In Eighth Grade My Best Friend Passed Away

June 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is mourning in honor of Memorial Day, which was celebrated on May 28^th.

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

A poem about the beauty of mourning someone who died long ago:

In eighth grade my best friend passed away.

He isn't gone, of course. I have him here

With me, within my heart, as I do always.

How beautiful that people are so dear

To one another! For all my life I'll love him.

Only one small part of us dies. The rest

Lives on in others. We are music within

Music. Nor do we ever hear the best

Of us, which sings in other hearts, a chorus

Of angels! However much I miss him, he sings

Here now, my friend, in me, to you, for us,

As we still breathe in the beauty that he brings.

Love lives forever passed along, and we

All are blessed to live, to love, to be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/in8th.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mourning

5/28: Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

5/29: Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

5/31: I Feel as Though My Heart Must Stop with Pain

6/1: Buddy

6/2: In Eighth Grade My Best Friend Passed Away

Buddy

June 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is mourning in honor of Memorial Day, which was celebrated on May 28^th.

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

Two contrasting name poems for Buddy, who is mourned with both joy and sorrow:

BUDDY

Buddy's memory burns ever bright;

Underneath our sorrow, ever there.

Death, unlike the coming of the night,

Does nothing to the loveliness of light,

Yet dancing through the willows' tangled hair.

Buddy lies beyond all love and light,

Underneath a grief too harsh to bear.

Dreams may try to keep his memory bright,

Drawing blindly in the depths of night,

Yet none can borrow what’s no longer there.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/buddy.html and https://www.poemsforfree.com/buddy2.html . For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mourning

5/28: Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

5/29: Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

5/31: I Feel as Though My Heart Must Stop with Pain

6/1: Buddy

I Feel as Though My Heart Must Stop with Pain

May 31, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is mourning in honor of Memorial Day, which was celebrated on May 28^th.

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

A poem of mourning for a deceased child:

I feel as though my heart must stop with pain.

I miss you so, the darkness will not pale.

My darling child, come to me again.

I know you cannot come, and still I strain

To put my arms around you through the veil.

I feel as though my heart must stop with pain.

Other lives and loves call me in vain.

I try to turn away from you and fail.

My darling child, come to me again.

You are my unendurable refrain.

Back and back I hurry to impale

My heart on you, to stop my heart with pain.

Yet nothing that I do undoes the plain

Brutal fact which always must prevail.

Ah, my darling, come to me again!

You are both my sunshine and my rain,

My dearest joy, my anguish, and my grail.

I feel as though my heart must stop with pain.

My darling child, come to me again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ifeel.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mourning

5/28: Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

5/29: Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

5/31: I Feel as Though My Heart Must Stop with Pain

Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

May 29, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is mourning in honor of Memorial Day, which was celebrated yesterday, May 28^th.

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

A Memorial Day poem about murder as a soldier’s duty:

Murder ought not ever be a duty,

Even though for soldiers it must be.

Maybe one is bound by love or beauty

Only after one is safe and free.

Remember, then, those who murdered for you,

Invading, burning, bombing in your name,

And those whose plain white tombstones are before you,

Long dead, with neither guilt nor pride nor shame.

Deep within the heart the cause of war,

Alive and well, assures us there'll be more,

Yielding hatred, fear, revenge, and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/murder.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mourning

5/28: Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

5/29: Murder Ought Not Ever Be a Duty

Memories Evoke a Painful Joy.2

May 28, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is mourning in honor of Memorial Day, which is celebrated today, May 28^th.

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

A Memorial Day poem about the mingled joy and pain of memories:

Memories evoke a painful joy,

Evoke a harsh and bitter tenderness.

Maybe that's the price of happiness:

One loves what time or tempest will destroy.

Remember, then, those whom you have loved

In mingled joy and sorrow. Sing a song

As beautiful as is your love, and mourn

Like one who is by some chance blessing moved.

Days of mourning are a celebration,

A dance whose healing grace sustains relation,

Yielding grief that will redemptive prove.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memor3.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mourning

5/28: Memories Evoke a Painful Joy

Thank You for Your Love Throughout the Years

May 27, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the many college graduations taking place this month is graduation.

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

A graduation and thank-you poem from the graduate to his or her parents:

Thank you for your love throughout the years.

How else could I become what I've become?

All your plans and hopes and even fears

Now come together in what I have done.

Know that I am grateful for your love.

Your hard work is mirrored now in mine.

On you all my accomplishments must shine.

Underneath my pride, your spirits move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thank5.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

5/21: Congratulations on Your Doctorate

5/22: Graduates Are People with Degrees

5/23: Happiness Does Not Depend on Weather

5/24: How Many Times You Almost Lost Your Way

5/25: The Happiness I Feel at Your Achievements

5/26: Give a Little Thought to What Comes Next

5/27: Thank You for Your Love Throughout theYears

Give a Little Thought to What Comes Next

May 26, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week in honor of the many college graduations taking place this month is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about what might make one’s education meaningful:

Give a little thought to what comes next.

Remember: education isn't training.

A person needs to struggle with a text,

Delving into truths beyond explaining.

Understanding means you must go under,

And make your own the ground on which you stand.

The urge to learn comes from a sense of wonder

Ill-served in those who like their knowledge canned.

Open up your mind so that your soul

Not be confined to one small, shallow bowl.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/giveal.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

5/21: Congratulations on Your Doctorate

5/22: Graduates Are People with Degrees

5/23: Happiness Does Not Depend on Weather

5/24: How Many Times You Almost Lost Your Way

5/25: The Happiness I Feel at Your Achievements

5/26: Give a Little Thought to What Comes Next