Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

February 25, 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 taking positions on political questions.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Position was always one of your favorite words,

As in, What is your position on ...?

Here it means opinion, yet

It also means pose,

Not as in pose a question,

But as in positioning oneself in front of a camera,

Going public.

Since the Hungarian Revolution I have preferred

Not to go public. My positions

Seem too awkward to expose.

What my camera sees remains

Undeveloped. I am in no position

To have positions.

My position is that of a scientist who knows

That the last time he was certain of anything

He turned out to be looking into a mirror.

Shaken, I place my questions

Into a mosaic of wonder.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

February 25: Position Was Always One of Your Favorite Words

When the World Is Laid Waste

February 24, 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 after we have destroyed our planet Earth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

When the world is laid waste,

And its celebrants are cinders,

And its clothes ashes;

When it is once again a dead rock,

Like the rock that encircles it,

Its dust open to the poisonous wind;

When we have wrought what we've wrought

And done what we've done,

And there is no one left to look back in sorrow or anger:

Ah, then, what a song will never be sung!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 24: When the World Is Laid Waste

What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

February 23, 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 political poem about the ambition to lead a nation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

What might make a person want to lead,

To bear the brutal burden of a state?

Power is for some a noble need

That only shaping history can sate.

One wishes to do good, but on what scale?

The wounded world lies heavy on one’s heart.

One’s gaudiest ambitions tend to pale

Upon the stage on which one plays one’s part.

So there are just a few who would ascend

To where one’s choices change the way things are,

And over many years to one’s will bend

The iron bolts that one’s bright visions bar.

And yet such power corrupts, unless one sees

The need to search one’s soul upon on one’s knees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

February 22: George

February 23: What Might Make a Person Want to Lead

George2

February 22, 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 name poem for George Washington, who was famous for not telling lies.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

George does not admit to telling lies,

Even as he tells them every day.

One lives in a perpetual disguise,

Reduced to a self-marketed display.

Great men wear life well, for they are wise

Enough to know the things that none need say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/georg2.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 20: Praised Be Those Who Would Distribute Power

February 21: What Promises They Make and Cannot Keep

February 22: George

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