Justice Isn't Only in a Courtroom

January 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is justice, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, which falls on January 16.

Today’s poem is about the many aspects of justice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Justice isn’t only in a courtroom.

It has to do with wages, healthcare, schools.

It has to do with races more than rules.

It has to do with class as well as classrooms.

It has to do with the reward for labor.

The market is efficient but not just.

A just State sets some limits on its lust,

And ameliorates the brunt of its behavior.

It has to do with prejudice and hate,

With opening crucial doors to one’s own kind

And leaving those with differences behind,

Then blaming their condition for their fate.

It has to do with hearts as well as laws,

And with how many would take up its cause.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/justi3.html. For more poems about justice and other political topics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Justice

January 16: Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

January 17: Justice Is as Justice Does

January 18: Justice Isn’t Only in a Courtroom

Justice Is as Justice Does

January 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is justice, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, which falls on January 16.

Today’s poem is about how history affects justice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Justice is as justice does.

Under is, is always was,

Singing songs that shape the mind,

That render justice less than blind.

If justice could be bias free,

Courts would work inhumanly.

Each judge responds to 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/justi2.html. For more poems about justice and other political topics, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Justice

January 16: Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

January 17: Justice Is as Justice Does

Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

January 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is justice, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, which falls on January 16.

Today’s poem compares the political movement for justice to waves breaking on the shore.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Movements are like waves upon the shore

As they break across the yielding sand,

Rushing ravenously up, and then withdraw,

Though not before remodeling the land.

If change awaits high tide, so let it be.

Nor will waves cease to break when tides are low.

Let us fight for justice ceaselessly,

Uplifted by the seaward undertow.

There is no disappointment in my song,

However much injustice still remains.

Each generation needs to come on strong,

Reckoning the incremental gains.

Know that I am proud of what we’ve won

In spite of all the lives and labor lost.

No cause well worth one’s love is ever done.

Good is good regardless of the cost.

Justice is a wave that breaks, and then

Returns, returns, again, again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Justice

January 16: Movements Are like Waves upon the Shore

Marriage Is a Letting Go

January 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is marriage.

Today’s poem is about the need for married couples to surrender to marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Marriage is a letting go,

A plunge into the deep.

No one need the currents fear

Nor hesitate to leap.

You may your spirits keep.

More is gained by giving up

And less by taking in.

Remember that to dwell in joy

You must make room 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/marri4.html. For more poems about marriage, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/marriagepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Marriage

January 9: Jody and Blue

January 10: Joy Is in the Simple Things

January 11: Life Sings with an Extraordinary Passion

January 12: Love Finds Little Latitude

January 13: Love Returns on Saturdays

January 14: Marriage, as a Choice, Requires Choices

January 15: Marriage Is a Letting Go

Marriage, as a Choice, Requires Choices

January 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is marriage.

Today’s poem is from wife to husband vowing to overcome marital difficulties.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Marriage, as a choice, requires choices.

One must choose not once, but every day.

Life offers us a hundred thousand voices,

Yet those we fail to hear fast fade away.

I choose you with all my wounded heart:

You and our two children. All the rest

Lies in the distance, charming, but apart

From the circle of the ones with whom I'm blessed.

Our marriage isn't easy, but our love

Is still the force that shapes my daily life.

I want us to be happy, and will move

Wherever I must be to be your wife.

I'm yours, and I want you to be mine.

We'll find a way our wishes to combine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/marri2.html. For more poems about marriage, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/marriagepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Marriage

January 9: Jody and Blue

January 10: Joy Is in the Simple Things

January 11: Life Sings with an Extraordinary Passion

January 12: Love Finds Little Latitude

January 13: Love Returns on Saturdays

January 14: Marriage, as a Choice, RequiresChoices

Love Returns on Saturdays

January 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is marriage.

Today’s poem is about love on the weekend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love returns on Saturdays,

Having been away

To labor in the labyrinth

That underlies our joy.

How dark the days of abstinence,

Of sleep too dire to stay,

Of mornings mere mechanical

And flesh no hands employ!

But then--Ah, then!--on Saturdays

Love finally has its way,

Coming into crevices

Whose cravings passions buoy.

How beautiful, the love that can

Such soporifics sway!

No wasteland world of weekdays shall

Our dalliance destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/lover2.html. For more poems about marriage, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/marriagepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Marriage

January 9: Jody and Blue

January 10: Joy Is in the Simple Things

January 11: Life Sings with an Extraordinary Passion

January 12: Love Finds Little Latitude

January 13: Love Returns on Saturdays

Love Finds Little Latitude

January 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is marriage.

Today’s poem compares marriage to leaving the sea for a safe harbor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love finds little latitude

Once it leaves the sea

And sails between the rocky heads

That guard its proper berth.

Precise in pitch and attitude,

It must turn perfectly

To miss the sharp-edged coral beds

Garlanding its girth.

The wind still blows, the waves still roll

Out where the water's deep,

But here within, a tidal peace

Reverses with the moon.

Here is the elusive goal,

Too permanent to keep,

That sits in small print on the lease

Of those who dock at noon.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Marriage

January 9: Jody and Blue

January 10: Joy Is in the Simple Things

January 11: Life Sings with an Extraordinary Passion

January 12: Love Finds Little Latitude