I'm Not Your Parent, nor Are You My Slave

July 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for fidelity in love:

I'm not your parent, nor are you my slave.

I wouldn't try to say what you must do.

You alone will judge how you behave,

And do what you consider best for you.

But if you love someone, it means you care

How what you do affects the one you love.

It means sometimes that two in love must share

A hard decision one is certain of.

So if your friend still wants you for his* own,

It hurts me that you want him* for a friend.

Our mutual commitment should be known,

And both of us should such encroachments end.

Love is fragile, delicate, and fine;

To keep it whole, one has to draw a line.

*Feel free to substitute "her" if appropriate.

© 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/imnoty.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

7/16: Once More, with Feeling, Please

7/17: How Can I Persuade You I’m Sincere

7/18: I’m Not Your Parent, nor Are You My Slave

How Can I Persuade You I'm Sincere

July 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for risk and trust in love:

How can I persuade you I'm sincere,

That my affection equals my desire?

I can tell you what you want to hear,

But there's no way to prove I'm not a liar.

Time may tell, but how much time must pass

Before you are convinced by what I do?

My eyes are eyes, not windows made of glass

Through which you can see clearly what is true.

Love cannot be, but at the risk of pain.

Nothing can be guaranteed to last.

Mere longing leads to neither loss nor gain.

One must bet before the dice are cast.

I know I love you, but you cannot know

My heart unless you trust that it is so.

© 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/howc16.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

7/16: Once More, with Feeling, Please

7/17: How Can I Persuade You I’m Sincere

Once More, with Feeling, Please

July 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem about the need for something more than physical love:

Once more, with feeling, please! I've had enough

Of lubricated passion come and gone!

Years and years and years and years of stuff

Squirting, squirting, squirt -- and then it's done!

With feeling, please! Companionship, affection,

Shared pain, shared joy, shared silences, shared thoughts.

Not ecstasy fast moving towards rejection,

Frantic with the fear of time and loss.

Slow down, life! Slow down, and be content

Just to be awhile, and let love grow

Or not, as seedlings by the wind are sent

To find their bit of fertile earth, or no.

Let there be no ecstasy until

The plant has been well tended by the will.

© 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/oncemo.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

7/16: Once More, with Feeling, Please

Suscilia

July 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A name poem comparing a woman to a modest summer flower in the shade:

Suscilia is a flower in the shade.

Unless one looks for her, she is not there.

Such modesty in loveliness is rare,

Charming in a way that does not fade.

In her there is a calm and quiet space

Lying over thrumming agitation.

Inside she may explode with indignation

As outside one sees dignity and grace.

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

This week’s theme: Summer

7/9: Thirty-Two4

7/10: Thirty-Five3

7/11: To Say You Are My World Means

7/12: Lisa

7/13: The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

7/14: Happy Ninth

7/15: Suscilia

Happy Ninth

July 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

An anniversary poem comparing a couple’s love to a summer garden:

Happy ninth! A time that gathers time

And hands it to you in a bright bouquet.

Perhaps not all is roses, but the flowers,

Plucked from paradise, portray all love,

Yearning for the beauty it reveals.

Nor ought you wonder, for what time conceals

In time will bloom, and scatter seed, and prove

No little portion of your future powers,

The garden that no time can take away,

Herbs and blossoms, mint and eglantine.

© 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/happ38.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer

7/9: Thirty-Two4

7/10: Thirty-Five3

7/11: To Say You Are My World Means

7/12: Lisa

7/13: The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

7/14: Happy Ninth

The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

July 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A birthday poem comparing the loveliness of the birthday to the beauty of a summer day:

The sunlight is as passionate as flowers

Bordering the sidewalk of a song.

Clouds shape its golden apertures for hours,

Shifting with each breeze that comes along.

The day becomes a mustard-colored sunbeam

Falling through the window of your smile.

Mystical sensations, headed downstream,

Sit upon your windowsill awhile.

How beautifully the choir of the mountains

Sings to its rapt audience of blue!

As dancing down a corridor of fountains,

We toss in coins and make this wish for you:

Long may you love the loveliness of Earth!

And celebrate with joy your day of birth.

© 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/thesu2.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Summer

7/9: Thirty-Two4

7/10: Thirty-Five3

7/11: To Say You Are My World Means

7/12: Lisa

7/13: The Sunlight Is as Passionate as Flowers

Lisa

July 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is summer: its storms, its gentle winds, its fruit, its flowers.

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

A name poem comparing a beautiful woman to a bowl of summer fruit:

Lisa is a sunlit bowl of fruit,

Indian-summer sweet, like juice just pressed:

Still-life apples, grapes in dew drops dressed,

And pregnant pears plucked mellowing and mute.

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

This week’s theme: Summer

7/9: Thirty-Two4

7/10: Thirty-Five3

7/11: To Say You Are My World Means

7/12: Lisa