Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 14, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about how love can transform a life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before you, I was just hanging out.

My days were all hubbub, no beauty.

Boredom seemed what life was all about.

Excitement meant going to a movie.

Then I fell in love with you; my mall

Opened to a sudden rush of sky;

Trees turned into happiness; and all

The things I had forgotten made me cry.

The loves that fasten one to life grew strong:

You, the thought of seeing you, your touch,

My love for those I'd loved my whole life long,

Knowing, but not feeling it too much.

You brought my life to life, my love to flower;

Now love me well, and through me taste your power.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 13, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a name poem that lists what a lover desires.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

All I ever wanted is in you:

Love, laughter, trust that stills my fears.

I want to give and to be given to

So we might be one throughout the years

And share the painful and the joyful tears.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

Victories Retain the Stench of Death

November 12, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is war, in honor of Veterans Day, which was celebrated yesterday, November 11.

Today’s poem is a Veterans Day poem about honoring the dead on all sides.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Victories retain the stench of death.

Each is cause for gratitude, not joy.

Those who win are fated to destroy

Every grace whose beauty gives them breath.

Remember those who fell on every side,

And grieve not just for those you call your own.

No torturer or tyrant dies alone;

So may you weep for every fratricide.

Death is no fit dwelling place for pride,

And hatred's not a passion to enjoy,

Yet all who feel have reason to atone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/vetda2.html. For more Veterans Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

November 6: Veiled in Glory, One Looks Back and Grieves

November 7: Victories Require Validation

November 8: Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell

November 9: Voices of the Dead Are Rarely Heard

November 10: Velcro Feelings Disconnect

November 11: Veterans Are Fugitives from Hell

November 12: Victories Retain the Stench of Death

Veterans Are Fugitives from Hell

November 11, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is war, in honor of Veterans Day, which is celebrated today, November 11.

Today’s poem is a Veterans Day poem about how one’s hardened heart is not so easily softened.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Veterans are fugitives from hell,

Escapees from death pursued by pain.

The truth they left behind makes truth insane;

Each nightmare is a truth they know too well.

Reason is unreasonable when words

Are whips that drive believers to the kill,

Necessary to sustain a will

Stirred by the sweet morning songs of birds.

Decencies are frills to put aside

As hearts are hardened for the jolting ride,

Yet on return are clamped and hardened still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/veter2.html. For more Veterans Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

November 6: Veiled in Glory, One Looks Back and Grieves

November 7: Victories Require Validation

November 8: Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell

November 9: Voices of the Dead Are Rarely Heard

November 10: Velcro Feelings Disconnect

November 11: Veterans Are Fugitives from Hell

Velcro Feelings Disconnect

November 10, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is war, in honor of Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11.

Today’s poem is a Veterans Day poem about how the observance of Veterans Day allows one to move on without forgetting.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Velcro feelings disconnect

Eventually, but these

Time does not dissolve, their outlines

Etched into the sea.

Rest easy, then, as we erect

Among new-planted trees

No ordinary wayside shrines

Sustaining memory.

Days like these allow one

Again to move on. For what is gone

Yet lives, remembered ritually.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

November 6: Veiled in Glory, One Looks Back and Grieves

November 7: Victories Require Validation

November 8: Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell

November 9: Voices of the Dead Are Rarely Heard

November 10: Velcro Feelings Disconnect

Voices of the Dead Are Rarely Heard

November 9, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is war, in honor of Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11.

Today’s poem is a Veterans Day poem about the need to remember.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Voices of the dead are rarely heard.

Each of us should set aside the time

To listen to their lost and anguished words,

Evocative as distant church bells’ chimes.

Reason cannot reason to life’s end,

A moment of its own annihilation.

Nor can any witness comprehend

'Ere death what might exist beyond sensation.

So let us long remember those who died,

Doing honor due, for they were loved

Alive and dead by those whose hearts abide,

Yet yearning though the mountains be unmoved.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

November 6: Veiled in Glory, One Looks Back and Grieves

November 7: Victories Require Validation

November 8: Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell

November 9: Voices of the Dead Are Rarely Heard

Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell

November 8, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is war, in honor of Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11.

Today’s poem is a Veterans Day poem about how vets’ anguish never wholly leaves them.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Veterans have served their time in hell,

Emerging on the sunny side of pain,

Taking with them always shards of night.

Even in the midst of their delight,

Rich in all that love and luck can gain,

Armed memories rise that know their weakness well.

Now death joins the damned ones in their cell

'Ere we can remove them from the slain,

Snuffing out their suffering with our light.

Days and years diminish not the blight,

As only those who've been there can explain,

Yet walking by the side of those who fell.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

November 6: Veiled in Glory, One Looks Back and Grieves

November 7: Victories Require Validation

November 8: Veterans Have Served Their Time in Hell