One Cannot Make Another Happy

September 15, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a psychological poem about the limits of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

One cannot make another happy,

Whatever one might do or say,

For happiness remains a choice

Not even love can hope to sway.

The sacrifice of time and strength

And preference and goods may be

Of help, of course, but cannot calm

The winds that roil a restless sea.

Everything one does, like dust,

Transforms the light in which all live.

But happiness is not a gift

It is within one's power to give.

One can only love, and be

A witness to the life that each

At last must live alone, for good

Or ill beyond a lover's reach.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 15: One Cannot Make Another Happy

Happiness Remains the Drug of Choice

September 14, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is an anniversary poem about happiness and giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness remains the drug of choice,

Antidote for much that ails one.

Praised be those who love both life and others,

Pleased to be, and grateful for that gift,

Yearning only for the things they have.

For happiness remains a conscious choice,

One that makes one more than simply one,

Requiring the harmony of others,

The grasping of one's giving as a gift

Yielding grace no one alone could have.

So may you both each day renew that choice,

In which each satisfies the other one,

X-ing out the urge to ward off others,

The passion to get something for each gift,

Having given all that you might have.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ74.html. For more anniversary poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty

September 14: Happiness Remains the Drug ofChoice

Every Moment Sings of Love and Beauty.

September 13, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a poem for Eid al-Adha about the beauty of giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every moment sings of love and beauty.

If such gifts are yours, what must you give?

Dance, dance through the gardens of your duty,

And be a blessing by the way you live.

Let go your self , and all your schemes and pleasures,

And leave them with your shoes outside the door.

Do the things that bring life’s greatest treasures

Here, with your forehead on the floor,

And know for certain whom this gift is for.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/every7.html. For more poems for Eid al-Adha, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/muslimpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

September 13: Every Moment Sings of Love andBeauty

Thirty-Five7

September 12, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is giving, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 13 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the redemptive grace that comes from giving.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-five donates her time and sweat

Helping suffering others help themselves.

In every act of charity resides

Redemption for the actors on both sides

Through love, which deep, heartsick despair dispels.

Years of giving pass without regret.

For what one gives in solace one will get

In grace, as the good one does abides.

Verities can sometimes pall, and yet

Each selfless act the same sweet story tells.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/35g.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Giving.

September 12: Thirty-Five

Labor Leaves Us Little Time to Live

September 11, 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 need for protest.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor leaves us little time to live

As we are given less than we must give,

Being but the undistinguished sea

On which may sail those who catch the wind.

Reason not with sailors, but together

Determine the direction of your weather,

And storm, if storm the wayward watchword be,

Yielding waves that little leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 11: Labor Leaves Us Little Time toLive

Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

September 10, 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 need to find the right balance between profit and wages.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Let us honor capital and labor,

As both must win for either not to lose.

Blessings are not always what we choose,

Overcoming what we think we favor.

Remember we must earn what we would spend;

Decent wages augur decent sales.

And little profit little pork entails,

Yielding yields too lean to long defend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 10: Let Us Honor Capital and Labor

Labor Day Officially Ends Summer

September 9, 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 end of summer.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor Day officially ends summer,

As those who work enjoy one final fling.

Blessed are those who bear the daily burden,

Of whom few savants speak or minstrels sing,

Returning to their harness each September.

Days of ease give way to hours certain,

A long routine that wends its way through spring,

Yielding one more year of brutal labor.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/labor2.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 of Thugs

September 9: Labor Day Officially Ends Summer