The Market Is a Merciless Beast

February 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which was celebrated yesterday, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is a political poem about the relationship between the market and the heart.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The market is a merciless beast,

Bloodstained in tooth and claw,

A superbly crafted predator

Honed well by nature’s law.

Tame it and you’ll get a dog—

Friendly, useful, smart,

Overbred imperfectly,

The flawed result of art.

Which do you choose? The perfect beast

To maximize return?

To set unbiased by the heart

What people pay and earn?

Or the dog, who would prefer

To find some way to please,

And with a trick or two, the pain

Of life’s worst hardships ease?

Oh, yes, the market undisturbed

Works most efficiently.

But do you choose the wilderness

And nature’s cruelty?

Or do you choose the park, where nature,

Guided by the will,

As tame as we, is modified

To spare the weak and ill?

Which is your reflection?

The wild or the tame?

Your answer is a mirror,

Its heart and yours the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

February 20: The Market Is a Merciless Beast

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day

February 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Presidents Day, which is celebrated today, February 19^th.

Today’s poem is about the proper spelling of Presidents Day.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

President's Day? Presidents' Day? Or Presidents Day?

Regarding spelling, what's the difference?

Even apostrophes must have their say,

Subtly shading each rendition's sense.

In the first, Washington alone

Deserves the day, the only president

Every state has honored on its own.

Nor does the change of date change what is meant.

The second rendition suggests that Lincoln, too,

Should share the honor, combining holidays

'Tween their birthdays, giving both their due,

Depending on which state such honor pays.

All presidents, too, the second could convey,

Yet the third one must be read that 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/presid.html. For more poems for Presidents Day, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/presidentsdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

February 19: President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Or Presidents Day?

Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

February 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the slow and painful journey into love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before love, that jolting lilt

East of roses, in perturbed darkness,

Missing the eternal circumstance,

Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt.

Vainly would I fly into your heart

Afire, burning, consumed, expended.

Love is not an ending; nor does it end

Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts

Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,

The long climb out of loneliness, turning

In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.

No two are joined except in painful learning:

Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/lilt.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 18: Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem to a lover who has been long dreamed of.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,

Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.

My inner picture was a portrait of you

Years before your heart my heart would move.

Vistas of enchantment are but rarely

As we find them in reality.

Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,

Eden as no dream could ever be.

Nor is this the magic of the moment,

The proper costume for the holiday.

In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,

Not merely of desire, but of fulfillment,

Else lost amid the chaff along the 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/befor3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

Before I Ask Y'All, Please Understand

February 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem Southern style.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I ask y'all, please understand,

Even though I come from way down South,

My heart is more loquacious than my mouth,

Yearning like a wave for your smooth sand.

Very few down here will show their hand,

Aching like a riverbed for rain,

Lying like a platitude in pain,

Each chili inside, outside baked beans bland.

Now here down South it ain't right to demand

The things you're dying for, but you real fine,

In a voice like preachers set to dine,

Nicely say, "Mind if I trouble you, Ma'am," -

Easy like - "to be my Valentine?"

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befori.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how we tend to take our blessings for granted.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Blessings are the things we take for granted.

Each holiday's a light that helps us see.

Most know the Earth is utterly enchanted

Yet walk through life and love mechanically.

Valentine’s Day is love’s well-timed ablution,

A ritual bath in sweet reality.

Love brings us the gift of absolution,

Enveloping our guilt in innocence.

No touch inspires so swift a revolution,

Translating lust-filled longings into sense.

In your love's a blessing I will sing,

Needing just your joy for recompense,

Embracing words that make the heart take wing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bless.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated today, February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about transcending the loneliness of life through love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine: What does that mean?

Each of us might walk through life alone,

More lonely than a long-forgotten poem,

Yearning for a face we’ve never seen.

Valentines awake us from that dream,

Are like a sunrise on a world of stone,

Letting us be more than on our own,

Embracing us with love, that life redeems.

No way but through loving might we give

The freedom of our being to another.

In such a mutual sacrifice we live

Needing, trusting those we’re trusted with,

Even as we bind our lives together.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyva.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean