope remains the engine of our fire,

Hope that someday all of us will be

Happy in the least that we require:

Well-fed, well-housed, safe, secure, and free.

This dream we still pursue. Though darkness come,

Your wisdom, hope, and courage through us run.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 4: Just Remember: Freedom’s Not a Given

July 5: To the Founding Fathers

Just Remember: Freedom's Not a Given

July 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day, in honor of Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4.

Today’s poem is an Independence Day poem about the nature of freedom.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just remember: Freedom’s not a given.

Understand that it could disappear,

Lost to insecurity and fear,

Yielding to some messianic vision.

Freedom is not simply what it seems:

One might be free to pray but not to eat;

Unrestricted where one might compete,

Restricted where one’s class defines one’s dreams.

To survive, freedom must be more

Habitation than just open door.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/justre.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day.

July 4: Just Remember: Freedom’s Not a Given

You Finally Found Each Other

July 3, 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 about the signs of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You finally found each other after

Searching hard for love.

In this uncertain world you've come

To one you're certain of.

How can you know the someone whom

You'll cherish throughout life?

What indices identify

A husband or a wife?

Sometimes there's a gravity:

Sudden, fierce, obsessed;

As if you're falling towards some star,

By its strong pull possessed.

Or sometimes there's a childhood sense

Of unselfconscious grace

Sustained within the safety zone

Of mutual embrace.

Sometimes there's the terror of

The searing pain of grief,

As if the loss of love were death:

Sheer scream without relief.

Or there's a sense of loveliness

Too precious to be lost:

A gift of all that makes life good,

Beyond constraint or cost.

Whatever signs you read, they all

Point in the same direction:

The self that lies beyond the self

In love and shared affection.

True love lies far beyond the will,

Yet you must choose to love:

Each day to put aside the self

And with the angels move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

June 30: Hold My Hand and I’m Yours

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

July 2: Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This?

July 3: You Finally Found Each Other

Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This

July 2, 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 about the mysterious forces that move a couple to love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Regarding marriage: Whose idea was this?

Isn't each poor shimmering star alone?

Can a nimble munchkin alter at the altar

His/her belief that his/her soul is his/her own?

Is a former frog to die in bit and halter,

Ever disenchanted with a kiss?

A star spins slowly through a field of bliss,

No motion save what does all motion alter,

Dependent on the love of every stone.

Just so are we the music of a psalter

Unknowing, moved by melodies we miss.

Didn't the maid move blindly towards that kiss?

Yet happily they wed, as is well known.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

June 30: Hold My Hand and I’m Yours

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

July 2: Regarding Marriage: Whose Idea Was This

A Wedding Is a Party

July 1, 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 from a child’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

A wedding is a party with,

Of course, a wedding cake.

But sometimes by the time it comes,

It's hard to stay awake.

People need to talk a lot,

And laugh and joke and kiss,

And cry - why do they cry? - and mention

God and love and bliss.

Two people have decided that

They'll share one house for life,

And call themselves, instead of friends,

A husband and a wife.

And so we have to get dressed up,

And eat a lot, and wait

For hours till they finally serve

The great big wedding cake.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/awedd2.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

June 30: Hold My Hand and I’m Yours

July 1: A Wedding Is a Party

Hold My Hand and I'm Yours

June 30, 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 from one lover to the other.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hold my hand and I'm yours,

And your heart will stay close to mine,

For I know the sun must rise with the dawn,

And at night the stars must shine.

And the wind must wander the ocean

And sing with the waves of the sea;

Just so, I know, I'll be by your side,

And you will be wedded to me.

And you will be wedded to me, my love,

And I will be wedded to you;

For I know the tide must turn with the moon,

And the spring must return ever new.

And the sky must weep that the hillsides

May laugh in the green of their joy;

And the leaves must turn red, brown, and gold

That the earth might their riches employ.

And love like a mad, swollen hunger,

And love like an unending song,

And love like the silent pull of the Earth

Shall be with us all our lives long, my love,

Shall be with us all our lives long.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

June 30: Hold My Hand and I’m Yours

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