Death Can Also Be a Dance

January 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem compares death to a dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Death can also be a dance.

Each must grace its final steps.

A life immersed in pain, perhaps,

Too much controlled by circumstance,

Has one more leap to come to rest.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

January 23: Death Can Also Be a Dance

Kaylee

January 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is dance, used metaphorically.

Today’s poem is a name poem about a woman who, unknowing, dances the dance choreographed by her lineage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Kaylee cannot her antecedents trace.

Awake within her day, she feels quite free.

Yet she is but a dancer in a dance

Long practiced and perfected in advance,

Emerging from her will spontaneously,

Exquisite in its unsuspected grace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Dance, Used Metaphorically

January 22: Kaylee

Love Engenders Love

January 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

Today’s poem reflects Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of non-violence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love engenders love,

Hate engenders hate.

When words descend to blows,

Both lose the debate.

The means become the end,

Regardless of the goal.

The foe you hate becomes

The mirror of your soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

January 21: Love Engenders Love

My Face Is an Icon, My Life a Scrim

January 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the way his fame has distorted the truth of his life.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

My face is an icon, my life a scrim

Alight with meaning, my words inscribed

Reductively in stone, a hymn

To dreams annually revived.

In me you found a founding father

New, like Lincoln a colossus

Late arrived: righteous Other,

Unavenging nemesis,

The token nigger of American

Heroes, aggrieved but restrained,

Engaged but non-partisan,

Radical but house-trained.

Know that I still believe in you,

In spite of what you've done to me.

Nor can a holiday a truth

Give flesh long flayed by memory.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/myface.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 20: My Face Is an Icon

Meaning Is a Morning Song

January 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., urges the reader to go beyond knowledge and reason.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meaning is a morning song,

A dawn, a dance of light.

Reason merely sings along

To get the lyrics right.

In what you know is what you are,

Not what you'll become.

Let not sight your vision bar,

Undone by what is done.

To love must be to hope, for love

Has far too much to lose.

Embrace the good you're wary of,

Refusing to refuse.

Knowledge is as knowledge does.

It so quickly turns to was.

Now is ever when

Grace will come again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/meani3.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song

Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

January 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on what in life might mean more than life itself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there is more to life than living.

A person is a ripple in a stream,

Roiling the waters with a dream,

The revelation that makes life worth giving.

In love one finds a reason for believing,

Needing love to make life more than seem,

Love that makes the mundane moment gleam,

Undoing fate with faith, and death with grieving.

There is no love but at the risk of death,

Having valued something more than self,

Embracing what gives life to life, and grace,

Replacing fear of death or loss with joy.

Know then that the dreaded end of breath

Is not the end one ought to aim for, else

None would speak to fortune face to face,

Granted life no bullet can destroy.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe6.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living

Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much

January 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was celebrated on January 15^th.

In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the election of Barak Obama to the Presidency of the United States.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe some had thought I hoped too much

And dreamed a dream that never would come true,

Reasoning from what they saw and such

Trends as might confirm their points of view.

In dreams, however, one creates what is --

Not from what one sees but what one wills:

Like light, from the Lord's dream sprung, now All, as His

Undying Word the void unending fills.

Then look! Look! What miracles occur!

Here we have a black man judged upon --

Exactly as I dreamed -- his character,

Regardless of his skin! And he has won!

Know, then, that the dream for which I fought

In time became the ground for what I sought.

New realities require dreams

Given to us not as ends but means.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe5.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much