Tuesday, July 11, 2017

The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

July 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14th.


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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The world is brought to beauty heart by heart.
How else might change take root but one by one?
Imagination is the proper tool,
Revealing what no doubt can overrule:
The wonder and the longing shaped by art.
Year by glacial year change will come.

For every game or story plays its part.
Over time, tiny shifts accrue
Until the old accommodates the new,
Returning, turning, till its day is done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/thewo7.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution
July 11: Andrew
July 12: The World Is Brought to Beauty Heart by Heart

Monday, July 10, 2017

Andrew

July 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14th.

Today’s poem is a name poem for a disillusioned idealist.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Andrew was a soldier of the faith:
No one was more loyal or more true.
Despite the hard, rich texture of illusion,
Reality insisted on confusion,
Eviscerating much that Andrew knew.
What remains stalks him like a wraith.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Revolution
July 11: Andrew

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

July 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is revolution in honor of Bastille Day, which falls on July 14th.

Today’s poem is a Bastille Day poem about the dangers of basing life only on reason, as some revolutionaries tried to do.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Base your life on reason, only reason,
And watch your heart go crazy on the spot!
Some would vary judgment with the season,
Though some would say it is, or it is not.
In politics, one should be politic,
Lest change change what one needs to stay alive.
Logic cannot tell what makes things tick;
Each thought remains a creature of the hive.
Despite the power of reason, please take heed:
An amputated cranium tends to bleed.
Yet nations healed holistically will thrive.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/baseyo.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Revolution
July 10: Base Your Life on Reason, Only Reason

In Time All Meanings Fade

July 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4th.

Today’s poem is a July 4th poem about the eventual demise of the holiday.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In time all meanings fade. The days of glory,
Now forgotten, buried long ago,
Dead for generations, their founding story
Erased from consciousness like summer snow …
Perhaps we will succeed in preservation,
Enduring for millennia or so,
No more than that. There’ll be a generation
Destined by their seedtime not to know.
Embrace it then, the truth that even this,
Now so much a part of us, must go,
Caught tumbling on the edge of the abyss,
Eventually pulled in by the undertow.
Dear history, we hope to pass you on,
And so a bit of us, too, when we’re gone.
Yet more than that no yearning can bestow.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/intime.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)
July 9: In Time All Meanings Fade

Friday, July 7, 2017

Is This the Beginning of the End

July 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4th.

Today’s poem is a July 4th poem about the dangers of indebtedness to other nations.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Is this the beginning of the end?
Now is when we start to fall?
Debtors to both foe and friend,
Eventually obliged to all?
Perhaps we can pull out of this,
Electing leaders who will lead,
Not stuck in this paralysis,
Dreading most what we most need.
Each must give that all might gain,
Nor ought we shun the sacrifice.
Could we but bear the healing pain
Equally, we'd pay the price.
Dependence on another's will
Assumes that we their coffers fill,
Yielding ever to their advice.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/isthis.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)
July 8: Is This the Beginning of the End

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Justice Is as Justice Does

July 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4th.

Today’s poem is a July 4th poem about the influence of the past on the present.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Justice is as justice does.
Under every is, is was.
Laws must be applied by those
Yet longing for their long agos.
For every change imposed by will
Oppressions linger, strangle, kill.
Underneath equality
Remains a brutal legacy,
The wandering ghost of slavery
Haunting still our history.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/justi2.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)
July 7: Justice Is as Justice Does

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption

July 6, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Independence Day (USA), which falls on July 4th.

Today’s poem is a July 4th poem about the ubiquity of corruption.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

In every heart there is, of course, corruption.
No one is immune from lust and greed.
Democracy accommodates this need,
Embracing what might else lead to destruction.
People cannot people an ideal.
Equality's a myth, has always been
No more than something to put favors in,
Dependent on the lie that it is real.
Each decision is a battlefield,
Not of ideas but interests, yours and mine,
Calculated shrewdly to define
Exactly what advantage each might yield.
Do not be discouraged: Evil is
As much a part of us as love or bliss.
Yet what is not a wound cannot be healed.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ineve6.html. For more poems for Independence Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)
July 6: In Every Heart There Is, of Course, Corruption