Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

November 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran's Day poem about the need to honor veterans regardless of whether one approves of their wars:

Veterans have claims upon the hearts

Even of those who railed against their wars.

The years of sacrifice transcend the cause,

Endured through agonies no word imparts.

Reason cannot comprehend such hell,

As strangers murder strangers out of duty.

Nor does the bleak, obscene, nightmarish beauty

Stop haunting dreams that love and rage compel.

Decency demands we do them honor,

Albeit with a hatred of the horror

Yet harrowing our world, alive and well.

© 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/veter4.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

11/8: Veterans Have Claims upon the Hearts

Very Soon I'll Hear the Victims' Screams

November 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem about a vet’s recurrent nightmares:

Very soon I'll hear the victims' screams,

Even in the midst of my content,

The end not quite enough to quell the means,

Each nightmare not exactly what I meant.

Recruited in a time of peace, I went

Abroad to serve more adolescent dreams,

Not unaware, of course, I might be sent

Someday to where the widow wails and keens.

Dumb ignorance! For now I must repent

Aberrations no regret redeems,

Yet hounding me like dogs on mayhem bent.

© 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/veryso.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

11/7: Very Soon I’ll Hear the Victims’ Screams

Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

November 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem addressed to parents in a military cemetery:

Vast fields of crosses, all the same,

Each embellished with a name.

This is what your love has wrought!

Embrace the child become a thought,

Reduced to regimented loss,

A name screwed on a plain, white cross!

Nor can you feel what you must feel

Since what is real cannot be real.

Devour the moment, make it yours,

As life continues on all fours,

Yearning, begging at closed doors.

© 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/vastfi.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

11/6: Vast Fields of Crosses, All the Same

Thank You's Howl like Wind Across the Dead

November 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11^th.

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

A Veteran’s Day poem of thanks to the dead, who can no longer hear:

Thank you's howl like wind across the dead,

Howl dark and cold through trees that cannot speak,

As none below has ears for what we say,

Nor can a smile crease a vanished cheek.

Killing lays all souls on one small bed.

Yet we must thank you for ourselves, to seek

One moment of forgiveness on our way,

Unloosing tears we weep but cannot shed.

© 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/vetday.html. For more Veteran’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/veteransdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Veterans Day

11/5: Thank You’s Howl like Wind Across the Dead

Have a Little Hell to Salt Your Heaven

November 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the need to include some horror in one’s life:

Have a little Hell to salt your Heaven,

A dash of horror in your well-whipped cream.

Love and joy are not all you’ve been given.

Let some unsavory nightmare spice your dream!

Open up your long-sealed inner dungeon

Wherein you keep the monsters of your heart.

Enjoy one midnight just a rare smoked smidgeon,

Exquisite taste of what you are, in part,

Night shades for your culinary art!

© 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 Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play

11/3: Hollow, Hollow Halloween

11/4: Have a Little Hell to Salt Your Heaven

Hollow, Hollow Halloween

November 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the plight of lost souls:

Hollow, hollow Halloween,

All hollow at the bone

Like a loud but silent scream

Long entombed in stone.

O hollow, hard, unhallowed souls

Wandering the night:

Ever weep on daylight’s shoals

Even as the matin tolls,

Never reaching light.

© 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/hollow.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play

11/3: Hollow, Hollow Halloween

Horror Is a Kind of Play

November 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Halloween, which is celebrated on Oct. 31.

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

A Halloween poem about the real-life function of Halloween horror:

Horror is a kind of play,

A need to undergo

Life along the borderline,

Lest death be just a name.

On Halloween we dream away

What wailing we well know,

Enchanted by the danger sign

Each savors up and down the spine,

Near haunts that are no game.

© 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/horror.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Halloween

10/29: Brooms Inspire Restless Witches

10/30: Happy, Happy Halloween

10/31: Have a Look in the Mirror of Your Dreams

11/1: Hobgoblins Know the Proper Way to Dance

11/2: Horror Is a Kind of Play