Before I Was Myself You Made Me, Me

June 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which is celebrated on June 17^th.

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

An appreciative Father’s Day poem about adjusting the mixture of discipline and freedom:

Before I was myself you made me, me

With love and patience, discipline and tears,

Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Allowing me to sail upon my sea,

Though well within the headlands of your fears.

Before I was myself you made me, me

With dreams enough of what I was to be

And hopes that would be sculpted by the years,

Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Relinquishing your powers gradually

To let me shape myself among my peers.

Before I was myself you made me, me,

And being good and wise, you gracefully

As dancers when the last sweet cadence nears

Bit by bit stepped back to set me free.

For love inspires learning naturally:

The mind assents to what the heart reveres.

And so it was through love you made me, me

By slowly stepping back to set me free.

© 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/befor2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

6/12: Hope Turns Slowly into Realization

6/13: Fathers Must Have Faith in What They Do

6/14: A Father and a Dad Are Not the Same

6/15: Before I Was Myself, You Made Me, Me

A Father and a Dad Are Not the Same

June 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which is celebrated on June 17^th.

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

An appreciative Father’s Day poem to a stepfather:

A father and a dad are not the same:

One can be a dad and not a father,

Or one can be a father and not bother

To earn through love the more endearing name.

Some find fatherhood a bit too tame,

Leaving all the details to the mother,

Or dumping the sweet burden on another

Man with just a passing twinge of shame.

You have been our dad so many years

That you've become the landscape that is home,

The mountain that we look to from afar.

No matter where we go we're not alone,

For you remain within to still our fears

And be the word that tells us where we are.

© 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/afath.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

6/12: Hope Turns Slowly into Realization

6/13: Fathers Must Have Faith in What They Do

6/14: A Father and a Dad Are Not the Same

Fathers Must Have Faith in What They Do

June 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which is celebrated on June 17^th.

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

A Father’s Day poem about the need for faith in raising children:

Fathers must have faith in what they do,

As long as what they do proceeds from love.

The thousand thousand gifts of self accrue,

Held for years in bonds they know not of.

Even discipline, if not in anger,

Reasonable, not stubborn, patient, wise,

‘Mid rebellions resolute for order,

Succeeds at last in children’s later lives.

Deeds are bricks with which one builds a home,

A dwelling of the heart, though kids may roam,

Yielding more love than one might surmise.

© 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/fath11.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

6/12: Hope Turns Slowly into Realization

6/13: Fathers Must Have Faith in What They Do

Hope Turns Slowly into Realization

June 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which is celebrated on June 17^th.

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

A Father’s Day poem about how to handle parental expectations:

Hope turns slowly into realization

As children slowly grow into themselves.

Perhaps some remnant fantasy rebels.

Perhaps one should revise one’s expectation.

Yet children owe one’s dreams no explanation,

For one must heed the tale that fortune tells

And greet the prodigal with joyful bells

That render the sweet song of the relation.

Have no illusion: Love is like a tide

Ebbing and flowing through the channeled heart,

Returning, turning as some smiling moon

‘Mid bits of shattered glory makes its way.

So must one with unremitting pride,

Destined for a quintessential part,

Attempt to harmonize that complex tune,

Yielding, shaping, listening to it play.

© 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/hopetu.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

6/12: Hope Turns Slowly into Realization

Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

June 11, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which is celebrated on June 17^th.

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

A Father’s Day poem about the love that underlies all close relations:

Fear not, for love is all around you,

All you see and feel, your light and air.

The passion and the joy of it surround you,

However much, or not, you know it’s there.

Even in the darkest of your days,

Raw anger, disappointment, fierce frustration,

‘Mid those whose frailties their love betrays,

Still, love configures every close relation.

Destiny comes dressed at times to kill,

And willing it takes every ounce of will,

Yet love’s the bloom in every obligation.

© 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/fearn2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/11: Fear Not, for Love Is All Around You

Melanie

June 10, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Melanie, a woman whose love is for God:

Melanie is always deep in love,

Even more so when she is alone.

Love of God is like a quiet lake,

A heart within her heart no heart can break,

Nor passion, pain, nor solitude remove.

In her is beauty of which all partake,

Easy as breath, dependable as stone.

© 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/melani.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Women

6/4: Aimée

6/5: Maggie

6/6: Viridiana

6/7: Amalia

6/8: Lorraine

6/9: Abby

6/10: Melanie

Abby

June 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for Abby, a woman who has the bearing of a queen without the cause:

Abby is a queen without a country,

Blessed and cursed by destiny to be

Bereft of title, subjects, power, bounty,

Yet reigning in each word like royalty.

© 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/abby.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Portraits of Women

6/4: Aimée

6/5: Maggie

6/6: Viridiana

6/7: Amalia

6/8: Lorraine

6/9: Abby