In What We've Done We Take the Greatest Shame

July 8, 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 Americans coming to terms with the evil they have done while fighting terror.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In what we've done we take the greatest shame.

Nothing that was done to us excuses it.

Despite the evil of our enemies,

Evil never justifies more evil,

Perhaps because it never leads to good.

Each tortured prisoner pollutes our name.

None has unchecked power but abuses it.

Defying friends, ignoring verities,

Embracing our illusions without scruple,

Now we must repent, as well we should.

Conquerors must always take the blame.

Each rules ruthlessly its state or loses it.

Demons overran our conquerees

As we washed our hands of our debacle,

Yielding to what washed our dreams in blood.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/inwhat.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: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

July 6: Just Words Declared Our Freedom Long Ago

July 7: July 4^th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 8: In What We’ve Done We Take the GreatestShame

July 4th Is a Day for Barbeques

July 7, 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 how we celebrate the holiday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

July 4th is a day for barbeques

Underneath an unforgiving sun;

Later, fireworks, perhaps the news,

Yawns, some love, and then the day is done.

For most it is a day for celebration

Of something so familiar that its grace,

Unnoticed as a routine revelation,

Remains interred in its accustomed place.

This neglect of what sustains one’s life

Has its twin in the love of man and wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/julyfo.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: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

July 6: Just Words Declared Our Freedom Long Ago

July 7: July 4th Is a Day forBarbeques

Just Words Declared Our Freedom Long Ago

July 6, 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 hypocrisy of our pretensions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Just words declared our freedom long ago,

Untouched by time, sincerity, or will,

Little meant, much mouthed, a well-wrought show

Yearning to be put in practice still.

There was no truth in them, not even then,

Harbingers of hope long since betrayed,

Ever the disguise of gentlemen,

Fashion for a yearly masquerade.

O judge them harshly, for they are but lies,

Unworthy of the dream that gave them birth!

Regard not their pretensions, but their ties

To those who would be lords upon the earth,

Hard souls who hide their greed in freedom's cries.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/justwo.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: Your Light Still Lingers in Our Distant Morning

July 6: Just Words Declared Our Freedom Long Ago

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