I'm Sorry I Can;t Tell You What

October 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is illnesses and disabilities.

Today’s poem is from a deaf child to her mother about acceptance and love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I'm sorry I can't tell you what

I'm sure you'd rather hear,

But there's a burden in my heart

I can no longer bear.

There's an anger I must cross

Before I come to you

And make my peace with who you are,

And try your soul anew.

I know I wasn't what you wanted

When you wanted me,

A healthy, happy baby girl

You could raise easily.

I was born impaired, and you

Have never understood

That what I am is whole and fair

And beautiful and good.

You were sorry, first for me

And then for you, and wept,

But I would not be me without

The fact that I am deaf.

I am a gift to celebrate

And not a cause to grieve.

As a child this was what

I needed to believe.

I needed but a different road

To reach the common goal,

But you decided there were things

I couldn't do at all.

And rather than accept what life

Had given in its grace,

You looked at what life had withheld

And turned from its embrace.

Ah, Mother! How you injured me

By what you would not own!

To love myself I had to leave

And make my way alone,

And have my children in the course

Of what I would become,

But always, always looking back

To where I had no home.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/imsor4.html. For more poems about disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

October 17: I’m Sorry I Can’t Tell You What

I Want to Live

October 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is illnesses and disabilities.

Today’s poem is about someone who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I want to live

Till the sunset of my time.

And I want to give

All the beauty that is mine.

The days that assault me

And the years of pain awaiting me

Fill me with anger and with tears.

But I know just where I must go.

For I want to wander

Through the landscapes of my life,

And I want to love

As a mother and a wife.

The illness that torments me

And the love of those around me

Join to make hope my refrain

And courage my song.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/iwan11.html. For more poems about health and illness, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Illnesses and Disabilities

October 16: I Want to Live

Could We Have the Clarity of Fate

October 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the mystery of what lies just over the horizon.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Could we but have the clarity of fate

Or see the future as we do the past,

Little would we crave the mystery

Unknown to those who know what lies ahead.

Mountains make horizons definite,

Blocking off infinity, the last

Unbroken wave upon this solid sea,

Singing songs that we have long since heard.

Do, then, those few sailors celebrate,

Alone amidst the watery wilderness,

Yet seeking grandly what it is to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 15: Could We But Have the Clarity of Fate

Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

October 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of a life of change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Clear away the cobwebs from your eyes --

Old ways of thinking, doing, wanting, dreaming!

Learn that present truths are future lies,

Undone by what is now well past redeeming.

Make of life a vast experiment

Blessed by passion, toil, terror, pain,

Unafraid to scuttle what you meant,

Sure only that no failure is in vain.

Do this, and you will have a chance to be

A sailor at the edge of what you see,

Yet yearning for what no one can attain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

October 14: Clear Away the Cobwebs from Your Eyes

Chasing the Horizon

October 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the ecstasy of the voyage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Chasing the horizon

On a windy sea,

Land fast disappearing,

Underway and free!

Maybe there is something

Beyond that distant line,

Ultimately nothing

Senses can define.

Days may seem like moments,

And moments seem like years.

Yet the wind is mine!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 13: Chasing the Horizon

Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

October 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the need for obsession to bring about change.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Changes find their agent in obsession.

Old visions do not yield but to a sea.

Life is myth undone by mystery.

Underneath the truth lies the expression.

Meaning is the mask of history,

Best worn by those in undisturbed possession.

Ultimately, there is no progression.

Sing, then, of change, and savor what will be!

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang2.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 12: Changes Find Their Agent in Obsession

Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap

October 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is discovery in honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated on October 9.

Today’s poem is about the sacrifices necessary for a life of discovery.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Challenging the veil does not come cheap.

One gets to know the provenance of hunger,

Living off the energy of wonder,

Unwilling to trade ecstasy for sleep.

More than life, one must want to be

Bestride the instant of the revelation,

Uniting image and imagination,

Seeing first what now the world might see.

Dread and longing dance across one's dreams,

Alive with hope for charismatic schemes.

Years wearied, wasted, wait impatiently.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Discovery

October 9: Can One Ever See What Lies Beyond

October 10: Care to Come with Me to Outer Space

October 11: Challenging the Veil Does Not Come Cheap