After All, the Market Runs on Greed

November 8, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which falls on November 8.

Today’s poem is about the shortcomings of a number of political choices.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

After all, the market runs on greed,

The sunlight of this social ecosphere,

Self-adjusting as supply and need

Set prices to the tune of hope and fear.

The state can intervene, of course, but then

The Capitol might well outgreed the Street,

Playing games with games beyond its ken,

Positioned where the votes and money meet.

What to do? We've tried Utopia,

A nightmare far, far worse than any dream,

Strangling the source of cornucopia,

Sacrificing millions to a scheme.

We are born into a world of sin,

Which if we just accept, we die within.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/after3.html . For more poems about politics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics.

November 7: Elections, as You Know, Are Bought and Sold

November 8: After All, the Market Runs on Greed

Elections, as You Know, Are Bought and Sold

November 7, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which falls on November 8.

Today’s poem is a poem for Election Day about campaign contributions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Elections, as you know, are bought and sold

Like favors from a well-proportioned whore.

Each scandal is a tale often told,

Creating a brief sigh, and nothing more.

The problem is systemic, deeply rooted

In our view of speech that should be free.

Our courts say even money can’t be muted,

No more than words in our democracy.

Dare we try to limit the expense,

And muzzle those whose PACs are a pretense,

Yielding time to all sides equally?

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/elect3.html . For more poems about Election Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics.

November 7: Elections, as You Know, Are Boughtand Sold

You Never Thought that It Would End This Way

November 6, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is death, in honor of the transition from Halloween to All Saints’ Day and then to All Souls’ Day, which is the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Today’s poem is about death as a fitting end for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You never thought that it would end this way,

Yet such an end does not at all seem strange.

If love is true, then death must make the change,

Ending love by taking life away.

Yet though our love is over, mine will stay,

A triumph over death I will arrange,

Rechanneling a fate I cannot change,

That we might still on fields of fancy play.

You never thought we'd share such months of pain,

That you would die in agony, while I

Would be as much a nurse for you as friend.

Yet I would live the whole thing through again

Just once more to look you in the eye

And tell you, yes, this is how it should end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Death.

October 31: In Memory of Those Who Died

November 1: Here’s a Little Ditty

November 2: I Am the Mirror of Our Love

November 3: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye

November 4: Every Time I See My Pansies

November 5: There Is a Residue of Hope

November 6: You Never Thought that It Would EndThis Way

There Is a Residue of Hope

November 5, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is death, in honor of the transition from Halloween to All Saints’ Day and then to All Souls’ Day, which is the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Today’s poem is to a deceased father about the end of grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is a residue of hope

In every act of grief,

A beauty at the source of pain,

A truth that brings relief.

Mourning is a morning song

Sung just before the light,

Though little else is visible

To those that watch the night.

And all our tears must turn to grass,

And all our sorrows be

But dissonance that we'll resolve

In some new harmony.

And all our pain must shine upon

The meadows of our grace

That you might share our happiness

And lend our light your face.

Ah, Father! Yes, the music plays

As we dance in the sun,

For dawn returns the joy of life,

And we must all dance on.

Ah, Father! Yes, we must dance on

And leave you far behind,

Though love undo the dying day

And comb the rising wind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Death.

October 31: In Memory of Those Who Died

November 1: Here’s a Little Ditty

November 2: I Am the Mirror of Our Love

November 3: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye

November 4: Every Time I See My Pansies

November 5: There Is a Residue of Hope

Every Time I See My Pansies

November 4, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is death, in honor of the transition from Halloween to All Saints’ Day and then to All Souls’ Day, which is the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Today’s poem is about a daughter who remembers her dead mother when she goes into in her garden.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Every time I see my pansies

Vivid in the golden sun,

You are with me in my garden,

And I am once again a child.

Vivid in the golden sun,

Their beauty brings me close to tears,

And I am once again a child

Learning to assume your grace.

Their beauty brings me close to tears

As I join hands with you in love,

Learning to assume your grace,

Dancing to your inner music.

As I join hands with you in love,

You are with me in my garden,

Dancing to your inner music

Every time I see my pansies.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Death.

October 31: In Memory of Those Who Died

November 1: Here’s a Little Ditty

November 2: I Am the Mirror of Our Love

November 3: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye

November 4: Every Time I See My Pansies

I Didn't Get a Chance to Say Goodbye

November 3, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is death, in honor of the transition from Halloween to All Saints’ Day and then to All Souls’ Day, which is the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Today’s poem is from a caregiver to the one he or she cared for.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

To you, to tell you that I loved you, to say

What now must be one long, unbroken cry

Of pain, now that at last you've gone away.

I cannot tell you what a joy it was

To be the one to tend you in your need.

The burden was a gift, for giving does

Not burden one who loves, though loving bleed.

I wish I could have been with you when you,

Perhaps aware, perhaps not, turned towards death

Alone, with no one there to wonder to,

To share your fear, your hand, your one last breath.

I wish, I wish, I wish . . . but it is done,

And now I must surrender what is gone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ididn3.html . For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Death.

October 31: In Memory of Those Who Died

November 1: Here’s a Little Ditty

November 2: I Am the Mirror of Our Love

November 3: I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye

I Am the Mirror of Our Love

November 2, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is death, in honor of the transition from Halloween to All Saints’ Day and then to All Souls’ Day, which is the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Today’s poem is about the impending death of a pet.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I am the mirror of our love,

And you its brazen fire.

To me our love is merely joy;

To you it is your breath.

I am the marker that must move;

You, the fixed desire.

You are what I most enjoy;

I am life or death.

And now you must be put to sleep,

And I remain awake

With years of love ahead of me,

And many pets to go.

But I'm the one who can't help weep

While you, just for my sake,

Come rest your chin upon my knee

And beg to share my 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/iamth2.html . For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Death.

October 31: In Memory of Those Who Died

November 1: Here’s a Little Ditty

November 2: I Am the Mirror of Our Love