Those Who Have Power and No Pity

July 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about those who, seizing power in the name of democracy and freedom, use it for personal profit.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Those who have power and no pity,

Who would avenge the right by sword,

And profit from justice,

And do well by doing good;

Those who would gain by others' grief

In the name of freedom,

And allocate the Earth's abundance to themselves,

And allow the marketplace to starve children;

And those who would see such things happen and do nothing:

The mark of Cain is on them,

And on their followers,

And on their generations.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 13: Those Who Have Power and No Pity

Everything We Thought Was True Was Not True

July 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is about former American communists coming to terms with their dreams of revolution.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Everything we thought was true was not true.

Everything we thought was right was wrong.

The leaders whom we idolized were madmen,

Mass murderers, whose crimes we helped along.

We were the volunteers for genocide,

The dupes who gave out leaflets for the devil,

For whom obscene dictatorships were good

And our own democracies were evil.

We were the organizers of the poor,

The builders of unions, champions of justice,

Sacrificing self only to serve

A mortal yearning for significance.

We were blind in service to our passions.

We were deaf in service to our need.

Now we must drive the truth straight through our hearts

That we might die at peace with what we did.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every2.html. For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 12: Everything We Thought Was True Was NotTrue

Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

July 11, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution, in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14.

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day warning to the present about future revolutions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Beware of the future: We are the ancien régime.

As to them their world of privilege seemed

Solid as the centuries, so we

Take ours to be the way the world should be.

In the sheltering wake of our billionaires

Looting the world, our own market shares

Leave us little room for denial. Come!

Embrace the prisoners of the Bastille! Some

Defend their privilege, but let it go!

Ancien régimes find some honor so,

Yielding up their heritage of woe.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar3.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution.

July 11: Beware of the Future: We Are the Ancien Régime

Identity Requires Memory

July 10, 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 importance of history.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Identity requires memory.

No less than people, nations must recall

Days past, lest they wander witlessly,

Erased each moment, guided by the wind,

Pushed by lusts no wisdom can forestall.

Events are facts that one cannot rescind,

Nor can forgetting consequence forego.

Despite one's wish, the past is not behind:

Even now, it works its wayward will.

Nor can we understand what we don’t know.

Contain your cavils, then, and snide thoughts still,

Even as we celebrate our story,

Described with all the clarity and skill

A scholar can sustain in heart and mind,

Yielding what for now is history.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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 Greatest Shame

July 9: Innocence Is like an Open Door

July 10: Identity Requires Memory

Innocence Is like an Open Door

July 9, 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 dangers of and the need for innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Innocence is like an open door:

Not safe, but requisite to being free.

Darlings of our rhetoric, we wonder,

Evil as the rest but for our words.

Perhaps we know what horrors are in store

Even as we dream of what might be,

Needing, as we preach and teach and plunder,

Defenses that would Xanadu preserve.

Even so, the freedom we are for

Now stands for all a common legacy,

Called forth by masters tearing worlds asunder,

Embraced by slaves consumed with righteous hunger,

Destined to dispute those whom it serves.

All innocents must keep their hopes at sea,

Yearning for an ever-distant shore.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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 Greatest Shame

July 9: Innocence Is like an Open Door

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