Happiness Is Much like Brushing Teeth

October 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a twenty-sixth anniversary poem about the need to celebrate and renew happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happiness is much like brushing teeth:

A semiconscious choice become routine,

Performed through practices sustained, though brief,

Perhaps without much thought for what they mean.

Years of I love you’s, kisses, sweet good nights,

Touching, pleasuring, talking, giving, sharing,

Whimsical rituals, familial rites,

Establish a routine for mutual caring.

Nor could such happiness survive for long

The sheer redundancy of daily life,

Yearning for change that sometimes comes on strong,

Self-centered grievances that lead to strife,

If one did not each day renew one’s love,

X-ing out the fear that in one moves,

Taking time at times to celebrate

Happiness, and choose again one’s fate.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ77.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 25: Happiness Is Much like Brushing Teeth

You Had the Gift of Happiness

October 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is for a deceased loved one who had the gift of happiness.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You had the gift of happiness,

The unrelenting grace

To see the radiance of life

Within the ruthless face.

Cancer, heart attacks, and strokes,

Paralysis and pain,

A flood that left you penniless . . .

And still you smiled again.

It wasn't pure naivete

Or something just not there,

Or, even worse, an inner lie

That said you didn't care.

It was a certain blessedness

Attained by very few

That let you live within a love

Within the love in you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/youha2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

October 24: You Had the Gift of Happiness

Thirty-Three5

October 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a number poem for someone who knows how to count her blessings.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-three counts well her many blessings,

Having come too far to be unsure.

In every moment there's a bit of wonder

Reserved for those who would refuse to plunder

Their portion for a place that's more secure.

Years yield good, rich oil through many pressings.

 

There are times one needs to change one's dressings:

Hearts and truths tend rarely to be pure.

Regardless whether welkins come asunder,

Even as the furies bluff and blunder,

Each acolyte of beauty will endure.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/33e.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Happiness

October 23: Thirty-Three5

The Gift of Life Is Never More or Less

October 22, 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 for someone who is terminally ill.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The gift of life is never more or less.

Either days or years are merely moments.

Reverence remains the source of bliss.

More memories do not increase remembrance.

If death must early come, then let it be

Nor more nor less than if it had come late:

A part of a much larger mystery,

Leaving wind and wisdom in its wake.

Longing is the music of our sphere,

Yearning for a time past time and space

In which all that we love is ever here,

Love everlasting, which is now our grace,

Living with us more than we can bear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

October 21: Mental Illness Doesn’t Touch the Soul

October 22: The Gift of Life Is Never More or Less

Mental Illness Doesn't Touch the Soul

October 21, 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 for someone who is mentally ill.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Mental illness doesn't touch the soul

Even as it punishes the mind.

None can will the wanderings of the wind,

Though winter come, and tempests take their toll.

All who suffer innocent shall find

Love waiting by the window, well and whole,

Inside the heart, where it has full control,

Longing ever, ever unresigned.

Let go your fear, and follow, then, your path,

Neither more nor less constrained than those

Embraced by gods less ruthless in their wrath.

Sing bravely down the windrows of your woes,

Savoring a grace that comes and goes.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

October 21: Mental Illness Doesn’t Touch the Soul

Eighty-Eight

October 20, 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 a number poem for a woman who is being kept alive by drugs.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Eighty-eight spends much of life in bed,

Interred beyond her time in drugs and pain.

Grateful only for the gift of sleep,

Having lost the will to laugh or weep,

The shrunken doll repeats just one refrain,

Yearning for the comforts of the dead.

Even so, the trail of pills has led

Into a world she grapples with in vain,

Grasping for a grace she cannot keep,

Harsh and vivid hauntings of the brain

That make of life a stew of joy and dread.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/88.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

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

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna

October 20: Eighty-Eight

Breanna

October 19, 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 a name poem for someone with RETT Syndrome.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Breanna is a cookie tough and tender.

RETT Syndrome is the gift that makes her, her.

Even though we wish all were born well,

As she is, we do not think her ill,

Nor would we life bereft of her prefer.

None could teach us more of love and will,

As sweet Breanna sings of pain and wonder.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

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

October 18: Linda

October 19: Breanna