Given that We're Happy to Be Here

June 18, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A graduation poem about the losses and gains involved in graduating:

Given that we're happy to be here,

Remember what we're gaining and we're losing.

Admittedly, the moment is confusing,

Demanding sad farewells and well-earned cheer.

Underneath the moment is the motion,

A silent passage out to open sea,

Taking place regardless what may be

In front of us, this ritual commotion.

Of what we are, but little will remain,

Nor will we ever come this way again.

© 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/given3.html. For more graduation poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

6/18: Given that We’re Happy to Be Here

Kindergarten Graduation

June 17, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since now is the time many schools in the U.S. are having their graduations, the theme for this week is graduation.

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

A kindergarten graduation poem for parents about the importance of the ceremony:

Kindergarten graduation

Is the end of a beginning.

Now they start the numbered grades,

Dancing through the years of grace.

Ends require celebration,

Rituals of well-earned winning,

Giving kids the accolades

A dancer needs to keep the pace.

Rejoice, then, in the raw sensation,

The shyness bursting, rapture spinning.

Eventually, the glory fades,

Nor will it ever be replaced.

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

This week’s theme: Graduation

6/17: Kindergarten Graduation

Happy Father's Day to My Dear Dad

June 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year is celebrated today, June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about how a father’s love shapes his child’s personality:

Happy Father's Day to my dear Dad!

As you have loved me, so have I loved you,

Pleased to tell you, now that words are due,

Pleased to have this chance to make you glad.

Your years of love and sacrifice have had

For me the force that you would wish them to,

A wind that takes me home to harbors new,

The inner voice in clothes familiar clad.

How might I be myself, except I see

Each gesture in the mirror of your grace,

Remembered as it was when long ago,

'Ere I knew why, I looked to you for love?

So am I of you inextricably,

Defined by trends not difficult to trace

As I grow into someone that I know,

Yet myself in ways that time will prove.

© 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/happ25.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

6/13: I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

6/15: Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

6/16: Happy Father’s Day to My Dear Dad

Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

June 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated tomorrow, June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem warning fathers not to burden their children with their own ambitions:

Your children ought not be your legacy,

For that’s a burden far too great to bear.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

Proud parent of your treasured progeny

Without conditions, as is only fair.

Your children ought not be your legacy:

They must be themselves, as generously

You shine upon them, all the while aware

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

The sole contender of your destiny,

No matter how much love you choose to share.

Your children ought not be your legacy,

Inspired to fulfill your fantasy

And not their own, displaced beyond repair.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be,

As all are in our longings ultimately,           

Though we remain in one another’s care.

Your children ought not be your legacy.

You’re on your own, as you were meant to be.

© 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/yourch.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

6/13: I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

6/15: Your Children Ought Not Be Your Legacy

You Taught Me How to Love You

June 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem to a father who is deceased:

You taught me how to love you by

The way that you loved me;

And by your unseen sustenance,

To see what you could see.

You gave to me through who you were

The gift of what I am.

Your pride in me is now my pride;

Your faith, my caravan.

Your life does not conclude with death,

Nor will it end with mine,

For all the lives I touch, you touch,

And so on through all time.

© 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/youta2.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

6/13: I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

6/14: You Taught Me How to Love You

I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

June 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about a child who was abused by his father:

I hate you, Dad, for what you did

To me when I was just a child,

A helpless thing whom you could beat

Until the excess bile was drained.

To me, when I was just a child,

You were God unmerciful

Until the excess bile was drained

And you were once again my friend.

You were God unmerciful,

And I was Satan, Lord of Hell,

Until you were again my friend

And curdled my last drops of love.

And I was Satan, Lord of Hell,

A helpless thing whom you could beat

Until you curdled all my love.

I hate you, Dad, for what you did.

© 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/ihatey.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

6/13: I Hate You, Dad, for What You Did

Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance

June 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Father’s Day, which this year will be celebrated on June 16.

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

A Father’s Day poem about the depth of the bond between fathers and daughters:

Fathers and daughters have a romance

That goes on for the rest of their lives,

Destined to ripen and age as they dance

Through the days of their husbands and wives.

Up near the surface their love is distinct,

Like a garden surveyed in the sun,

In which seedtime and full bloom are credibly linked

By a consciousness shared and hard won.

Deep down below, where the world is a dream,

And the dream is a world of its own,

All manner of memories the moments redeem

In a place where one's never alone.

© 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/fathe4.html. For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Father’s Day

6/10: A Little Boy Needs Daddy

6/11: The Pursed Lips That Pursue a Vagrant Thought

6/12: Fathers and Daughters Have a Romance