There Is No Armor We Can Wear

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is terrorism in memory of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Today’s poem is about the impossibility of stopping every terrorist bent on destruction.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no armor we can wear,

No wall or fortress we can build,

No force of arms, no shield of fear

To equal what the heart has willed.

No wall or fortress we can build

Can stop a soul on vengeance bent,

Can equal what the heart has willed,

A purpose pure, of dark intent.

Can stop a soul on vengeance bent,

Death for death and pain for pain,

A purpose pure, of dark intent

To kill for grace and not for gain.

Death for death and pain for pain:

The lust to purge oneself of grief,

To kill for grace and not for gain

That anguish might find some relief.

The lust to purge oneself of grief

Must yield in turn an answering lust.

That anguish might find some relief,

We'd turn an Eden into dust.

Must yield in turn an answering lust,

Hate to hate set groove on groove.

We'd turn an Eden into dust

To defeat the love that terror moves.

Hate to hate set groove on groove,

No force of arms, no shield of fear:

To defeat the love that terror moves

There is no armor we can wear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther19.html. For more poems about terrorism and 911, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terrorism911poems.html .

This week’s theme: Terrorism

September 11: So Did You Die of History

September 12: Soldiers Kill, for That Is Their Profession

September 13: There Is No Armor We Can Wear

Soldiers Kill, for That Is Their Profession

September 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is terrorism in memory of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Today’s poem is for the soldiers who must fight terrorism.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Soldiers kill, for that is their profession,

Or die, for those are soldiers that they face.

Let us honor, then, the unmarked grace

Death bestows on those in its possession.

If the cause is just, soldiers will

Embody what the nation holds most dear,

Rendering our peril in their fear,

Serving our survival when they kill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/soldie.html. For more poems about terrorism and 911, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terrorism911poems.html .

This week’s theme: Terrorism

September 11: So Did You Die of History

September 12: Soldiers Kill, for That Is Their Profession

So Did You Die of History

September 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is terrorism in memory of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Today’s poem is a poem for the victims of terrorism on 9/11.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So did you die of history,

Each innocent of dogma dead,

Purloined to play in some fool's head

The drama of his destiny.

Even in your hapless herds,

Miracles to men unmoved,

Being loved as you were loved,

Even thus, you were but words.

Reason seeks what reason knows.

Each alone must bridge the gulf,

Loving all as if oneself,

Else blood with reason endless flows.

Vanquished, you must still live on,

Each murdered soul a monument,

Nor what you mean be what you meant,

The private to the public gone,

Held long as letters carved in stone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/sodidy.html. For more poems about terrorism and 911, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terrorism911poems.html .

This week’s theme: Terrorism

September 11: So Did You Die of History

Librarians Are Those We Trust with Treasures

September 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of librarian.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Librarians are those we trust with treasures

Incalculable, for they are of the mind,

Bringing to our leisure greater pleasures,

Read for read, than any other kind.

All our legacy is in their keeping,

Ready to enrich each avid self,

In which one finds some past soul’s subtle meaning

Alive as well-wrought words upon a shelf.

No wealth survives without its guardians.

So must we be thankful for librarians.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Professions

September 4: Facts Are Never Simply What Is True

September 5: Therapists Find Fortune in Misfortune

September 6: Nurses Must Be Angels by Profession

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 8: You Put Yourself in Harm’s Way

September 9: There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

September 10: Librarians Are Those We Trust with Treasures

There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

January 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the performing arts.

Today’s poem is for a singer/songwriter.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no greater passion than for beauty --

Ecstasy distilled into a song --

Nor calling more exquisite than the duty

To make our own the truths for which we long.

Here's to you, then! And for what you've done

To be the muse who mirrors well our hearts,

Restoring the lone many to the one

Common love that underlies all arts.

O love of being, bearer of our pain!

Well might we praise the gardeners who bring

Our passions into bloom, that we again

Might hear the sunlit bird within us sing.

Long may you ply what practices you've learned,

Profiting all by artistry you've earned.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther27.html. For more poems about professions, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Performing Arts

January 8: Feelings Are Not Easily Counterfeited

January 9: Actors Wear a Special Mask

January 10: So You Want to Make Your Living in the Theater

January 11: Hrithik

January 12: Charles

January 13: For You, Life Has Its Own Internal Music

January 14: There Is No Greater Passion than for Beauty

You Put Yourself in Harm's Way

September 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of first responder (police or firefighters).

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You put yourself in harm's way,

Though you might die, that we might live,

The Good Samaritan for pay,

Asked often for what few would give.

Though you might die that we might live,

You make a conscious choice to be

Asked often for what few would give,

And to remain while others flee.

You make a conscious choice to be

The calm, well-trained professional,

And to remain while others flee

To face some danger for us all.

The calm, well-trained professional,

The Good Samaritan for pay:

To face some danger for us all,

You put yourself in harm's way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Professions

September 4: Facts Are Never Simply What Is True

September 5: Therapists Find Fortune in Misfortune

September 6: Nurses Must Be Angels by Profession

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 8: You Put Yourself in Harm’s Way

Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds

September 7, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is professions in honor of Labor Day, which was celebrated on September 4.

Today’s poem is about the profession of pastor.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Pastors are supposed to be the shepherds

A willing flock has bid to guide their souls.

So must you be yourself a lamb of courage,

The one most lost amid the moral wreckage

Of Adam's sin, whose grief must be the fold's.

Remember we are all but broken potsherds,

Sustained alone by faith in some great whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Professions

September 4: Facts Are Never Simply What Is True

September 5: Therapists Find Fortune in Misfortune

September 6: Nurses Must Be Angels by Profession

September 7: Pastors Are Supposed to Be the Shepherds