Indians Are, of Course, Not Indians

October 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is indigenous peoples in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, which is celebrated today, October 8.

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

A poem for Indigenous People’s Day about the mislabeling of the American indigenous peoples:

Indians are, of course, not Indians.

Nor were they ever Indians.

Denying their identities,

Inventing labels as we please,

Allows, of course, their genocide.

No word is ever innocent.

So names enable fratricide.

© 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/india2.html. For more poems for Indigenous People’s Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Indigenous Peoples

10/8: Indians Are, of Course, Not Indians

Seventy-Nine3

October 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a seventy-nine year old about reaching old age:

Seventy-nine – My God! – is almost eighty!

Eventually, I guess, one does get old.

Vistas of the past engage the mind,

Elegies for what lies far behind,

Now interspliced with scenes just barely cold,

The long ago concurrent with the lately,

Years and decades onto one screen scrolled.

Now one’s state of being is more stately,

In movement and in contour more confined.

Nor could one differ, were one so inclined,

Embracing life’s decrees as life unfolds.

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight

10/3: There Is No Moment When One’s Youth Is Over

10/4: Forty-One

10/5: Fifty

10/6: Sixty-One

10/7: Seventy-Nine

Sixty-One4

October 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a sixty-one year old about looking for a landing place:

Sixty-one surveys the rocky shore,

Intent on landing somewhere safe and sound.

X's on a map show nothing more

Than places where a ship might run aground.

Yet time moves on, and harbor must be found.

One never can know whither one is bound,

Nor what the fate one chooses has in store,

Ever till one’s ship the next point rounds.

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight

10/3: There Is No Moment When One’s Youth Is Over

10/4: Forty-One

10/5: Fifty

10/6: Sixty-One

Fifty6

October 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem of astonishment at reaching fifty:

Fifty isn’t half a century.

It couldn’t be! The numbers must be wrong!

For centuries cannot apply to me.

There is no way my life could be that long!

Yet numbers never lie. Unfortunately.

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight

10/3: There Is No Moment When One’s Youth Is Over

10/4: Forty-One

10/5: Fifty

Forty-One6

October 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a forty-one year old about the passage of time:

Forty-one is not yet past his prime --

Older, to be sure, but far from old.

Revelations come and go with time,

Their streams of wisdom running hot and cold,

Yet here and there he pans a bit of gold.

One's life is too voluminous to hold,

Nor can one slow each year's departing chime,

Even as each breath remains sublime.

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight

10/3: There Is No Moment When One’s Youth Is Over

10/4: Forty-One

There Is No Moment When One's Youth Is Over

October 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for a twenty-nine year old about the end of youth:

There is no moment when one’s youth is over,

When one has reached the boundary of what will

Endure until the onset of one’s age.

No birthday will announce that change of stage,

That crossing into finity, until

You can look back and see that you are older.

Now you are and feel as young as ever,

In hope and thought and yearning youthful still.

Nor are your dreams less grand than your endeavors,

Even as each year you turn the page.

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight

10/3: There Is No Moment When One’s Youth Is Over

Eight2

October 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem about how fast eight year olds want to grow up:

Eight year olds, of course, are not yet nine.

Instead, they try to act like they are ten,

Growing up more rapidly than Time

Has time to pass more patiently with them.

They’ll slow down, I know. But who knows when?

© 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/.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Age

10/1: Three

10/2: Eight