Poem of the Week

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

3/9: When Love Is an Affliction

3/10: How Can I Have a Fight with My Best Friend

Saturday, March 9, 2019

When Love Is an Affliction

March 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the fear of breaking up a painful love:

When love is an affliction,

There's not much one can do.

Despite the way you've treated me,

I'm still in love with you.

I am the wave and you the rock

Against which I must break:

Again, again the crushing jolt,

The pain I can't forsake;

Again, again the long retreat

To safety, far from shore,

And then again, I don't know why,

The long trip back for more.

Perhaps it is nostalgia for

A long uncertain glow,

Or just some hope so beautiful

I cannot let it go.

Perhaps it is the need to try

For those who must depend

On who we are and what we do,

For whom this should not end.

What evil makes you hurt me so,

What defect of the heart?

What sense there is no greater whole

Of which you are a part?

What lonely choice that only you

Be served by what you choose?

What hard, hard fear of losing what

It is a gift to lose?

I dream sometimes my waiting love

Has made you turn again.

But you care only for yourself,

And I must love in vain.

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

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

3/9: When Love Is an Affliction

Friday, March 8, 2019

You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

March 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about a healthy fear of love that is not mutual:

You wrote your name upon her thigh

And looked at me. I wondered why

You hurt me so. What demon drew

You on to be so not like you?

Sometimes it seems you want to cause

Me grief, as if to test the loss

Of me, to see how much sweet pain

You need to feel alive again.

I love you, yet I fear a love

In which my function is to prove

Repeatedly you cannot lose

The thing you want but cannot choose.

I stay in hopes that you will see

Someday you cannot hope to be

Both fully loved and fully free,

For love comes only mutually.

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

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

3/8: You Wrote Your Name upon Her Thigh

Thursday, March 7, 2019

The Apartment Is Dark

March 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about the calm after a tempestuous breakup:

The apartment is dark.

I like it that way.

Through unshaded windows

I look across the street.

People there have lights on.

I see them through curtains.

A muscular young man

Washes dishes with his wife.

A woman drinks beer

In the blue light of TV.

On the top floor a mother,

A daughter, a daughter:

Three without men.

Next door an old couple

Smothers the fear

Of who will die first.

In a singles bar

I meet a woman

And have nothing to say.

Too many times

I have said the same things.

I watch here in darkness,

In the peace of aloneness,

And think about me,

And think about you.

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

This week’s theme: Fear of Love

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Love Lingers in the Alleyways

March 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem about fearing the chains of love, and fearing the loss of what love might destroy:

Love lingers in the alleyways

And wafts across the streets,

And knocks upon my double doors

But never does come in.

Love finds a home in entrance ways

And rattles round retreats,

And scurries past the faint applause

Just two doors down from sin.

Ah! Would I love would I but know

What love might have in store!

For I have fears of heavy chains

That jangle in my joy.

And I have fears of floods that flow

From asking life for more.

Silent, I prefer the gains

Such tempests would destroy.

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

This week’s theme: Fear of Love