I Don't Understand What Happened to Us

March 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem asks why a friendship ended.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I don't understand what happened to us

Or why you have turned away.

Of course you are free to do as you like,

But first I have something to say.

To me it had seemed we could go on forever,

So close were our hearts, and at ease,

So much did we share, yet the words never faltered,

So I thought as time did as it pleased.

Whatever I did that has made you unhappy,

Or am that is not to your taste,

Or would be were I to return to your graces,

Or won't be if I am replaced:

I want you to know that your friendship is something

I treasure, and would not now end.

If you would be willing to turn to embrace me,

You'd find in me still a good friend.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frien3.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 20: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 21: Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

March 22: Friends Are Where One Offloads What

March 23: I Don’t Understand What Happened to Us

Friends Are Where One Offloads What

March 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is about what friends are for.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Friends are where one offloads what

One cannot bear alone --

Spoiled goods that jam the gut,

Sorrows turned to stone.

Why does the act of telling friends

One's troubles ease one's pain?

Nothing changes, nothing ends,

Yet one can cope again.

It's not that one is looking for

Advice or sympathy.

One has pent-up words to pour

Into reality.

A friend is like a field on which

Such feelings can find air.

The point is not to say too much,

But simply to be there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/frien3.html. For more friendship poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/friendshippoems.html .

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 20: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 21: Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

March 22: Friends Are Where One Offloads What

Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

March 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is a number poem about the universality of personal experience.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forgive me if I come into your bed,

Open wounds to read therein your shame,

Remove your skin to gaze on naked sorrow,

Tear out your heart to substitute my name.

You wish, no doubt, to keep your personhead.

One we are, and one will be tomorrow;

No one is ever utterly unwed.

Even strangers are one flesh in joy and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 20: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 21: Forgive Me if I Come into Your Bed

For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

March 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is a friendship poem about breaking out of the prison of the self.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

For most of us life passes like a dream,

Revealing only what is on our minds.

Inside the prison of the self we see

Each object as a shadow on our wall.

Nothingness awaits, as sure as night.

Did I not have you, dear friend, I might,

Shadow on a shade, not be at all.

How much we need a word beyond our sea:

In love and laughter, thoughts of different kinds,

Perhaps, with luck, unraveling a seam.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

March 20: For Most of Us Life Passes like a Dream

Courtney

March 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is friendship.

Today’s poem is a name poem for an excellent friend.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Courtney is an all-embracing friend,

Open to the winds of whim or need.

Underneath her smile is a smile

Radiating outward like a sun.

To her the joys of friend and self are one,

Nor is her cheerful deference a style:

Each moment is a perfect book to read,

Yet not with any passion for the end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Friendship

March 19: Courtney

Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

March 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which was celebrated yesterday, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is a St. Patrick’s Day poem with a more secular view of selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Souls and selves are organ tones and tunes.

The soul is deep, unchanging, it abides.

Placed in time, but not of time, it rides

Above the silence, alike in graves or wombs.

The self is full of feeling as it croons,

Restricted to a shallow range, but wide.

In constant flux, it flits from side to side,

Changing as it nears its bliss or doom.

Know that soul and self sing one sweet song.

‘Mid sense and sentiment, eternity

Sings the deepest organ tone of being.

Do, then, bound for death, please sing along,

A chorister transfixed by beauty, singing,

Yielding to the rich, full harmony.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 18: Souls and Selves Are Organ Tones and Tunes

Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated today, March 17^th.

Today’s poem is from the point of view of St. Patrick about the difference between selves and souls.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,

As what might change is never what must be.

In one we find pure light; the other, coals,

Now burning, now burned out, now memory.

The self is something that can grow and change,

Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,

Alive to faith or innerly estranged,

The lonely witness to what one has been.

Remember that the soul is also you,

Is what is, which is eternal love,

Called to love by love you know is true,

Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

March 12: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 13: Seriously, Nothing Would Surprise Me

March 14: Sing of Ireland, That Salad Bowl

March 15: Sing of the Home That You Have Never Seen

March 16: Some Would Satisfy Their Utmost Longings

March 17: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls