There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Rabbit, from the rabbit’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There are those who shy away from being,

However smart or talented, the leader,

Each eagerly behind the scenes, agreeing

Yet again to serve all those who need her.

Everyone is wary of such tension

As being in the spotlight must entail,

Reigning over chaos and dissension,

One who takes the blame when others fail.

For me it is impossible to think

That I for just one moment might be there --

Head of something headed for some brink,

Etched frozen in the flashbulb's frigid glare.

Rabbits tend to run -- that's what they do,

Acting well only when well hidden.

Best if you know best what's best for you --

Better off the bidder or the bidden.

I know myself, and so am satisfied

To be the one backstage, where I can hide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther28.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Dog, from the dog’s point of view.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The world is not sufficiently in order,

However much one wishes it were so.

Everyone likes to think that they are loyal,

Yet find that there are times they cannot be,

Even as I’m loyal by design.

All I want and do is by design,

Reducing what disorder there might be,

Offering the hope that, if I'm loyal,

Fortune will be fair, and what I sow

Today I'll reap in time and proper order.

Heroes are the sentinels of order,

Ever vigilant to live just so:

Dependable, consistent, honest, loyal

Overseers of what ought to be,

Given the chaos deep in the design.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/thewo4.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is not Sufficiently inOrder

Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is about luck and fate, and what a person might do about them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Luck is like a tide pulled by the moon,

Undulating through the undertow.

None can tell how far that tide might go,

Afloat upon the wash's wind-blown spume.

Remember, then, each year to celebrate

New turnings of the tide that bears us all,

Each to ends no flailing can forestall,

Whether good or ill, the choice of fate.

Yet knowing well one's wishes face the wind,

Even so, one does what one can do,

Alert to rituals that spirits woo,

Rendering what renders them benign.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/luckis.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by theMoon

Seventy-Five

January 22, 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 number poem about someone who devotes his life to justice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Seventy-five sustains an active life,

Engaging in the turmoil of his time.

Voices must be raised in speech and song

Embracing right, excoriating wrong,

Needed to cut through the mental grime

That veils one's vision of systemic strife.

Yet power comes to those whose will is strong.

For him the fight continues hard and long

In every vale where suffering is rife,

Vested in beliefs that make life shine

Even as he walks the picket line.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/75.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

January 22: Seventy-Five

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.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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.

© 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 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

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.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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