Let's Not Minimize the Role of Thugs

September 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the role of gangsters in American organized labor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let's not minimize the role of thugs

And gangsters in the history of labor.

Beasts devour ordinary folk.

Opposition soon gives way to shrugs,

Rendering allegiance to whomever.

Dormant zombie unions bear the yoke

Abjectly of their presidents-for-life.

Yet workers still must organize and strike.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

September 8: Let’s Not Minimize the Role ofThugs

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

September 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem that sees labor as a commodity subject to the market’s laws.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor's a commodity, like fish,

As children are fast-frozen and filleted,

Beating down the price. Fortunes are made

On selling to us all so cheap a dish.

Remember how the world is being run,

Determined by the market's iron laws

As slaves and children jingle in its jaws.

Yet is there nothing, nothing to be done?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 7: Labor’s a Commodity, like Fish

Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

September 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the social effects of business decisions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor ought to earn a decent living

As business cannot help serve social ends,

Because the good of all of us depends

On equity in taking and in giving.

Remember that the lives of those who labor

Determine the environment of home,

As one must live at last with everyone.

Yet some forget that wages shape behavior.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 6: Labor Ought to Earn a Decent Living

Lest You Think High Taxes Rob the Rich

September 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is labor, in honor of Labor Day, which falls on September 5.

Today’s poem is a Labor Day poem about the redistribution of wealth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Lest you think high taxes rob the rich

And redistribute wealth down towards the poor,

Be aware: That very wealth from labor

Once flowed upwards towards those greedy hands.

Redistribution goes both ways, and which

Direction gets more flow is not unsure.

All the winds are in the wealthy’s favor,

Yielding only to fierce-fought demands.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lesty2.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Labor.

September 5: Lest You Think High Taxes Rob theRich

How Can I Fall in Love with Only Words

September 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about love in the early days of the Internet.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How can I fall in love with only words?

Words and pictures, grainy and compressed?

A jaypeg love is truly for the birds.

You'd have to wonder whether I'm repressed.

But love it is, through all the bits and bytes,

For someone who's like no one else I've met:

Tender, charming, bright, queen of my nights,

All I've ever dreamed of, on the Net.

And though she's living in a distant place,

I love her as I've loved no one before.

Will I ever get to touch her face,

Hold her in my arms and, perhaps, more?

Ay, me! No matter what, I'm still in love.

Through modems must our e-mailed passions 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/howc14.html. For more humorous poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/funnypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

September 4: How Do I Fall in Love with OnlyWords

What a Puzzle Nick's Poems Are

September 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about the difficulty of comprehending my poetry.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What a puzzle Nick's poems are!

I cannot grasp what he is after.

Marx is easier by far!

Why write, if one is out to bar

All comprehension? Does he hafta?

Marx is easier by far.

If only some new thought would jar

Bourgeois perception, as in Kafka!

But Nick's poems empty puzzles are.

I think I would put him on par

With Cage or Pollack: Which is dafter?

Marx is easier by far.

Under what sectarian star

Was he begat? What gnomic laughter

Twists those poems which puzzles are?

Ah me! I'll never know. A for-

Eign joke, a filial disaster!

God! Such puzzles Nick's poems are!

Marx is easier--by far!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound

September 3: What a Puzzle Nick’s Poems Are

I'm Safe and Sound

September 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is humor.

Today’s poem is a humorous poem about wearing a latex sheathe.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'm safe and sound

Within my sheathe

My latex sheathe

That guards against

Both life and death

A latex wall

Between us – us?

There is no us

Just you and me

Or lots of you's

And just one me

But if it breaks

I know I'm screwed

I might get sick

Or be a dad

Either of which

Would be a bummer

But love needs trust

And I trust it

My latex sheathe

My rubber wall

To keep me safe

From life and death

Behind which I

Can be in you

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Humor.

August 29: A Receptionist Is a Person (Please Note!)

August 30: Dr. Melendez’s Head Is Now Quite Full

August 31: Holidays Are Holy Here in Heaven

September 1: On Passing Air

September 2: I’m Safe and Sound