Clarity Is Something That I Savored

March 21, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a woman who devoted her life to social change:

Clarity is something that I savored,

Lending reason to a worthy cause.

An uncommitted life is not worth living,

Relinquishing the claims for the rewards,

Embracing the illusions of the favored.

Remember me as one who never wavered,

Obeying stubbornly the highest laws,

Defending what had little chance of winning,

Not caring for the consequence, or giving

Even one brief glance at waiting jaws,

Yet loving well the world for which I labored.

© 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/clarity.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

3/21: Clarity Is Something That I Savored

Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

March 20, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for someone for whom death was a release from pain:

Unlike some, to me death was a gift:

No longer to live pointlessly in pain.

Choosing death, I might have on my own

Let loose the darkness gathered in my heart,

Except that luck has seen the matter through.

How simple, then, to let one's fortunes drift

Away from one, nor care for loss or gain.

Remember me as one who, not alone,

Relinquished well my moorings, to depart

Yet not without a backward glance towards 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/unlike.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

3/20: Unlike Some, to Me Death Was a Gift

Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

March 19, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a university professor devoted to reason:

Reason is a calling of the heart.

One rarely reasons deeply but for love.

Best thought is passionate, a well-wrought art

Endeavoring to free as much as prove.

Remember me, then, for the many loves

That with reason I once sought to serve,

And the people that my spirit moved,

Returning far more joy than I deserved.

Eventually, all one gives one gains.

Years and people pass; the love remains.

© 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/reaso4.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

3/19: Reason Is a Calling of the Heart

Bulldogs Don't Let Go of What They've Got

March 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An epitaph for a construction worker:

Bulldogs don’t let go of what they’ve got.

Enduring love requires tenacity,

Requires strength and dogged loyalty.

No bulldog latches on to what is not.

All I asked of life was what I had.

Reality was rhapsody enough.

Days of tense, hard labor might be tough;

Well worth it to come home and be called Dad.

“Accept” bears no resemblance to “submit.”

Yielding is no match for an embrace.

Maybe life is hard, but one can place

A chair outside the door and simply sit,

Not needing more to be consumed by 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/bulldo.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

This week’s theme: Epitaphs

3/18: Bulldogs Don’t Let Go of What They’ve Got

So Shall the Singer Serve the Song

March 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about service:

So shall the singer serve the song;

The speaker, the sense; the self, the soul.

Praised be the part that serves the whole,

And the lover, the love that is loyal and long!

To serve is a gift that not all enjoy,

Recounting with relish the lust one might lose,

Imagining pleasures one would not refuse,

Craving a grace that would one’s grace destroy,

Knowing a truth one is too vain to choose.

© 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/sosha3.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

3/16: So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

3/17: So Shall the Singer Serve the Song

So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

March 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about crime and reconciliation:

So how long should England pay for what it did

To Ireland? Or India? Or Kenya?

Perhaps justice would require a famine,

A few million dead, its stolen wealth

Taken back by those from whom it came.

Remember well the crimes, and on the grid

In history’s ledgers enter in full the terror.

Choose truth and reconciliation, else,

Kind for kind, there is no end to pain.

© 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/sohowl.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning

3/16: So How Long Should England Pay for What It Did

St. Patrick's Day Celebrates the Turning

March 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the importance of historical events to all:

St. Patrick's Day commemorates the turning

To Christianity of Irish clans.

Perhaps, if you're not Irish, there's no burning

Ache to march, so you've got other plans.

The day, however, marks a special moment

Regarding the persuasion of us all.

Islands are not islands of the spirit;

Callings come to more than hear the call.

Know that we are one, and Irish monks

'Ere we were born redeemed us with their prayers,

Sang our chants and gave our gracious thanks,

Died our deaths and climbed our golden stairs.

All changed for all after Patrick's day;

Years turn, and yet their winds within us play.

© 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/stpat2.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day

3/11: Sing in Celebration of Your Race

3/12: Sing Me a Love Song for My Irish Boy

3/13: Sinners All, We Ask for Your Forgiveness

3/14: St. Patrick Rid the Emerald Isle of Snakes

3/15: St. Patrick’s Day Commemorates the Turning