There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

November 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated tomorrow, November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about how anyone might turn towards joy:

There is no joy that does not sing of longing,

Having come a long, hard way to love.

All happiness is earned, all bliss belonging,

Nor need one be alone, though lonesome prove.

Kindness is a kind of gratitude,

Sign and source of pleasure in one's being,

Giving thanks by giving, as the shrewd

Invest in what they have small chance of seeing.

Very little time is spent in singing.

Instead, we speak of what we want or need,

Not knowing every minute we are bringing

Gifts to those whose music we might read.

© 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/ther25.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

11/21: There Is No Joy That Does Not Sing of Longing

The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don't

November 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A Thanksgiving poem about fortune as a choice:

The point is what you have, not what you don't.

How can you be happy when you won't?

All of us at times are angry, sad,

Nervous, testy, thinking we've been had,

Knowing life for others turned out better,

Sure that in most dealings we're the debtor.

Granted, granted. But fortune is a choice

In which you find your music and your voice,

Vividly in tune with what you see

If you would live your life harmoniously.

None can choose acceptance without seeing

Gifts that come unsought from simply being.

© 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/thepo2.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

11/20: The Point Is What You Have, Not What You Don’t

Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

November 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 22^nd.

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

A bitter Thanksgiving poem about the viciousness of life:

Tell me, please, whom I ought to thank,

Having come here not of my own will.

All life can seem like a sadistic prank,

Nor can I count the creatures I must kill.

Kids imagine witches, werewolves, ghosts.

Scientists see horrors every day:

Guests that eat the insides of their hosts;

Insects that cut up their living prey.

Viciousness can sometimes seem the main

Ingredient in this well-seasoned stew;

Nor can I live without inflicting pain,

Grace for which I guess I should thank You.

© 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/tellme.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

11/19: Tell Me, Please, Whom I Ought to Thank

Love Comes to Those Who Love

November 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 poem about love as the cause of love:

Love comes to those who love, who find their joy

In others' joy, their tears in others' tears.

Those in need receive the gifts that buoy

Them through the windswept yearnings of their years.

Weakness is a strength, and power none,

For none has power to compel affection.

Passion to the self-consumed may come,

But love looks for the grace of its reflection.

Love is like a tide that comes and goes,

And comes and goes according to the moon,

Giving and receiving as it flows

Between high headlands weathered and rough-hewn.

For love becomes itself the cause of love,

A double-knot not easy to remove.

© 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/lovec2.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

11/17: Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

11/18: Love Comes to Those Who Love

Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

November 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 poem about the need to declare one’s love:

Lest your love lie undisclosed,

Simply say what's in your heart,

With neither eloquence nor art,

Unafraid to be exposed.

Some fear their love might be accepted,

Inspiring an expectation;

Others fear humiliation,

Too restrained to be rejected.

Either way, you're sure to lose

By hiding what you know is true.

The love you feel is merely you

Rendered up to whom you choose.

So say it, let your love be known,

And be more fully who you are!

The fear of pain ought never bar

The joy that else might be your own.

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

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

11/17: Lest Your Love Lie Undisclosed

Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

November 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 poem comparing love to sunlight on jewels:

Jewels are cut from more than precious stone.

A life, too, is cut to catch the light.

No beauty is refracted when a lone,

Isolated stranger walks the night.

Can you be jewels to each other's sun?

Each needs a light to shine upon the heart,

Awakening the loveliness that one

Never could reveal if still apart.

Do, then, give both sunlight and refraction,

So you may be at once both light and jewel,

Having made your mutual attraction

Attain a glow no single source could fuel.

When two are one, both are at once in play:

Now each heart will the other's light display.

© 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/jewel2.html. For more poems about love, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

11/16: Jewels Are Cut from More than Precious Stone

In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking

November 15, 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 poem about the need to take risks for love:

In love you let the heart do all the thinking

And say with courage simply what seems true.

Time may in good time do the looked-for linking,

But you must know you've done what you can do.

Passion understands far more than reason,

Seeing in the dark with more than sight.

Truth, in truth, can vary with the season,

Nor can you ever know you've got it right.

So throw yourself into the stream of being

And let the moment take you where it will.

Fear does nothing for the bitter keening

That only love's sweet sacrifice can still.

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

This week’s theme: Love

11/12: Eventually, We Learn that Love Is as Seasonal as Potatoes

11/13: Desire Is

11/14: Gifts Given Freely, Out of Joy and Love

11/15: In Love You Let the Heart Do All the Thinking