What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is about politicians from the point of view of an apathetic electorate.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What promises they make and cannot keep!

Each year like well-trained dogs they bark and yelp,

An annual charade they cannot help,

Knowing well where they must drive their sheep.

Their vetted visions sow what none might reap;

Their practiced platitudes are off the shelf;

Their chief constituent remains the self;

Still, we vote and then go back to sleep.

We do not care how much they lie and steal

So long as streets are clean and taxes low,

And we are taken care of, more or less.

OK, the self-served suffering may be real

Of those poor souls we do not care to know.

But what has that to do with happiness?

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of President’s Day, is politics.

Today’s poem is a President’s Day poem about the wisdom of the separation of powers.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Praised be those who would distribute power,

Reconciled to bickering and waste,

Enduring, even in the darkest hour,

Such hacks as pander to the popular taste.

In such a system, life can be frustrating,

Demanding patient tolerance to rule.

Everyone has blessings worth berating,

Nor need one much at stake to be a fool.

The president is forced to be a leader

Since all are free to follow or oppose;

'Mid maelstroms, both captain and conceder,

Deftly tacking when a headwind blows.

All know divided power leads to strife,

Yet few would yield to one vain will their life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/prais4.html. For more President’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

Valleys Are Where People Live

February 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about how beneath the need for ecstasy remains the need for love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Valleys are where people live, where farms

Are rich, the soil fertile, and rivers flow

Like braided bloodstreams through the heart.

Even so, one longs to live on mountains,

Not satisfied with happiness, or with

The beauty of fresh flowers and old trees.

In the cupped palm of a gigantic hand,

Near heaven in a world of sculpted stone,

Each moment needs an ear, a hand to hold.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/valle2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

February 18: Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

February 19: Valleys Are Where People Live

Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

February 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about the love that created both the universe and the love within us.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vast the stars, yet each has its own glory,

A beauty and a passion all its own.

Let love lend its grace to every story,

Each star that lives and dies, but not alone.

Nor does the love that kindled the Creation,

That is what is, with neither start nor end,

In every heart an inborn conflagration,

Need to tell its light to homeward bend.

Enduring love embraces greater love.

‘Mid time it finds a timeless inner longing,

Sense that would to ancient rhythms move,

Dancing to the music of belonging.

As all are made of love, and for delight,

You are my love, the glory of my night.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vastth.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

February 18: Vast the Stars, yet Each Has Its Own Glory

Happiness Is like a Song

February 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem compares the happiness of love to an angel’s song.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is like a song

Angels cannot help but sing,

Praising Heaven loud and long,

Pleased to make the heavens ring.

Yet though we may not angels be,

Vested in our hearts is love,

An angelic melody

Like those sung rapturously above.

Each of us is lit with longing,

Needing both to get and give,

To feel the beauty of belonging

Inundate the life we live.

Nor is my joy an angel's joy

Except your love my spirits buoy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/happ76.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 17: Happiness Is like a Song

Vivid Garments of Our Love

February 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about life as the garment of love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vivid garments of our love: A walk

Along a rocky, jasmine-scented coast;

Little snips of playful nonsense talk;

Enjoying back and forth a swift riposte;

Need like a wave hungry for the shore,

Then rising, rising, rising till it breaks,

Imploding, crashing, till it is no more,

Nothing but a wash of bliss and grace;

Each taking turns with pain, but not alone,

‘Mid agonies, a melody of love

Singing in a silent world of stone,

Dancing where no muscle would dare move;

And underneath these precious, treasured clothes,

Yearning still, two tender, naked souls.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vividg.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 16: Vivid Garments of Our Love

Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me

February 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day.

Today’s poem is about love and memory.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vistas of the past are all around me,

A gallery of memories long gone.

Love in all its variants surrounds me,

Embracing every scene I look upon.

Now is no more near to me than then.

Time is not a highway but a room

In which all moments mingle, mine again.

Nor can I tell the temple from the tomb.

Enduring through this chaos is your love,

‘Mid memories the thing that is most real.

So may my heart through loss and longing move,

Delivered by a fortune I can feel.

As I roll upon that restless sea,

You are the anchor holding me to me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/vistas.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 13: To Ask You to Be My Valentine

February 14: Be My Valentine, My Love

February 15: Vistas of the Past Are All Around Me