Poem of the Week

Friday, January 20, 2017

Even So, We Did What We Believed In

January 21, 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 justice in the case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed on July 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even so, we did what we believed in:

Treason, yes, perhaps, but with good cause.

History will judge by its own laws,

Each act within the sunlight of its season.

Love was what inspired us, a reason

As pure as any saint in Satan's jaws.

Nor was the god we worshipped through those wars

Demonized, as later all would see him.

Justice would not just sustain our guilt,

Undoing those who would undo a wrong,

Leaving us in lucid infamy.

Instead, it would remember what we willed

Under the illusion of a song

So beautiful it would the chained earth free.

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

January 19: Justice Is the Antidote for Vengeance

January 20: Make of Me a Hero

January 21: Even So, We Did What We Believed In

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Make of Me a Hero

January 20, 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 a poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, written while Barak Obama was President.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make of me a hero, but I was

A failure in what mattered most to me.

Remember well the ill that sainthood does,

Taking holiness for victory.

I think we are as far away as ever,

Not from equal laws but equal lives.

Little has been done to make life better,

Unless you like the shift to guns from knives.

The icon of my face is now a mask

Hiding the destruction of the poor.

Each day is worse for millions than the last.

Raging unregarded is a war.

Know, then, though our president is black,

I would march again, could I come back,

No icon, but a loving, peaceful scourge,

Gathering strength where race and class converge.

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 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

January 19: Justice Is the Antidote for Vengeance

January 20: Make of Me a Hero

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Justice Is the Antidote for Vengeance

January 19, 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 justice and vengeance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Justice is the antidote for vengeance,

Undoing the tight knot of rage and pain.

Symmetry is ever its ideal,

The balanced grief that might the grievance seal,

In point of fact not easy to attain.

Cool heads and burning hearts must shape a penance

Equal to the honor of the slain.

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

January 19: Justice Is the Antidote forVengeance

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

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.

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.

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

Sunday, January 15, 2017

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.

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