Monday, May 6, 2019

Here Are All Your Children in One Place

May 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on May 12.

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

A Mother’s Day poem accompanying the gift of a photograph of all of a mother’s adult children:

Here are all your children in one place,
Enshrined behind some glass within a frame.
A picture's like a word, a sign, a name,
Symbolic of a much more complex grace.
Years of memories lie behind each face,
A wild sea no blessing can contain;
Years and years of love, of joy, of pain,
Of mysteries no heart can hope to trace.
Here are all the objects of your love,
A frozen section cut away from Time,
A summit between dreams and memories,
Which you need only look this way to climb;
An icon for domestic reveries
Through which a thousand answered prayers move.

© 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/here.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mother’s Day
5/7: Here Are All Your Children in One Place

Sunday, May 5, 2019

There's No Love Sweeter than the Love You Feel

May 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on May 12.

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

A Mother’s Day poem addressed to a mother about the beauty of her love:

There’s no love sweeter than the love you feel,
No passion that’s more passionate than yours,
No joy more beautiful, no grace more real,

No wonder more beyond both woe and weal,
No pleasure with a more abundant cause.
There’s no love sweeter than the love you feel,

No laughter that would wounds more quickly heal,
No sunshine that would give more troubles pause,
No joy more beautiful, no grace more real.

For mother’s love is like a sailboat’s keel
That reaches deep to brace a bliss that soars.
There’s no love sweeter than the love you feel,

No insight that would greater truths reveal,
No wisdom that would tender higher laws,
No joy more beautiful, no grace more real.

For your love is the love that turns the wheel,
And to each generation life restores.
There’s no love sweeter than the love you feel,
No joy more beautiful, no grace more real.

© 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/theresn.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mother’s Day
5/6: There’s No Love Sweeter than the Love You Feel

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Good God! I Never Dreamed You'd Graduate

May 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A graduation poem from someone who didn’t graduate to someone who did.

Good God! I never dreamed you’d graduate!
Remember when we both flunked chemistry,
And got by math and bio with a D,
Drunk the night we planned to study late?
Unless I’ve got it wrong, you then dropped out,
And took off a semester -- or was it two? --
To work full time. I lost sight of you,
Intending to call, but too screwed up, no doubt.
Our competence is wholly in our care.
Now I’m still here, and you? Well, you’re up there!

© 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/goodgo.html For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation
5/5: Good God! I Never Dreamed You’d Graduate

Make Your Mark upon the World

May 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A graduation poem in which the institution speaks to its graduates of their intertwined fates:

Make your mark upon the world!
The marker comes from here.
March on life with flags unfurled!
Your provenance is clear.

You are our product, carrying
The sanction of our seal.
We are your foundry, marrying
Our knowledge to your zeal.

What you make of it is yours,
But it is also ours.
For what you do beyond our doors
Documents our powers.

Do it well, for both of us!
Our fates are intertwined.
Make your mark, for only thus
Might we sweet favor find.

© 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/makey3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation
5/4: Make Your Mark upon the World

Friday, May 3, 2019

Thank You for Being Where All These Years Went

May 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A thank-you and graduation poem thanking teachers for the gift of their knowledge:

Thank you for being where all these years went.
Happiness comes from the people we are,
And so much of what we are now comes from here,
Nearby our hearts still, our minds still ajar.
Knowledge is wealth that can never be spent.

Years from this day, as we search for some star,
Over us clouds, our harried heads bent,
Unthinking, some long-ago wind will skies clear.

© 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/than32.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation
5/3: Thank You for Being Where All These Years Went

Thursday, May 2, 2019

The Parents of a Graduate

May 2, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A thank-you poem from the graduate to his or her parents for their love:

The parents of a graduate
Have much they should be proud of.
All ought to congratulate
Not our work, but their love.
Know that you have made me, me;
You shape my efforts still.
Out of your sweet certainty
Unaltered came my will.

© 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/thepar.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation
5/2: The Parents of a Graduate

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

The Pride I Feel Is Nothing like the Pride

May 1, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many colleges and universities have their graduation ceremonies in early May, the theme for this week is College Graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the significance of the learning that led the degree:

The pride I feel is nothing like the pride
Of one who's made it through the thousand gates
That stand between one's hopes and one's degree.
How much have you learned? And what inside
Equals your diploma, which equates
Grades and credits with reality?
Remember: Your achievement is not only
A tribute to the things that you have done,
Determined as you have been to succeed.
Underneath the sign is still the story,
A tale of what through learning you've become,
The graduate to those who records read,
Even as you sail to shores unknown.

© 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/thepri.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: College Graduation
5/1: The Pride I Feel Is Nothing like the Pride