Proverbs on Justice and Love

October 9, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is a set of proverbs on justice and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

PROVERBS ON JUSTICE AND LOVE

1. Every person, no matter how horrible, is a child of God and is therefore loved.

2. The causes of evil are pain, lust, and fear.

3. Since evil is both caused by pain and causes pain, it is self-perpetuating.

4. Thus one way to diminish evil is to answer pain with love and understanding.

5. Violence may be necessary in self-defense or in pursuit of justice, but violence in pursuit of vengeance is evil.

6. People have an innate sense of justice, just as they have of symmetry or balance. Even infants know when a punishment is just. Parents can tell from the sound of the cry.

7. Without just rules there is anarchy or rebellion, in which everyone's survival is threatened. Thus just rules and equitable enforcement are the primary responsibilities of the State.

8. Without justice the weak are defenseless. Without mercy justice is a robot that knows not what it does.

9. Justice diminishes evil by diminishing fear. Love diminishes evil by diminishing pain and lust.

10. Failure to discipline a child who does wrong teaches weakness. Discipline in anger teaches evil. Discipline out of justice teaches order. Discipline with love teaches goodness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 8: Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out from Killing

October 9: Proverbs on Justice and Love

Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out from Killing

October 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about how each of us is the cause of hatred, war, and sin.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Peace is just a brief time out from killing.

Each pulse of hatred beats beyond the skin.

A war could not be won were we not willing.

Change without requires change within.

Each of us remains the cause of sin.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 8: Peace Is Just a Brief Time Out fromKilling

Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

October 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about hope as the necessary condition for peace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hope is the only road to peace,

A steep and winding way

That climbs up to a sunlit field

Where dawn can last all day.

And in that day-long dawn two sides

Can put aside their fear

And learn to talk and deal and trust

And dream – but only here.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/hopei3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

October 7: Hope Is the Only Road to Peace

Revel in Your Righteousness

October 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about how joy in being affects the mix of good and evil in everyone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Revel in your righteousness,

For you are truly good,

Wise enough to understand

What lies behind each “should.”

There's depth to your morality

And kindness to your care.

Duty joins with empathy

To will the weight you bear.

Oh, yes, you hear the suffering

That sings within your heart

Of death and pain, of cruelty

In which all must take part.

Oh, yes, within you strangle

The people whom you hate,

And sex consumes your fantasies

With lust no love can sate.

But underneath, a canticle

Of gratitude and praise

Creates a choral pedal point

To harmonize your days.

There is a joy in being

That does all goodness move,

A universal gravity

That binds all things in love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

October 6: Revel in Your Righteousness

My Home Is Here, America

October 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about America as the promised land for all races.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My home is here, America,

My Promised Land, my Yisrael.

What God gave to my ancestors,

He now gives equally to all.

My Promised Land, my Yisrael,

Is homeland to the human race.

He now gives equally to all

A holy land, a sacred place;

Is homeland to the human race,

The world's long longed-for world-to-be,

A holy land, a sacred place,

Where all alike are safe and free.

The world's long longed-for world-to-be,

What God gave to my ancestors,

Where all alike are safe and free:

My home is here, America!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 5: My Home Is Here, America

Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

October 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is about the universality of hatred and the need for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Hatred has no color, creed, or race.

All hate, more or less, and thus destroy

The fragile ecosystem of the heart,

Restoring which requires faith and grace.

Each must love for any hope of joy,

Disciplining hate with well-honed art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 4: Hatred Has No Color, Creed, or Race

Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers

October 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is peace and brotherly love, in honor of the fact that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Muharram, the Muslim New Year, fall just one day apart.

Today’s poem is a New Year’s plea for peace between Muslim and Jew.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Ismail and Yitzhak are half-brothers,

Raised by different, sometimes hostile mothers,

But joined in ancestry by one great man –

Their father, Ibrahim, or Abraham.

So close they are, and yet so far apart!

Their enmity a defect of the heart.

For families ought to love, and not to fight.

But each, aggrieved, is sure that he is right.

Their New Years are this year almost in sync,

Which is more meaningful than you might think.

For though in both the hatred might run deep,

None would willing sow what they might reap.

And so this accident of New Year dates,

If seized by them to harmonize their fates,

Clarifies the compromise that sits

So clearly on the table of their wits,

And realigns the borders of their fear

To resurrect the hopes that both hold dear.

Oh, what a life for both might then ensue!

The dreams of plenty coming into view!

As brothers their old brotherhood renew

In one new year for Muslim and for Jew!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Peace and Brotherly Love.

October 3: Ismail and Yitzhak Are Half-Brothers